ScrapQueen's turbocharger jet

[ScrapQueen]

Hiya, im on my antics still! Since I was a kid I wanted to build a turbine, and here I am. For the last month and a half I've been working on a self imposed final project in welding class. Making a turbo jet out of a no-name t3t4 turbo. I think the math is right, the flame tube seems to function on its own with a shop vac stuck in the intake. I haven't fired it on the turbo as I'm still waiting on my oil pump and fittings. Heres a smattering of photos of it in various stages.

Flame tube and propane burner


It lives!


The rig it'll all be attached to.



My horrid ignitor box. The automotive professor was kind enough to wire me a buzz coil for the spark plug.



Still figuring out the oil pipes. The boiler maintenance professor says the bypass should lead to the oil tank in a third hole rather than lead back to the outlet in a T joint. Thoughts?


And a test run of the flame tube with a shop vac.

https://youtu.be/KX5gR-zJlpE

I feel like I'm in the home stretch here!

[metiz]

I tried to build one of these things before. I had a hot (non)start and burned up the turbine. The only advice I can give is: don't try starting too long or you risk overheating. Also, as a general rule: bigger turbo chargers are better suited than the little ones. On a side note: welds are really improving!

[ScrapQueen]

Well heres the last of my progress until the next semester of school starts. I've got the oil system almost done. The return line is installed as well as the bypass. I just need to install the radiator for the oil, pipe that from the pump then to the oil filter. I worked with the HVAC/plumbing professors as well as auto and they agreed the 5/16" copper tubing should be sufficient to feed the 4 way where the turbo hose attaches.

All I need is to wire a battery and variable resistor for the pump speed. Auto professor found some kind of old headlight controller with a variable resistor in it that we have to figure out how to use.
The controller number is e77b11654aa not sure if I should bother with that or just buy a chunky potentiometer. There are a *lot* of terminals on it.

I ran out of 2 inch pipe for the compressor line so I scrounged a muffler in the auto shop and cut off the tailpipe and hose clamped that on.

Anyhow here's the pics of my progress!





Class just ended yesterday and I'm already antsy to return!

[ScrapQueen]

Righto! So class has been back for a bit and I've gotten it all wired up and piped. I just test fired it today but could not get it up to speed due to pump gremlins. And leaks. Oh boy the leaks.




My professors came to be my lab assistants for the test run. We were having tons of issues trying to light it until I took the spark plug out and found the contacts were shorted. Wheeled it outside again and it ignited with a pretty good backfire and we got a good 2 foot jet come out the exhaust aaaaand the pump crapped out again. We didn't get it to self sustaining speeds but it had a nice flame that boiled the paint off the cart.



Its a 3.7GPM gear pump advertised to do 50 PSI for boat turbochargers but it keeps tripping the thermal overload above 20 PSI. I'm trying to figure out if its the pump or how my bypass is set up.

The automotive professor has a Subaru power steering pump but I'll need a motor with a belt to drive it. I'm scrounging for that and/or a different scavenge pump. He also found me a 12 volt fan for part of an air conditioner that has an extremely fast motor that I'll be using to start the compressor without wrangling a shop vac

I went and gave it a little bit of an exhaust pipe now that I see it ignites before heading home.



also oh god the oil leak whack-a-mole

[ScrapQueen]

IT. LIVES!

We had a couple back fires and false starts but once we all figured out where it starts it was easy to get running. Heres my vertical video since I was too excited to think. Ill need to round up the rest of my professors for their videos. Not gonna lie I cried when it started up lmao.

https://youtu.be/8qDw_s6kS6k

[tufty]

Excellent!

[Mike Everman]

Yeah, you've been amazingly prolific! And successful! Great job.

[ScrapQueen]

I've started working on an afterburner. I was chatting with a guy online who says he trained F-15 mechanics and we worked through what it would need. I think I got the gist. Its incomplete. I ran out of time in the shop yesterday.







It needs the long tube welded all the way on, then I will probably test fire it again before adding the final constricting nozzle. I still need to find myself a go kart to slap this bad boy on.

Also oof my torch soldering skills need some more practice

[ScrapQueen]

SO! After several attempts the propane tube for the afterburner does not work. My next plan is to add a kerosene feed to the combustion chamber and afterburner. The idea is I'm going to start the engine on propane then switch to kerosene, as I feel like that would get me more power. Then I can inject the kerosene into the exhaust and hopefully get a working afterburner.

The thing is my professor and I have disagreed about how to go about it. He says I should get a whole oil furnace blower and ignitor set and attach that to the combustion chamber. I said I should be able to put a coiled tube inside the flame tube to preheat and vaporize the fuel before coming out of drilled holes in copper tubing near the top of the chamber. I already have a blower in the form of the compressor feeding into the combustion chamber.

I get that he teaches HVAC and furnaces and his concern is the engine will just straight up explode. Its not unfounded when dealing with jets and stuff but still. I've seen several DIY jets use a preheated tube in the combustion chamber just fine. Like pressure jets use something like that, even if it may not be kerosene.

This impasse has been driving me nuts, lol.

[ScrapQueen]

I still haven't worked on this for a while. Landed a welding gig at a factory. Pay is great but I don't have time to come in to the college to work yet. The plant supervisors toured the welding lab and my professor took them to see my turbine. They asked me to show them at work and I played my videos in the meeting room. I could just faint. Talk about putting that on a resume.

The last work I did on the engine was installing a tight coiled copper tube with very fine holes drilled in a ring attached to the bottom of the coil. The idea was I would preheat the kerosene before it sprays when switching over from propane.

[Mike Everman]

Great news, about the job I mean. Any time I interview an engineer, the first question is "what are you making at home?"