So i visited a buddies shop today to check out his nitro racecar
09-07-2014, 09:37 PM
#22
That hobby is expensive. I love going out there and checking out the car. He has worked for me for the last 5 years and we talk everyday. The funny thing is when you talk about nitro stuff with him, basically forget everything you think you know about motors in general. Everything is different with nitro.
09-07-2014, 10:03 PM
#25
My buddy was telling me back in the day they would just go to junk yards to find the old hemi motors and they would just run those. Since they were allready loose. They would just put a cam, blower and run it. Crazy how times change.
09-08-2014, 08:29 AM
#26
A salt flat racer is 10x harder on the motor than anything. Your friend is an idiot. Just think about it. 3000hp WOT for a solid 3-4 miles. What in the world could be harder? BTW as long as you dont pedal the motor it will last along time. When you pedal a nitro motor it leans it out. It is either at idle or 100% WOT, nothing inbetween. His last one lasted 3 seasons before he kicked a rod at 300mph.
Yes you can start a motor on nitro, you just have to spin the motor fast enough. His starter was not up to the task, so the cheaper alternative was to start it on gas. He had this issue with the 4 banger. The mags were altered to run a 4 cyl. Since he was only running 4 cylinders even when they fired it was not enough to compress and ignite the nitro.
Top teams dont run welded blocks. They just buy new. People who dont have millions run used blocks. These blocks are not cheap and they hard hard to find. I think he has about 60-70k in the long block. Everything is custom made since no companies carries nitro parts. He had the crank made from scratch to reach his CI. The rockers were custom. The list goes on and on. Tons of people weld them and just remachine them straight. Well as straight as possible. He was telling me an issue he had with this block. The cam would not go in all the way, one of the cam bearings wAs slightly off due to welding. The builder had to make a one off cam bearing that was slightly offset. Freaking crazy but once again not unheard of for these motors.
My statement is that running down the track for 3-4 seconds is not as hard as running a few miles at full throttle. Thus I am surprised that they hold up for this type of racing.
As I said you viturally can't start a motor on nitro(edited). Top fuel teams start it out on pump gas then bring on the nitro. That is what you see them squirting in the blower hat right before starting it. If I remember right heat, is another problem when starting on nitro that is why it is much easier to warm the engine with anther fuel. 12-15 years ago when I went to my first top fuel race at Norwalk you could hear the engine at three stages of fuel, they first fired on pump gas, then ran it on alcohol for a few seconds then turned on the nitro. I think that was because back then they were using 100% nitro or close to it. Now I am not sure the % of nitro but it is not as high as it used to be. The last few years we have went to the races you hear it virtually fire up on nitro. They spray fuel in the hat to get it fired off but there must be enough methanol in the regular fuel that it fires off without a problem.
Last edited by custm2500; 09-08-2014 at 10:11 PM.
09-08-2014, 10:11 PM
#29
09-08-2014, 10:16 PM
#30
lets just stop the talk that it can or can not start on nitro. Since none of us are experts and very very few have even seen a nitro motor, we are just speaking "hear-say", me included...
Lets just drool over the pics, especially the fittings
Lets just drool over the pics, especially the fittings