Did you guys know these engines go through a rebuild between races? This is insane stuff.
Drag racing and engine rebuild between races.
- Thread starter BMWTurboDzl
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11,000+ hp 1000' run in 3.641 seconds 343.16 mph, 0-100 mph .8 second 90% nitromethane. Blower takes 1000 hp to run it there is no water in block for cooling filled passages to make block stonger. Engine will self destroy if run longer than ten seconds full throttle. Before the race engine idles for 80 seconds warm up, valve covers pulled oil changed, car refueled, tire warming 100 seconds which results in a lap total time 3 minutes. Then engine is disassemble worn parts are replaced.
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I find that hard to believe...
At least they don't use hydrazine anymore.
Owen Lucas
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Wait, for real? IIRC some modern jets use that, IDK maybe the F35 or F22 and when they fuel it up with, the guys doing the fueling are wearing what appear to be space suites because its so toxic. Doesn't it combust as soon as it contacts air?
Yes, back in the 60s I think. The green flames out the exhaust gave it away, well also the engines absolutely exploding did too.
Brian Lohnes has a video on it.
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When you get that much horsepower sometimes winning the race is as easy to make it to the end of the 1/4 mile with blowing up.
F-16s use it in the EPU for last ditch electricity and to power one hydraulic system only. I think the space shuttle used it for thrust. No it does not combust in contact with air. I have seen a puddle of it on the tarmac.
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When I was a kid (like 18) you used to be able to get a pit pass and go down and watch them do it. Can you still?
Its not quite a rebuild - more like take it apart and make sure nothing is broken then put it back together. But yes its wildly impressive.
Its not quite a rebuild - more like take it apart and make sure nothing is broken then put it back together. But yes its wildly impressive.
Actually, it is a rebuild. At least on any team that is trying to compete and win, while running the full tour. There have been some very low-buck teams that only run a race or two every year, which might not do a full rebuild. Usually those teams are just trying to get a clean officially timed pass down the track during qualifying, in a short field, to get the qualifying money. Then the hope is that they'll get lucky during Elimination rounds.
On any team which has the budget and intention to win, the entire engine will be taken apart after a run. The only parts that might stay in place and be run again on the next pass, are the block, crankshaft, and sleeves. That is assuming they pass inspection.
Low-buck teams might run the Supercharger again without taking it apart for inspection, and restripping, but again those trying to have a legitimate chance of winning will service a Supercharger during down time (usually after passes are done for the day), before it's run again.
There are some teams that lease their Superchargers, and send them in for servicing. I don't care for that plan, as it leaves you vulnerable to a third party entity, and their schedule.
The rack (pistons and rods) are new or have been thoroughly evaluated before each pass. A Rack will be chosen based on the track and atmospheric conditions. (Racks can vary in compression height and rod length) The cylinder heads will have been serviced, meaning everything about them will have been checked meaning adjusted or replaced, if anything is out of spec. Cylinder heads also have varying chamber volume, and varying fuel nozzle size, which will play a factor in choosing which to use based on prevailing conditions.
Any parts used during a run will be evaluated for possible future use.
Any team that has a hope of making it to the final round, had better be capable of turning the car around in less than 30 minutes. A 1 hour turn-around time is very leisurely.
If your taking it apart, inspecting, and putting it all back together - which it seems were both saying - its not a rebuild in my world. Its a disassembly / inspection / re-assembly. Again this was 30 years ago, but I watched several and they took the whole thing apart, inspected everything, replaced very few actual parts, and put it back together for the next run.
A "rebuild" would be mostly new parts in my world, at least all the wear parts - which is not what I saw. Possibly things have changed?
Things have changed. Parts might be inspected, and used again at some later date, But rarely, unless it's a team with a tight shoestring budget, would they take certain parts from a just run engine, and put them right back into use for the next round.
The exception being the crankshaft which if it suffered no damage to the journals, and knowing the RPM it spun from the Datalogger, can be used X number of times before it gets replaced due to known fatigue factors. Sleeves, can also be reused (stay in the block) X number of times, depending on the inspection. The block also has a finite life, but can stay in the vehicle pending inspection, and if it hasn't reached it's service life limit.
Racks will always be new or thoroughly inspected (but not between rounds), before being installed. Sometimes you want to use (used) rods for tuning purposes. Cylinder heads will always be thoroughly serviced, meaning all valves, springs, seats, guides, etc are checked and/or replaced and within the spec you want, before being run again.
As I already said, Superchargers will always be serviced before being run again, unless it's shoestring budget team.
Any team that would pull the rack or cylinder heads, or supercharger, and then put them right back in/on, is not going to be realistically competing for wins.
Consumer car engines are considered rebuilt, even if some parts are reused, assuming they meet the necessary specs. It's no different for blown fuel engines.
The blown fuel engines of today are producing FAAAAAAAAAAAR more power than they were 30 years ago.
11k HP was mentioned in this thread, that would be on the low end of what they can produce.
I've been involved since the early 2000's. But I've seen quite a few changes made to every part of the TF/D's and F/C's.
Thank you for the explanation. I sounds like things have changed quite a bit.
So how many teams in a class can actually be competitive now? Sounds like a lot more expensive proposition than it used to be?
I'd say the sport is slowly dying. Like all forms of Motorsport.
There were numerous races last year were there weren't full fields.
The lack of fans in the stands is also telling.
There is interest by those involved to try and rekindle interest from the public, but most kids are not as interested in cars, racing, or anything to do with them, as they were in the past.
Most of the teams who DO run the full tour, I'd say have a chance to win at any given race. Winning the Championship requires being very good, AND consistently so.
Maybe 12 cars in Top Fuel can be competitive at a given race.
