Regular readers will have realised by now that I am not a great fan of diesel-fuelled racers. Any reciprocating engine that relies on the temperature of the compressed intake air to be greater than that of the flash point of the fuel has no right to be positioned anywhere near the finely honed chassis of a racing machine, except in the vehicle designated to lug it and the rest of the team from circuit to circuit. This is a personal opinion, you understand, and while gasoline engines should...
In 1963 a Ford-powered Lotus 29 driven by Jim Clark came tantalisingly close to winning the Indianapolis 500, and was prevented from doing so only by the leading roadster of Parnelli Jones dropping oil on the track. The Lotus was running a development of Ford's Fairlane pushrod V8; drawing pump fuel through carburettors it produced far less power than the competition's highly tuned Offys running on the more usual Indy brew of methanol. Ford, however, was keen to emphasise the racing...
Shaver Engine Specialties of Torrance, California, is the official engine builder for Tony Stewart Racing's World of Outlaws sprint car team. Recently inducted into the Sprint Car Hall of Fame, Ron Shaver has a team of builders dedicated to producing 410 cu in engines for Stewart's cars, an enterprise that can take as long as 60 hours for a single engine. Shaver specifies a box-style piston made of 2618 alloy for these engines, and works with two piston manufacturers - one for...
It is an undisputed fact that the greatest source of friction in a reciprocating internal combustion engine lies in its ring pack. But the forces necessary to maintain the seal between piston and bore are precisely those that create the parasitic drag, so it is little wonder that engine researchers/designers throughout history have placed an ever-important emphasis in this area. Precise estimates of this friction vary. Some have reported up to 38% of total losses in a V10 Formula One...
The case hardening process, also known as carburising is very old, and pre-dates controlled nitriding processes by some decades; I have seen drawings of racing crankshafts from the 1920s that were hardened by this method. Other race engine parts that are commonly carburised are camshafts, piston pins and gears. The case hardening of highly stressed gears has been the most popular surface hardening process for decades, not only for racing gears but for highly loaded gears in general. The...