When Bob Vandergriff Jr decided to take his operation full-time in the National Hot Rod Association Full Throttle Drag Racing Series Top Fuel category, he also made the commitment to change his tune-up combination in order to run with the balance of the field more readily. According to crew member Rob Hauser, "We're trying to adapt to a newer, more late-model tune-up for 2011 than we used in years past; we're going with what a lot of the other teams are running." When...
Love them or loathe them, and despite being virtually outlawed in international motorcycle racing, two-stroke engines are still the main form of propulsion in the world of karting. With far fewer moving parts and power:weight ratios that most four-stroke engine designers can only dream about, the piston ring in a two-stroke engine has an altogether greater task than those in its four-stroke cousin. Not only does it have to seal the combustion chamber at much higher engine speeds and cope...
There is a vast array of metallic materials of all kinds whose mechanical properties are improved by heat treatment. Steels are commonly raised to high temperatures, quenched and subsequently tempered by raising the temperature to a carefully controlled level and maintained there for a known amount of time; aluminium and titanium alloys are often solution-treated by heating to a given temperature before quenching and age-hardening by heating. In the case of most steels after quenching, the...
The chassis dynamometer may be a convenient way of loading an engine, but to undertake any serious engine development requires a dynamometer attached directly to the output shaft of the engine. While there are various types of engine dynamometer on the market, perhaps the simplest and least costly is that of the water brake. Classed as a hydraulic machine, while some types of hydraulic dynamometer may use a pump to circulate oil, the water brake relies totally on a different fluid - water....
In order to reduce stress and improve mechanical performance for any highly loaded powertrain component, surface finish is of the utmost performance; a superior surface improves fatigue resistance by removing potential stress raisers and the possibility of crack propagation. For geartrain components this is especially important, requiring high surface hardness to maintain impact strength and resist bending loads on the gear teeth, even though most of the gear material itself must exhibit...