Coatings to enhance both performance and longevity are the centre of focus in the world of racing piston manufacture today. To learn more, particularly in a NASCAR context, we talked with Brad Green, an engineer at Mahle Motorsports in Fletcher, North Carolina. According to Green, all their coating manufacture is performed in-house. This, he told us, can provide shortened lead times and reduced costs when compared to shipping pistons to outside coating sources. It also “gives us much...
Selecting a suitable piston ring coating is, dare I say it, rather like choosing a wife. Selected in haste, the time could come when you repent at leisure and very much like choosing a mate, under times of great stress, the issue is one of compatibility. It has long been acknowledged that the piston ring, particularly the top ring, has one of the most arduous tasks in the internal combustion engine. Having to seal the gap between the piston and bore from the passage of unwanted blow-bye...
Leading crankshaft manufacturer, Arrow Precision Ltd, of Hinckley, Leicestershire, have recently expanded their capabilities by installing a rigid polishing machine for use on main and crankpin journals. Optimising journal surface finish and cylindricity is key to minimising wear and improving fatigue life. The rigid polishing system works via a precision manufactured shoe, or housing, which contacts the entire bearing journal surface to be polished. Abrasive tape is then fed into the...
Leading race engine manufacturer Engine Developments, of Rugby, Warwickshire, commissioned a new dynamometer data acquisition system earlier this year. The system incorporates the latest hardware and software technology in order to improve the dynamometer data acquisition capability to the benefit of the company internally and to its customers. The company, which manufactures Judd racing engines, has three dynamometer cells, all of which contain a Froude G490 water brake dynamometer. The...
The conventional H-gate manual shift gearbox, a universal feature on all race cars until about 20 years ago, is actually a highly counter intuitive control device... Consider the conventional passenger or race car control system: First, we have the right hand ‘throttle’ pedal – if you press with your foot you go faster, release your foot and you slow down – logical enough. The second pedal, well, if you want to slow down a lot faster, or in an emergency, press this,...