Project Thunder - Rolls Royce Meteor

[hairykrishna]

hidetheelephants said:

£7,500 plus VAT apparently.

Why did you have to go and post that? Now I have to spend the day wondering quite how angry my wife will be if I buy it.

[Quhet]

ChemicalChaos said:

Greetings all, long time no see!

I'm still here! However, a Sea King helicopter, a very silly trackday car (and racing a friend's car), a derelict Green Goddess, a girlfriend, 18 months of covid restrictions and a refurbishment of a new house have all got somewhat in the way in the intervening time. Not to mention the 4, yes 4 Phantom jets I've let myself be roped to helping restore and transport parts for.
All of this is on top of my full time job too ... If only I could retire, I'd have enough time for all my hobbies




So anyway, what of my Meteor? For now it still slumbers safely wrapped up under the counter in my workshop (which, being an hour's drive away, doesn't help for spur of the moment tinkering), and now life is beginning to calm down I promise on Scouts Honour it will soon be getting the attention it deserves!
However, I'm now a bit sad, as I know whatever I produce won't come close to being in the same league as TM's amazing creation

Christ, sounds like a lot of plate spinning there! Where do you keep an old Sea King?

[Huntsman]

hidetheelephants said:

Huntsman said:

Whats the value of a Meteor?

£7,500 plus VAT apparently.

You know what I'm thinking....

[ChemicalChaos]

Quhet said:

Christ, sounds like a lot of plate spinning there! Where do you keep an old Sea King?

Just a bit, yes

The Sea King is just a cockpit section (front 10ft) rather than a whole airframe, luckily - but it's still a very big bit of tin! It lives in the workshop barn with the Meteor and my Goddess for now, when it's finished I might loan it to a museum

hairykrishna said:

hidetheelephants said:

£7,500 plus VAT apparently.

Why did you have to go and post that? Now I have to spend the day wondering quite how angry my wife will be if I buy it.

That's double what mine cost me, but in fairness it is in one piece!

Just be aware however that if you planned to run it, you'd still need to strip and inspect various bits of it given that likelihood that it's been stood for a very, very long time. This would add a fairly significant cost at a specialist unless you did it yourself.
Then there's the cost of a trailer or other suitable static rig, ancillaries, plumbing it all in, etc etc.....

[dudleybloke]

More info on the Phantoms please Mat.

[hairykrishna]

ChemicalChaos said:

That's double what mine cost me, but in fairness it is in one piece!

Just be aware however that if you planned to run it, you'd still need to strip and inspect various bits of it given that likelihood that it's been stood for a very, very long time. This would add a fairly significant cost at a specialist unless you did it yourself.
Then there's the cost of a trailer or other suitable static rig, ancillaries, plumbing it all in, etc etc.....

I've dreamt about it for years but I'm not really in the position to do anything. Perhaps in a few years when works calmed down a bit I'll flog my kit car, get one and build something bonkers.

[hidetheelephants]

Huntsman said:

hidetheelephants said:

Huntsman said:

Whats the value of a Meteor?

£7,500 plus VAT apparently.

You know what I'm thinking....

You're going to install it in a mouldy old wooden boat?

[Dodgey1]

I found this site because I scout the internet to find people who do create cars of interest push them selfs to build there dream car and complete them. I was wandering if anybody has seen any other sites with texus mungrels car running or driving, I’m curious weather it was able to stay at operating temperature or it will boil using only the single radiator and why he ran webbers...I’m building one as well Rolls Royce 1932 phantom 2 chassis meteor powered my water system runs through 2 radiators and 40 litre header tank, the system holds about 110 litres of water with two 2000cfm thermo fans and two thermostats and didgital controller so the fans come in at set temperature hoping this will keep it cool these big engines suffer from over heating problems..I have still a bit do I’ve couple of pics on the set up....

[Dodgey1]

[Dodgey1]

[mswatersjr]

Good Day,
I am currently at the beginning of a RR Meteor project. I was hoping to get in contact with Texas mongrel about the adapter plate he had made for his project. Would like to purchase the electronic drawings if at all possible. I am planing to use a manual transmission but your drawling would be an amazing start.

[Bobberoo]

Dodgey1 said:

That looks flipping awesome!!!

[Blackcab58]

mswatersjr said:

Good Day,
I am currently at the beginning of a RR Meteor project. I was hoping to get in contact with Texas mongrel about the adapter plate he had made for his project. Would like to purchase the electronic drawings if at all possible. I am planing to use a manual transmission but your drawling would be an amazing start.

I'd be a bit cautious about directly copying Texas mongrels adapter. Though it may seem like the simple route to attach the gearbox directly to the back of the motor, there are good reasons that all the successful builds with these motors (and usually with a Turbo 400 auto) use step down gearing to get the transmission spinning at a decent speed.

[ChemicalChaos]

Blackcab58 said:

mswatersjr said:

Good Day,
I am currently at the beginning of a RR Meteor project. I was hoping to get in contact with Texas mongrel about the adapter plate he had made for his project. Would like to purchase the electronic drawings if at all possible. I am planing to use a manual transmission but your drawling would be an amazing start.

I'd be a bit cautious about directly copying Texas mongrels adapter. Though it may seem like the simple route to attach the gearbox directly to the back of the motor, there are good reasons that all the successful builds with these motors (and usually with a Turbo 400 auto) use step down gearing to get the transmission spinning at a decent speed.

Yes I believe a 1:2 step converter works wonders for these engines. Taking an engine with 1500lb.ft of torque and a usable rev range of 800-2500rpm means a lot of potential for shredded driveline and running out of revs/gears all the time.
Running through a convertor (I believe one build, possibly the famous PC Rover SD1 Meteor, used an off the shelf item from a vintage bus) now gives a much more manageable 750lb.ft and effective 5000rpm

dudleybloke said:

More info on the Phantoms please Mat.

Hi DB, check out the website of British Phantom Aviation Group

[Blackcab58]

If you go on Facebook and look through the photos of John Dodds "beast" there are some quite detailed shots of his step down gears. https://www.facebook.com/johndoddbeast/photos

[jamieduff1981]

Blackcab58 said:

If you go on Facebook and look through the photos of John Dodds "beast" there are some quite detailed shots of his step down gears. https://www.facebook.com/johndoddbeast/photos

It's been mildly entertaining for me to browse through those photographs of the underside and workings of The Beast and find myself intimately familiar with much of the Jaguar front and rear suspension on it

[Polly Grigora]

There could be some old Phantom parts here

[Blackcab58]

Found this guys FB page a while back that could be useful. Its a Rover Meteorite V8, aka 2/3rds of a Meteor, as used in the Thorneycroft Mighty Antar tank transporter. Those could pull 100 tons! His has twin turbos and is being fitted into a Land Rover.
https://www.facebook.com/flightengineering

He goes into some detail about why you really do have to increase the output speed of the engine in this video.
https://www.facebook.com/flightengineering/videos/...

Lots of pics here too...
https://www.flickr.com/photos/89759996@N04/albums/...