I've always wondered...
Discussion
How you boys keep drag engines cool?
You can never see any sign of a rad on any of the top fuel drag cars, presumably there must be some kind of cooling? I'm aware that these engines pretty much grenade themselves doing the run but surely you don't run them dry? I'd have thought they'd weld themselves together after about half the run if that was the case, and the cost of skimming heads would be prohibitive - you'd go through two heads every few runs when you ran out of metal to mill away!
Or do you just have a closed circulation cooling system with no radiator? This seems like the most likely solution to me, given the amount of cooling a rad would do in a 1/4 mile run would be minimal (read: none). lighter too i guess, which is only going to be an advantage.
You can never see any sign of a rad on any of the top fuel drag cars, presumably there must be some kind of cooling? I'm aware that these engines pretty much grenade themselves doing the run but surely you don't run them dry? I'd have thought they'd weld themselves together after about half the run if that was the case, and the cost of skimming heads would be prohibitive - you'd go through two heads every few runs when you ran out of metal to mill away!
Or do you just have a closed circulation cooling system with no radiator? This seems like the most likely solution to me, given the amount of cooling a rad would do in a 1/4 mile run would be minimal (read: none). lighter too i guess, which is only going to be an advantage.
Well, there are different sorts of race cars with different cooling systems.
Up to SC/SPET/CC cooling sytems are quite common,
with radiators, water pumps etc, all lightweight and high performance stuff.
I am not sure about Pro Mod Cars but think they run some sort of cooling system,
mostly the nitrous version, the blown methanol PMs don´t need a cooling system because the methanol
keeps the engine running cool because of the "evaporation temperature downfall" (wd)
The same goes for Top Methanol Dragsters and Funny Cars.
Top Fuel also runs without any cooling system at all, it is not needed in the ~90 secs the burnout, return and run takes.
The engine block can also be made much more rigid if it is "solid" without coolant passages.
All this from my limited second-hand experience, if I am wrong the drivers and tech experts around here
will no doubt correct me.
Up to SC/SPET/CC cooling sytems are quite common,
with radiators, water pumps etc, all lightweight and high performance stuff.
I am not sure about Pro Mod Cars but think they run some sort of cooling system,
mostly the nitrous version, the blown methanol PMs don´t need a cooling system because the methanol
keeps the engine running cool because of the "evaporation temperature downfall" (wd)
The same goes for Top Methanol Dragsters and Funny Cars.
Top Fuel also runs without any cooling system at all, it is not needed in the ~90 secs the burnout, return and run takes.
The engine block can also be made much more rigid if it is "solid" without coolant passages.
All this from my limited second-hand experience, if I am wrong the drivers and tech experts around here
will no doubt correct me.
Rat_Fink_67 said:
Yup, all machined from billet aluminium.
Made like this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsmiIeAkE-o&fea...WARNING! This is hard core engineering porn.View at your own risk.
kestral said:
Rat_Fink_67 said:
Yup, all machined from billet aluminium.
Made like this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsmiIeAkE-o&fea...WARNING! This is hard core engineering porn.View at your own risk.
kestral said:
Rat_Fink_67 said:
Yup, all machined from billet aluminium.
Made like this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsmiIeAkE-o&fea...WARNING! This is hard core engineering porn.View at your own risk.
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