drag engines?

[roospuppet]

Can anyone tell me why drag racers prefer v8's over v10's or v12's, im sure its not a regulation, is it because the length of the crank would be too long in anything over v8 .

[slinky]

Largely because it's all tried and tested!

If had a bog standard Chevy V8 sat in my garage and a pot of cash, I could pick up the Jegs catalogue and build a stunning engine..

To do the same with a V10/V12 would require much more bespoke work.. (I'm talking about the lower end of drag racing here... )

I guess the other reasons are the ability to quite easily engineer a very flat torque curve, I don't know if you'd easily be able to engineer such a thing on a 10 or 12 (as in, I have no knowledge as to whether you'd be able to)..

Besides, 8's sound lovely

slinky

[roospuppet]

not as lovely, when you have a top fuel v8 screaming down your ears, ouch they are loud

[dinkel]

Tractor pulling wheels: some use a V12 tank lump!!!

www.tractorpulling.com/teams/gompie/images/groen.jpg

27 litres thank you very much . . .

[roospuppet]

is tractor pulling drag racing but on a muddy field instead of a dragstrip.

[Slinky]

effectively, but they have to drag a sled along with them...

The further they travel, the more the counterweight moves forward, increasing the drag...

Mad mad sport..

Especially when you start seeing machines with three or four turbines installed... or 8 V8's

Nutters!

slinky

[dinkel]

www.greenmonster.de/bildertitel/start.jpg

www.uwasa.fi/ktt/lasktoim/photoff/2001/61081802.jpg

www.indoortractorpulling.nl/images/intro-pic.jpg

www.motorsportseite.de/tractor_pulling_arnheim_22.jpg

www.motorsportseite.de/tractor_pulling_arnheim_24.jpg

www.tractorpulling.com/report/1998/meerkerk-1998.html

http://client.webshots.com/photo/45470122/47301108zlDYAh#

Power for ya:

www.tractorpulling.com/info/tractors-mod.html

www.vanalphenbladel.nl/popeyee.htm

Try to dyno that

[2Munkys]

Great Spectator Sport: The Top piston engined machines are putting down over 9,000 HP

[zetecuk]

You might be right about the length of the crankshaft - I read that they have to machine them slightly bent so that by the time it has 4000hp of torque applied it twists into the right shape and the piston timing is ok.

[slinky]

zetecuk said:

You might be right about the length of the crankshaft - I read that they have to machine them slightly bent so that by the time it has 4000hp of torque applied it twists into the right shape and the piston timing is ok.

They are cast 20-30 degree's offset for the top fuelers... under load.. they are straight

slinky

[anonymous-user]

Taking a wild guess, do the top fuel dragsters use big block V8s so giving you a much stronger block than you'd get on most commonly available V10/V12 or other configurations?

[slinky]

LexSport said:

Taking a wild guess, do the top fuel dragsters use big block V8s so giving you a much stronger block than you'd get on most commonly available V10/V12 or other configurations?

slinky

[chuntington101]

i think there are several reasons that V8s are used. first there a LOADS of them in the states and because of this they are cheap. you can get a twin turbo small block making 1000bhp for under $20K! and thats with a new dart block! also people are used to running them, so if it isn't broke why fix it??? also they are making very good and pretty reliable power form them (well as reliable as over 6000bhp can be). what V12/10 would you have in mind? it would have to beable to be streched to over 600ci (around 10.0 ltr).

chris.

[roospuppet]

wow, 3 merlin engines in one tractor, pumping 6000bhp all together, imagine if you got 3 top fuel drag engines, i heard they were getting closer to 8000bhp nowdays each, 24000bhp, omg. What an ear bursting takeoff!!!!!!

[slinky]

roospuppet said:

wow, 3 merlin engines in one tractor, pumping 6000bhp all together, imagine if you got 3 top fuel drag engines, i heard they were getting closer to 8000bhp nowdays each, 24000bhp, omg. What an ear bursting takeoff!!!!!!

I'll be stood on the startline @ the pod when the fuellers are launching! I can't wait!!!

slinky

[dinkel]

Back to topic:

www.thecarconnection.com/index.asp?article=5482

[roospuppet]

are you going to santa pod may 27th-30th, for the top fuelers, they have 10 booked already, and maybe another 1 as well, they are incredibly loud,


do they use push rod's for a technical advantage in the high power top fuelers, or is it just because the blocks they have been using for years, have push rods?

[wheeljack888]

I thought some of you maybe interested:

email doing rounds at work said:

One Top Fuel dragster 500 cubic inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower than the first 4 rows at the Indy. 500. Under full throttle, a Top Fuel dragster engine consumes 1 gallon of nitromethane per second; a fully loaded 747 consumes jet fuel at the same rate with 25% less energy being produced. A stock Dodge 426 Hemi V8 engine cannot produce enough power to drive the dragster's supercharger. With 3000 CFM of air being rammed in by the supercharger on overdrive, the fuel mixture is compressed into a near-solid form before ignition.Cylinders run on the verge of hydraulic lock at full throttle. At the stoichiometric 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture for nitromethane the flame front temperature measures 7050 degrees F. Nitromethane burns yellow. The spectacular white flame seen above the stacks at night is raw burning hydrogen, dissociated from atmospheric water vapor by the searing exhaust gases. Dual magnetos supply 44 amps to each spark plug. This is the output of an arc welder in each cylinder. Spark plug electrodes are totally consumed during a pass. After 1/2 way, the engine is dieseling from compression plus the glow of exhaust valves at 1400 degrees F. The engine can only be shut down by cutting the fuel flow. If spark momentarily fails early in the run, unburned nitro builds up in the affected cylinders and then explodes with sufficient force to blow the cylinder heads off the block in pieces or split the block in half. In order to exceed 300 mph in 4.5 seconds dragsters must accelerate at an average of over 4G's. In order to reach 200 mph well before half-track, the launch acceleration approaches 8G's. Dragsters reach over 300 miles per hour before you have completed reading this sentence. Top Fuel Engines turn approximately 540 revolutions from light to light! Including the burnout the engine must only survive 900 revolutions under load. The red-line is actually quite high at 9500 rpm. The Bottom Line; Assuming all the equipment is paid off, the crew worked for free, and for once NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run costs an estimated $1,000.00 per second. The current Top Fuel dragster elapsed time record is 4.441 seconds for the quarter mile (10/05/03, Tony Schumacher). The top speed record is 333.00 mph (533 km/h) as measured over the last 66' of the run, (09/28/03 Doug Kalitta). Putting all of this into perspective: You are riding the average $250,000 Honda MotoGP bike. Over a mile up the road, a Top Fuel dragster is staged and ready to launch down a quarter mile strip as you pass. You have the advantage of a flying start. You run the RC211V hard up through the gears and blast across the starting line and past the dragster at an honest 200 mph (293 ft/sec). The 'tree' goes green for both of you at that moment. The dragster launches and starts after you. You keep your wrist cranked hard, but you hear an incredibly brutal whine that sears your eardrums and within 3 seconds the dragster catches and passes you. He beats you to the finish line, a quarter mile away from where you just passed him. Think about it, from a standing start, the dragster had spotted you 200 mph and not only caught, but nearly blasted you off the road when he passed you within a mere 1320 foot long race course. That, folks, is acceleration!

[slinky]

roospuppet said:

are you going to santa pod may 27th-30th, for the top fuelers, they have 10 booked already, and maybe another 1 as well, they are incredibly loud, do they use push rod's for a technical advantage in the high power top fuelers, or is it just because the blocks they have been using for years, have push rods?

Are we going? we'll be racing

Not sure about the push rods... can find out tho...

slinky

[dilbert]

slinky said:

roospuppet said: are you going to santa pod may 27th-30th, for the top fuelers, they have 10 booked already, and maybe another 1 as well, they are incredibly loud, do they use push rod's for a technical advantage in the high power top fuelers, or is it just because the blocks they have been using for years, have push rods? Are we going? we'll be racing Not sure about the push rods... can find out tho... slinky

Did you sort your data aquisition isses? I thought you might also consider COTS Mil-Spec stuff, if you're really serious about DAQ.

>> Edited to make sense.


>> Edited by dilbert on Friday 8th April 18:34