zBoat project finally begins!

[DumHed]

After sitting around for 18 months or so my F1 Tunnel boat has arrived at the zHouse ready for some f1><0r1ng!

here's what it looks like at the moment:



Stage one is to finish off surface preparation and get a coat of paint on it.

Then there's the problem of making it actually go.
Current plan is to use a VW beetle engine driving one or two large multi blade fans, in a similar setup to an airboat or hovercraft.
This is partly because it'll look cool, and partly because it's a lot cheaper than buying a decent outboard motor or the parts required to convert the boat to an inboard power plant setup.

I'll update this thread with any progress when it happens

[Buffy]

I'm scared. O_O

But I will still help paint and sand etc if you need it

[dogwomble]

Hmmm seeing as I will be in Syd this coming weekend and have very little in the way of plans, how about a working bee on Saturday?

However, considering my considerably little knowledge of Sydney, being able to get to whichever ZHouse this is at will be a challenge I will have to overcome.

Edit: Well, considering the reason I wanna get out of Canberra for a few days is because I'm bored of it and need a short change. A change is as good as a holiday, so I've opted for both.

[That_Bloke]

For a mere 500UK pounds(less than $1500Au) you could acquire a Rolls Royce Artouste gas turbine, that would be easily converteted to a Jet engine

[Blunt]

Shit man, forget hucking that in the sea. Combine that shell with the spare car in the yard and create a Mach 5 car and "let's break that speed record!".


GO SPEED RACER! GO SPEED RACER, GO!

[DumHed]

Originally posted by That_Bloke
For a mere 500UK pounds(less than $1500Au) you could acquire a Rolls Royce Artouste gas turbine, that would be easily converteted to a Jet engine

Can you get them in australia for that?

If so, tell me where!

[That_Bloke]

Originally posted by DumHed
Can you get them in australia for that?

If so, tell me where!

Not sure, Sometimes Rolls Royce Avons come up locally for around $4500 but they are proper jet engines & are about as long a medium car.

Here's an artuoste in england, the shipping weight is around 204kg

[Skouboe]

Congrats on the Zboat.

[DumHed]

thanks


hmmm, 1500 + millions of shipping sounds like an expensive option compared to the $150 VW engine and the rest of the gear that I already have

Funnily enough though I am thinking of reviving my old jet engine project to add a little bit of thrust (and mainly noise / flames )

Rather than a real turbine engine I'm thinking I'll have a combustion chamber and exhaust nozzle, with compressed air coming from a mechanical compressor driven by the main engine.
Much simpler, and more flexible.

[DrDivad]

woo! zboat!

rock on

[That_Bloke]

Originally posted by DumHed
thanks


hmmm, 1500 + millions of shipping sounds like an expensive option compared to the $150 VW engine and the rest of the gear that I already have

Funnily enough though I am thinking of reviving my old jet engine project to add a little bit of thrust (and mainly noise / flames )

Rather than a real turbine engine I'm thinking I'll have a combustion chamber and exhaust nozzle, with compressed air coming from a mechanical compressor driven by the main engine.
Much simpler, and more flexible.

Ah, Pressure jets, you could also go for Pulse jets, people have made there own turbine with Turbocharger parts(actually the turbine from the turbo is the part that is normally discarded), I saw one made from an old Holset prime mover turbo that put out 100hp at the shaft.

[DumHed]

yep, I've built a jet engine out of a toyota turbo before.
I've built a pulse jet too, but I couldn't use it much since everyone within a 2km radius seemed to complain about the noise!
Interestingly it used to turn green when it heated up (was made from galvanised pipe)
I let it keep running till the reed valve block melted one day, and never fixed it

I reckon the pressure jet setup would be kinda interesting though. Saves a lot of complexity. If I could get hold of a mega large turbo though I'd do another turbojet.

I have a couple of positive displacement superchargers which I could use for a pressure jet though. One of them even has an electric clutch on it, so I could kick it in when the main engine reaches full revs.

Here's a video of the old jet engine running briefly till I was worried that the turbine would get spat out the end

http://www.zgeek.com/albums/albuw94/Jet_Engine1.wmv

[DumHed]

ok, slight update to the project is that there'll be more focus on the jet side of propulsion (for extra darwin award goodness )
So I'm now trying to find the biggest truck turbocharger I can, to build a very large version of my old jet engine - with the addition of an afterburner.
The main fan driving engine will probably remain, partly to drive all the accessories - oil pump, fuel pump, etc for the jet.

[That_Bloke]

Originally posted by DumHed

http://www.zgeek.com/albums/albuw94/Jet_Engine1.wmv

Ah, it's the type that use the complete housing with a large seperate combustion, You can make more efficient ones with an integeral combustion chamber behind the compressor, the use only the inturnals, sometimes they use the turbine from the charger but often people fabricate an axial flow turbine rotor from a high temp steel alloy called inconel.

[DumHed]

yeah, fabricating from inconel reeks of hard work and empty wallet

It would be more efficient, but you then have problems of keeping the bearings cool, etc, and much more complex combustion chamber design.

I'm hoping to overcome efficiency problems the proper way - by making it heaps bigger!