Last Updated: October 16th 2005

Garage Jet Combustion Chamber Testing

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I’ve finally got around to doing some testing of the combustion chamber. I didn’t have a proper probe to measure temperature but I can tell just by looking at it that it’s not working right. It probably needs a lot more air than the shop-vac pushes but it wasn’t burning at all in the primary zone. This means I need more holes in the primary zone to get more oxygen to the fuel earlier on and make the flame burn more inside the combustion chamber. I ordered some Hago oil burner nozzles. I bought a verity of nozzles, from 2GPH to 4GPH and 45-degree spray to 70-degree spray Semi solid spray pattern to hollow spray pattern and even universal patters for applications where no other pattern works apparently.

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After testing I took everything apart and noticed the primary zone on the flame tube was still normal color as the rest was tinted blue from the heat. Also during testing looking down the combustion chamber I could see it only started burning half way down the flame tube. I also noticed that when it would flame out and fuel was still spraying out and the flame tube was hot the fuel was vaporizing. I was using a 30degree 3GPH semi hollow spray pattern. If I used my 70 degree 4GPH Hollow spray nozzle I would probably get a lot better vaporization, Bring the flame back inside the combustion chamber, and burn the fuel more efficiently when the flame tube heats up and the fuel starts vaporizing. You can also see my new control panel. Works and looks a lot better than the old one. I've got a lot more switches too. The extra ones are to control 4 cooling fans mounted on the other side of the oil cooler. I wont actually need 4 switches for my cooling fans. I have it made that way right now so when I add more things I can just use one switch for the fans instead of one switch for each.

This is a Good comparison between full throttle and idle. The pump alone makes 50PSI but when testing it didn’t go above 45PSI. Shop-vac probably has 5PSI boost. The lowest possible fuel pressure I could run was just above 20PSI. It was really Smokey because it wasn’t atomizing very good and it was only burning in the very end of the secondary zone and in the dilution zone. A lot of fuel was just hitting the hot walls and smoking off, not even burning. At full throttle there is no visible smoke.

July 6th 2005 Its been a while and not much has been done with the enigne. I bought an oil filter and filter housing on ebay that thats about it. I have been real busy with school but now I've graduated. I'm moving to Canada in a few weeks so the project is still on hold till aguest 05.

July 15th, 2005 Yesterday I got my Ignition system that I bought on ebay to work great! It makes a nice powerfull spark. Unfortunetly all my stuff is packed up at the moment. I will not be able to do any work until at the very ealiest augest 10th. I've found a good 130psi, 15gph fuel pump. Its going to be about $50-$60. I'll buy it after I move into my new house. I think I am going to upgrade the fuel lines to something a lot better. I was thinking of using automotive fuel line or metal tubes. I would also like to do the same with the oil line again. The orange lines are suspose to be good up to 300psi so I might keep them. I want to get a new oil cooler and big 12v cooling fan. I don't think that trany cooler with the 4 small fans will be enought to keep a good control on the oil temp. By having low oil temp I can extend running time. I was also thinking of using two oil coolers. Just so that the oil never gets to hot no matter how long I run the egnine. I want to try and keep weight down because I plan to put the engine on a thrust powerd go-kart. light weight, low rolling restance and lots of thrust are the three things I'm aiming for in my jet kart for maximum speed and accleration. I've come up with an afterburner design that should boost thrust levels much higher. The after burner is based on the diagram on the first page. I'll be using four fuel injectors with the option of only using two, 3-4 inchs up stream from the dump zone (recirculation zone). I've takes measurement of the Model 1030 turbojet engine and scaled it to fit my turbo. I'm going to need 4.25 inch diameter steel tube, 6.5 inch diameter steel tube and a 9.5 inch long steel tube that tapers from 6.5 down to 4 inches to construct my afterburner. its going to be about 43 inches to total length.

October 13th, 2005 I am all moved into my new house in Canada now, but unfortunately I do not have a place to set up shop. I want to try to avoid my back yard as to half of it is an in ground pool and it has a cedar hedge as a fence bordering the hole back yard. I’ve had a bad experience few years ago with fire and cedar hedge fencing before, I wouldn’t even want to even dream of putting a jet engine anywhere near one. And my garage is filled with cars so there isn’t much room for a complete jet engine. All of my parts are still packed in boxes except my turbo and flame tube. I needed to check the turbo out as soon as it came off the moving truck. I had paid about $30 to have my turbo packed up so it wouldn’t break and I was glad to see it was still in perfect condition. I have drilled out every other hole in the primary zone of my flame tube to approximately .25 inches but I drilled it on an angle to it is slightly larger. I haven’t done anymore testing yet, I haven’t found a place to set up shop or do anything testing. I bought my 3rd fuel pump now, its capable of 130psi. I still have the second one I bought but it’s only capable of 55psi. Might still be useful later on in the engine, I’m not sure how good of an after burner pump it would be due to low psi and the need for at least 4 fuel injectors. I need find a good place to work that is heated, its getting cold. The weather is about 10 degrees Celsius and every day it gets colder. Soon there will be snow, I don’t think my jet engine start up very well in such cold weather when it snows. I think the fuel and oil will have to be pre-warmed before you try and start. Would be interesting to compare engines statistics on a hot summer (+30c) day to its statistics on a very cold snowy day (-30c). That’s an entirely possible experiment I can do given my location. Since I don’t want to be doing any work outside I am trying to invest in some electronic parts for my engine control unit (ECU). I have been thinking about the BasicAtom for the brains of my ecu. With the BasicAtom I can monitor engine temperature, Boost, fuel pressure, oil pressure, engine speed, and I can make speedometer with it if I decided to put the engine on a go-kart or motorcycle. I can even make a GPS system with this. There is also a lot more I can do with the BasicAtom. All information would be displayed on a LCD display screen. The BasicAtom and all its programming software and parts is going to be around $150 at the least. Then I still have to wire it and program it. As you know from my ignition system experience, (I gave up and bought one) I am not good with electronics. Hopefully this will be an easier project because it’s a development kit that I am buying and not some homemade ignition circuit I tried to put together. Until I find a suitable workplace for the engine, work on that part of the project is on hold.

October 15th, 2005 If you’re a returning visitor you can tell I’ve made big changes to the web site in the past 2 days. Every last thing has been changed and moved. I added the navigation bar on the left and a few other things. I tried to organize the page better. Some things are not in the correct order but for the most part it all is. I’ve also made a little logo in the top left corner of every page. It’s the compressor blade of the first turbo that wasn’t any good. I though it looked cool. Still haven’t bough the ECU parts yet. I’m still exploring other options.

October 16th, 2005 I Created a Video section. Its only got one video of the combustion chamber test so as soon as you click on it the video should start.

February 19th, 2006 I havent done a single thing on thje engine due to no space to set it up, everything is still in boxes from the move and I need a cnc machine to make a few parts to finish it off. Ive started a new job as a cnc operator, Maybe there will be a change to make the parts I need... until then, nothing can be done until I have some room to build.