Return-Path: Received: from [65.23.108.33] (HELO mail.tsisp.com) by logan.com (CommuniGate Pro SMTP 4.2b6) with ESMTP-TLS id 301013 for flyrotary@lancaironline.net; Fri, 09 Jul 2004 16:21:33 -0400 Received: from stevehome by mail.tsisp.com (Technical Support Inc.) with SMTP id CQA74584 for ; Fri, 09 Jul 2004 16:20:54 -0400 Reply-To: From: "Steve Brooks" To: "'Rotary motors in aircraft'" Subject: RE: [FlyRotary] Re: Turbo post mortem Date: Fri, 9 Jul 2004 16:22:34 -0400 Message-ID: <019801c465f2$791dbea0$6400a8c0@WORKGROUP.local> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook CWS, Build 9.0.2416 (9.0.2910.0) X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1165 In-Reply-To: Importance: Normal Ed, Great description. Even I can understand it. I wish that there was somewhere is the US that did that modification. I have a friend who is building a Lancair with a 20B, and his son races an RX-7, so he has allot of experience with them. In fact, he warned me that the stock turbo was going to be a problem due to the wastegate. I'll talk to him, and see if he knows of anyplace doing mods to the turbo. At least enlarging the wastegate would be a good starting place. I had an interesting very short flight this morning. I went to check and see if the deflector that I re-installed on the oil cooler was going to get my cooling back where it was. I climbed out at 5 lbs of boost, as I normally do, and at 500' AGL I turned off the 2nd fuel pump. My RPM's immediately dropped, so I turned it back on, while leveling off and turning a quick crosswind. At 900' I reduced power a little, and turned the pump off again. Same thing, so I came around and landed. I ASSUMED that the fuel filter on the main pump had gotten some debris in it, so I removed the fuel filters. By the way, they are a pain to get to now that everything else is installed. That wasn't the problem. In fact, I was surprised how little sediment was in the filters for newly built fuel tanks. I put a fuel pressure gauge (no I don't have one on the panel), and my pressure out of the regulator was only 28 lbs. Both pumps by themselves produced about the same pressure, but both together got about 33 lbs. Knowing that now, I understand why I had trouble getting the mixture rich enough at higher power levels. I adjusted the regulator back to 40 lbs static, but I'm not quit sure why it had changed. It has been almost a year though since I initially set the regulator, so maybe the pumps put out less than when new, or maybe the regulator itself has changed. I know now why it's important to measure fuel pressure, but with no panel space left, I think that I'll have to get an EM-2, and then decide what 2 gauges to do away with. Steve Brooks -----Original Message----- From: Rotary motors in aircraft [mailto:flyrotary@lancaironline.net] On Behalf Of Ed Anderson Sent: Friday, July 09, 2004 7:58 AM To: Rotary motors in aircraft Subject: [FlyRotary] Re: Turbo post mortem Good questions, Steve. The A/r ratio is the ratio of the area (A) of the outlet of the turbine housing to the radius(r) from the turbine wheel axis. Basically the smaller the A/\r the smaller the area the exhaust gas flows through this means that a relatively small amount of exhaust gas will move faster and be more effective in spinning the turbine wheel. As you increase the A/r the more area means less exhaust gas velocity and more area for the exhaust gas to pass through. This results in less boost for a given exhaust mass flow. So for low rpm, 0-60 mph sports car feel the manufactures almost all (Porsche is one exception) use a smaller A/r to get the most out of the lower exhaust gas mass flow in the lower rpm range. The down side is that the lower A/r tends to overspeed the rotating assembly fairly quickly at higher rpms (or decreases the engine's efficiency with excessive back pressure). Corky Bell's book does a good job of explaining that larger A/rs provide more top end HP - but you don't get the boost kick on the lower end. You avoid back excessive back pressure, overspeeding of the rotating assembly ,etc. So for most aircraft application where we are winding high rpms for long duration, a larger A/r would seem the way to go. Now, selection of the compressor wheel size is fairly straight forward using compressor maps. Unfortunately, its apparently not quite as exact a science in selecting the right turbine housing (A/r) to give you the desire operating characteristics. There are some rules of thumb - but, most custom turbo fitters may end up trying several A/r sizes to get the ideal one. Somewhat expensive for an individual to do. I have read that the water cooling designed in to some automobile turbos is not really for cooling the turbo during operation. It supposedly is to continue to provide some cooling after the engine shuts down. Shutting down the engine while the turbo temperature is high will result in the center housing becoming "heat soaked" and the oil actually burning or more commonly "coaking" into a sludge and harden mass of carbon which hastens wear of the shaft and bearings. Now personally, I agree that it would seem that a water cool turbo would be a great benefit if not completely necessary for aircraft type application. That is one reason that I think the Mazda turbo can be a successful aircraft turbo - but again I would like to see the modifications made offer by the Aussie turbonetics place I have referred to several times. They basically increase the A/r ratio, enlarge the internal wastegate opening and drill through the dividing wall between the two scrolls of the twin scroll turbo (the older Mazda turbos did not have this twin scroll - which really made them slightly better for the aircraft use in that respect than the later turbos). The twin scroll is again designed to produce quicker and higher boost at lower rpms -something we don't really need. So drilling through the scroll wall divider will permit the exhaust gas to escape from the scroll that normally does not get to vent through the waste gate. I would presume that due to that modification that exhaust gas blowing through the hole in the divider would also disrupt the flow of exhaust gas in the vented scroll further reducing the effectiveness of the gas spinning the turbine. I believe Todd has done at least some of these modifications to his turbo which may account for his lack of turbo problems. FWIW Ed Ed Anderson RV-6A N494BW Rotary Powered Matthews, NC ----- Original Message ----- From: "Steve Brooks" To: "Rotary motors in aircraft" Sent: Friday, July 09, 2004 7:04 AM Subject: [FlyRotary] Re: Turbo post mortem > Ed, > After recent events, I've been looking at T04 turbo's but I really don't > know what the A/r ratio is, or what are the advantages to a low ratio vs. a > high ratio. I also noticed that most of those turbos are only oil cooled, > while the stock turbo has both oil and water feeds to it. > > I would think that for aircraft use, you would need water cooling as well. > > Steve Brooks > > -----Original Message----- > From: Rotary motors in aircraft [mailto:flyrotary@lancaironline.net] On > Behalf Of Ed Anderson > Sent: Friday, July 09, 2004 6:30 AM > To: Rotary motors in aircraft > Subject: [FlyRotary] Re: Turbo post mortem > > If he is using the stock Mazda turbocharger, I believe he can get that kind > of boost at altitude. The stock turbine out-let area is really inadequate > for the amount of exhaust gas mass flow you can get at WOT. They have had > continuos problems with boost creep on the Rx-7 (at least some model years) > due to this. So with the effective A/r of the turbo that small, 38" is > probably attainable where it wouldn't be with a turbine housing sized for > aircraft use. > > I personally believe getting the stock turbo modified as offered by the > Aussies at this URL overcomes some of the limitations of the stock turbo for > aircraft use as I see them. Of course going to some of the T4/T3 series > turbos can do the same as they have turbine housings with A/rs ranging from > around 0.4 to over 1.2. > > http://www.turbonetics.com.au/ATS_p&s_12a_13b.htm > > Ed > > Ed Anderson > RV-6A N494BW Rotary Powered > Matthews, NC > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Michael D. Callahan" > To: "Rotary motors in aircraft" > Sent: Friday, July 09, 2004 1:14 AM > Subject: [FlyRotary] Re: Turbo post mortem > > > > Hard to put out 38" at 11.5K with the gate wide open;-) I want an intake > > like HIS if he can do that! Mike C. > > > > > > > That doesn't sound right. How big is the wastegate, and what style (ie, > > > throttle plate or Delta-gate (or Race-gate)? With the wastegate fully > > open > > > the majority of the exhaust should be bypassing the turbo. Or am I > > > misunderstanding your comment? WOuldn't be the first time. > > > > > > >> Homepage: http://www.flyrotary.com/ > > >> Archive: http://lancaironline.net/lists/flyrotary/List.html > > > > > > >> Homepage: http://www.flyrotary.com/ > >> Archive: http://lancaironline.net/lists/flyrotary/List.html > > > >> Homepage: http://www.flyrotary.com/ > >> Archive: http://lancaironline.net/lists/flyrotary/List.html > >> Homepage: http://www.flyrotary.com/ >> Archive: http://lancaironline.net/lists/flyrotary/List.html