Following on from Anne Proffit’s recent article on the application of hollow valves in drag-racing, we look at some of the more general benefits of hollow valves and their use in racing. These valves are used in all sorts of racing engines (and have also been used in production engines in the past). Particularly in Formula One they are used extensively.
Whilst hollow valves would offer a weight saving over their solid equivalent (given the same stem diameter), they would be less stiff and so would almost certainly Read more…
Nitromethane-fed engines have different ways of destroying their valve springs. There are challenges, as there are in every type of motor racing, to help valve springs survive the sub-four-second damage realities these springs face.
The conventional H-gate manual shift gearbox, a universal feature on all race cars until about 20 years ago, is actually a highly counter intuitive control device…
Leading crankshaft manufacturer, Arrow Precision Ltd, of Hinckley, Leicestershire, have recently expanded their capabilities by installing a rigid polishing machine for use on main and crankpin journals.
In the first RET Monitor Seals and Gaskets article, we started to examine the research which Trelleborg Sealing Solutions, a leading multi-national manufacturer of gaskets and seals, has published into the interaction of sealing compounds with biofuels. This research will cause fuel system designers to rethink material selection for sealing gaskets and O-rings.
Selecting a suitable piston ring coating is, dare I say it, rather like choosing a wife. Selected in haste, the time could come when you repent at leisure and very much like choosing a mate, under times of great stress, the issue is one of compatibility.
In our July RET-Monitor, we looked at Terry Manton’s projected use of a copper-hybrid pushrod adjuster tip to aid NHRA Pro Stock runners in the Full Throttle Drag Racing Series. Manton Pushrods, of Lake Elsinore, California tested the initial product with Warren and Kurt Johnson, and then took the new pushrod unit to Joliet to see if anyone else was interested.
Coatings to enhance both performance and longevity are the centre of focus in the world of racing piston manufacture today. To learn more, particularly in a NASCAR context, we talked with Brad Green, an engineer at Mahle Motorsports in Fletcher, North Carolina.
Having established that a positive displacement pump is the only practical way of supplying lubrication to our engine, the question remains as to which of these many types is most suited. And to understand this it is necessary to examine the engine’s demands on the oil.
RET recently attended the 2009 UK Formula Student competition at the Silverstone circuit in Northamptonshire.
