Ever since the dawn of mass manufacturing, engineers have been preoccupied with shape and position but it is only in comparatively recent times that this has been formalised into a geometrical standard. The language of geometric dimensioning and tolerancing, GD&T to you and me, consisting of rules, symbols and conventions, was designed to ensure parts could be made anywhere in the world and put together with the highest confidence to produce a fully functional product or assembly. Specifying characteristics like form, orientation and Read more…
Archive for March, 2010
Valve seat resurfacing
Tuesday, March 30th, 2010Fuel for thought
Tuesday, March 30th, 2010
Maybe I’m getting old but when I see racers the world over spending thousands of pounds (or dollars) on their winter engine rebuilds and then running them on ordinary pump fuels, I simply begin to wonder. By the time they have prepared the car, transported it to the circuit, paid the entry fee and fed and watered their little army of helpers, with any of the budget still remaining, you would have thought that they would have planned to fuel the engine on something just a little bit more suitable than pump fuel? OK, they might have Read more…
Thread Inserts (2)
Tuesday, March 30th, 2010
In the previous article on thread inserts, Wayne Ward briefly discussed some of the reasons why people might choose to specify a thread insert and looked in a little detail on one of the types of insert which find common use in current racing engines. There is one further reason why a wire insert may be an advantage and that is in improving the fatigue life of the bolt installed therein, or of the female threaded component.
Previous articles that I have written on the subject Read more…
Tight bends
Tuesday, March 30th, 2010
In previous articles, Wayne Ward looked at processes by which we might produce bends with different geometry than we can form using simple tube bending techniques, and here we briefly covered hydroforming and the manufacture of pressed bends. If we really need to cram an exhaust into a very tight space, these might offer us some advantage by allowing a very tight bend. However, we should question whether gaining this advantage comes at a cost. In some circumstances the answer to this question is ‘yes’. Read more…
‘Knock’ about
Tuesday, March 30th, 2010
Simply mention the words ‘engine knock’ to any aftermarket EMS supplier and I almost guarantee that the conversation will cease albeit perhaps only briefly. But safe to reiterate that ‘knock’ or more precisely detonation, should be avoided at all costs and that the engine should be mapped sufficiently away from these borderline conditions, the conversation will no doubt continue along the original lines. And in truth for the vast majority of race units, particularly naturally aspirated ones, careful ignition mapping and avoiding detonation at Read more…
Emission Testing in Motorsport
Tuesday, March 30th, 2010
Amid all the hype over the past few years of Global Warming or as it has been re-branded now, Climate Change, it won’t surprise anyone that motorsport has come in for its own fair share of criticism. Viewed by some as a waste of resources, the sport is now fighting back and where once the word ‘power’ was king, ‘efficiency’ now replaces it. But from a motorsport perspective, ‘efficiency’ can mean many different things but in the final analysis and in today’s world it all comes down to one thing - fuel consumption or as the politicians would now Read more…
Crankshaft Oiling
Tuesday, March 30th, 2010
In a previous article discussing the oil holes which are necessary in crankshafts, the author briefly discussed one of the methods by which oil is transferred to the crankpins for the purpose of lubricating the big end of the con rod and its bearings. The article discussed how the oil, having arrived at the main bearing, must make its way through the crankshaft via the oil drillings to the crankpin. We touched briefly on compound-angle drillings and axial drillings in that article, but didn’t mention a method of crankpin oiling which has been Read more…
Coatings on Con Rods
Tuesday, March 30th, 2010
Some of the important design features of the con rod have been discussed briefly in the articles on the RET Monitor website, and there has also been a recent RET Focus article in the magazine on the con rod. In that Focus article, we mentioned coatings, but here is a good forum to expand on the material a little further.
Looking at the thrust faces of the big end of the rod, many people choose to run without any form of coating. If the lubrication regime is such that Read more…
Recycling in Motorsport
Tuesday, March 30th, 2010
With a greater emphasis on waste and recycling in our private lives, is it no wonder that the ethos is now beginning to spill over into the world of competition. While once engine component parts might have been discarded in favour of new replacements, today, where possible, they may be reclaimed to race another day. No better example of this is the re-plating of aluminium motorcycle engine barrels; particularly those that tend to suffer most distress - those of two-stroke engines.
Cam grinding the CNC way
Tuesday, March 30th, 2010
If you talk to anyone in the camshaft manufacturing business, it isn’t very long before the name of Landis crops up. Old timers might reflect fondly on such machines as the Berco RAC1500 cam grinder - “The best manual cam grinder in the business” or be rather less complementary about the Storm Vulcan machine going back into the 1950s, but the one machine that everyone agrees upon, to the point where it is now assuming the position of an icon in the camshaft manufacturing business, is the Landis 3L. Read more…
