In designing a new race engine, or developing an existing one, the management of heat in poppet valves - and the transfer of heat from them - is only one small aspect, but it has an effect on performance and reliability.
The subject of hollow poppet valves that are cooled internally through the use of sodium or a similar material has been discussed previously, both in Race Engine Technology magazine and in my RET-Monitor articles. Read more…
Garrett Jacobson Motorsports in Northridge, California, is a full service engine-building ’shop that is in the midst of constructing a former Roush Yates Engines Ford C-3 V8 for use in its regional K&N Series NASCAR West series on the West Coast of the US.
The K&N Series travels to circuits around the coastal area and, like many in the NASCAR regional fold, accepts both ’spec’ (crate) and ‘open’ engines for competition. In Read more…
The latest transmission development in the top flight of motorcycle racing, MotoGP, has been the appearance of seamless shift technology. Already commonplace in Formula One, seamless shifting provides a number of benefits to the rider and, more important, helps reduce lap times.
Honda is currently the only team on the grid to admit to using a system, and it certainly made an impact on its Read more…
There are a number of reasons why we might want to improve the level of surface finish on components for race engines and transmissions, but the chief among these are reliability and friction. By improving the level of surface finish, we generally mean reducing the level of roughness.
The effect of reducing roughness on component reliability is well known, and has been quantified for a Read more…
Although many might disagree, the sealing of the gap between two fixed surfaces is a relatively simple task. Variation in loading or changes in thermal expansion may require the joint to have some form of compliance, but in general the solutions are well understood and, as such, failures should be few and far between.
But when it comes to sealing the gap between a rotation crankshaft and the engine crankcase, a wholly different Read more…
Numbers, I would dare to suggest, are the language of engineering. A true and simple enough statement but when used in an engineering context it can only describe the approximate size of things. In the purer forms of science and mathematics, numbers are precise. For instance, the atomic number of iron is precisely 55, or in the world of Euclidean geometry, pi, the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter is exactly 22/7. Read more…
For those who have no interest in pushrod engines in racing, their criticism of categories such as NASCAR, and the engines used, revolves around a perceived lack of technology. The regulations for the Sprint Cup series in certain areas don’t help dispel this perception, mandating flat-faced lifters to be used in bespoke race engines when all modern pushrod production engines have turned to using roller lifters. In racing too, where choice of roller type isn’t restricted, the flat lifter is generally shunned in Read more…
In the world of NASCAR regional touring series, ’spec’ or crate engines are the way of the present and the future, making it difficult for teams and drivers wanting to use open engines to compete on a level playing field. The sanctioning body readily gives advantages to the small-block crate while making it difficult for engine builders to be competitive with their own engine builds.
Oil flow within an engine is something that is given great consideration during the design stage, be it by a manufacturer of a commercial unit or a bespoke race engine. However, ancillaries such as oil coolers and dry-sump systems are sometimes not subject to the same level of scrutiny. This can often be the case when the engine is being fitted to a car without the involvement of the engine constructor. Read more…
If you were to look inside the brain of any true engineer, you will find the phrase: “Make it smaller, cheaper and better”. Smaller invariably means lighter, cheaper satisfies the bean-counters among us while better is the goal we often set ourselves, the one that plays to our ego and sense of pride, and the one we tend to judge ourselves by. So while designers are always producing engines to the smallest size, at some point someone in the future will always want to extract even more power. Read more…
