Powering Up
Today we had to make a run to the tuner shop where our engine has been residing waiting to have it’s upgrades done. Our main goal today was to take a template off the back of the engine that we will be able to use to create the mating fixture for the belt drive reduction unit.
Here you can see that we created a matrix paper template that we taped to the engine and then, just by rubbing our dirty fingers around, created the markings we needed. Now that we have the template I have already scanned it and I will be able to convert it into a Solidworks component.
The next thing we did was put the engine on the scale and we were pleased to see that it presently only weighs 378 lbs. It does not have the turbo or alternator or other accessories but it’s still a great starting point. The block is cast iron and most of the other parts are aluminum, including the heads.
Lastly we put the engine on a stand ready for the guys to begin work on it. First up they will be fitting a turbo charger and after that working on changing it to a dry sump setup. Later on they will be setting up a custom ECU and creating the programming that will suit our power requirements.
The goal with the engine is for us to construct a full size stand that we can run it, with the prop attached, on a regular basis well before it ever goes into the prototype. That way we can put a whole lot of hours on it to be sure it’s running reliably.
