Henry Yunicks Red Hot Vapor Engine Re-Creation

[DeltaV]

Some updates for everyone here.

We just scored a major sales agreement with a drone manufacturing company. I'm under an NDA so I cant say who. This is for scotch yoke type naturally aspirated engines 125cc in displacement. I've attached some pictures.
I was also able to purchase the original Bourke 400. What a beast, look at the size of those wrist pins! I'll be rebuilding it and doing testing sometime in the future.
Today I attempted to complete the last step in making the new spindle nut. Its almost complete. We have two Okuma MC 4 VAE milling centers. We purchased them from Designs For Tomorrow. One of them has a fourth axis attachment. Today we attempted to load G-code into one using the floppy drive. We inserted the floppy disc into the disc drive, turned on the machine, and it said "Control Floppy Loading Wait" We waited ten minutes, nothing happened. We turned off the machine, removed the floppy disc from the drive, waited thirty seconds, and turned it on again. Same thing. This was a perfectly functioning machine. We need to get installation floppy drives to re-install the parameters. So my day yesterday and today was not good.

Regardless, here are the updates. Tomorrow I will begin welding together a testing stand for the Bourke 400.

I've also attached a photograph of a side project, an electrically de-coupled Tesla turbine type internal combustion woodchip fired gas turbo-generator for stationary CHP applications. A PDF describing it is attached.

 

[bubba22349]

Thank you it's good to hear about your progress!

 

[pmuller9]

Good to hear from you and to see your progress and some very exciting advances.
Thanks for the pictures and PDF on the Residential Woodchip/Pellet Heater with Catalytic Tesla Turbine Based Electrical Generation.
Hope the project is successful. Looks like a lot of work just qualifying the right materials for the job as well as getting the nozzle design right.

Nice purchase of the Bourke 400.

 

[DeltaV]

UPDATES!

We are getting VERY close to having a fully operational 125cc engine. We're using a static compression ratio of 36.5:1. The engine isn't quite running yet despite these high compression ratio's. Static pressure testing gauge was maxed out at 300 PSI. You would think that starting fluid with a glow plug at these high compression ratio's would get it to compression ignite, but I think its running rich and/or quenching the cylinders. I sort-of got it to fire using RC-nitro fuel for RC cars, which is a mixture of 20% nitromethane, 71% alcohol, and 9% oil, but I think the RC-nitro plug, being screwed into an adapter, was shielded by stagnant gases to prevent the catalytic ignition. So I'm working on a new plug adapter design now. I need to use an adapter because I tapped the cylinders to use a standard 14mm spark plug. I've delegated one of my factotums to put together an ignition system to run it on spark plugs. I'm confident it will run on spark plugs. It runs smooth as glass with the plugs removed and no pressure building, but these compression ratio's are so high that the drill feels more like a jackhammer once you get plugs in and you start pumping air. You can barely hold on to the drill and even 30 seconds is exhausting because it gives you a headache turning it over.

We are very happy with this engine design thus far and are investing in scaling manufacturing. We just purchased two used Okuma MC4 VAE milling centers. I also purchased a Niagara 190 ton mechanical stamping/forging machine that I plan on using to drop forge heated aluminum in open dies to forge the crankcases and possibly combustion chambers. I contact Ozark Precision Die Casting and they gave me a really good estimate but six figures for molds is off the table as of now, and I think I can make some drop forging dies a little cheaper than 100k. Now getting this 38,000 pound machine here will be a challenge. For $2,500 I think the Niagara press is a fair price, even if it will cost 9k to move here. We still need to fix the roof of the factory, but thats going to cost minimum 120k.

I am not confident that the off-the-shelf aluminum Wiseco pistons will hold up long-term, so after we conclude our gentle testing with aluminum we will machine cast iron pistons for torture testing, and if cast iron works we will machine dimensionally identical titanium pistons. The major advantage here is that because titanium has a slightly lower coefficient of expansion we can machine the titanium pistons to fit very nice and snug. Of course titanium is a horribly unsuitable tribosurface so once we and get the dimensions and machining process of the pistons down-pat we will have the titanium pistons and ring faces hard-chromed running in a nitrided cast iron sleeve. Titanium pistons may be a horrible idea due to the cyclic loading, but I have a hard time imagining they would be worse than aluminum. I'm hoping that experienced people here might be able to give their opinions and perspectives on titanium pistons.

These engines are made to order.

 

[pmuller9]

Does it use a simple piston port transfer design?
What does the piston look like?

How are you oiling the crankcase components?

The biggest obstacle with titanium pistons is its abrasive properties.

 

[DeltaV]

on the "Alien Reproduction Vehicle" is both fascinating and amazing because the technology requires nothin

Does it use a simple piston port transfer design?
What does the piston look like?

How are you oiling the crankcase components?

The biggest obstacle with titanium pistons is its abrasive properties.

Its standard schnuerle porting with a boost port and window port on the piston. Nothing fancy. I copied the porting from an old Yamaha cylinder.

The crankcase is through-flow. The fuel-air charge goes through the crankcase. I did this to reduce weight and eliminate the critical nature of the oil seal on the connecting rod. With a splash lubricated oil filled crankcase, if the rod-seal leaks it could cause a runaway and/or catastrophic failure. In this way, even though oil is now required to be mixed with the fuel, the reliability is overall increased.

I plan on coating the titanium pistons with at least 0.005" of hard chrome and using chrome faced piston rings. This way the hard chrome, not the titanium, is the tribosurface. The piston is a standard flat-top piston, only difference is they will be fully skirted. Single top ring.