Re: Critical Mass - Blind Man's Bluff = SPLIT THREAD
I sent Brad Miller to Gary Aerospace in Hondo, Texas to dyno some 3350s, I had called them looking for a dyno facility, and I was told that they had some dynamometers. Well, when Brad arrived, yes the had dynos, but none was operational, so Brad’s first project was to make one serviceable. With help from some of the guys there, he got one functioning. When I called, raising hell about this, they told me that they had thought I meant a “test stand”, not a dyno.
I had sent one of my motor mounts with Brad, so we could test that at the same time, with a load on it. If it stood up to the torque of the dyno, it should be fine on the Sea Fury. There was a protocol that they followed there for safety reasons I guess, that no one could be in the dyno area while an engine was running, they would be in the “control room”, sort of a bunker with a thick window so that you could observe from there. Brad didn’t give a hoot about their protocol, he informed them that on occasions he would have to be out there with the engine to monitor it “up close and personal”. They really freaked out when he told them that at some point he would be running the engines on methanol and nitro-methane, and be out there alongside them.
The people there at Gary were aircraft types, and had certain guidelines to follow when testing engines, but we were, (as we became known) those “car guys.” We didn’t want to know if the engine was up to spec, we wanted to know how hard we could run them, after all, this was an “Air Racing” project. Brad ran an engine on gas, and the 26WD was supposed to make about 3,000 horsepower, but Brad tinkered with it and got 3500 HP, consistently. He had VP Fuels make us some gas with some additives that he thought would be better, and I had called Champion Spark Plugs and had them make me some “colder” spark plugs. I knew some of the Champion engineers and tech reps from Indy car racing, so I was able to pull this off, and the plugs had a number proprietary to me. This was a “freeby” from Champion, but for some “political “ reason, I had to pay a local Champion dealer in Reno $10.00 for each one that I ran. I never quite figured that deal out. I think that Brad ran four engines on gas before switching one over to the alcohol/nitro for testing.
Brad had designed the alcohol system, using an Enderle throttle body that was used on “Top Fuel” dragsters, that bolted on in place of the carburetor, and conveniently there was a pipe plug in the intake runners just before they fastened to the cylinders that was the same thread as a dragster fuel injector nozzle. He built a fuel distribution ring that provided for a hose to connect to the 18 nozzles. I think that he used three “fuel dragster” fuel pumps to supply the necessary amount of fuel to the 3350. I could go on and on about this, but that’s basically what it amounted to.
Unfortunately the dyno instrumentation was limited to 4,000 horsepower, so we never knew exactly what we got, but Brad did some calculations, fuel flow and stuff, and determined that it was close to 5,000. I think Brad did a post earlier that described how he would have a tanker come each morning, and hook up to the system, and he would run it dry.
I am posting 6 photos, one shows Brad in the “control room”, and the others are him standing beside the 3350 when it was running. In the photo with all of the fire, that blur on the left is Brad’s head, you can just barely see his “earmuffs.” I don’t know who was the craziest, Brad or whoever took the pictures!
I sent Brad Miller to Gary Aerospace in Hondo, Texas to dyno some 3350s, I had called them looking for a dyno facility, and I was told that they had some dynamometers. Well, when Brad arrived, yes the had dynos, but none was operational, so Brad’s first project was to make one serviceable. With help from some of the guys there, he got one functioning. When I called, raising hell about this, they told me that they had thought I meant a “test stand”, not a dyno.
I had sent one of my motor mounts with Brad, so we could test that at the same time, with a load on it. If it stood up to the torque of the dyno, it should be fine on the Sea Fury. There was a protocol that they followed there for safety reasons I guess, that no one could be in the dyno area while an engine was running, they would be in the “control room”, sort of a bunker with a thick window so that you could observe from there. Brad didn’t give a hoot about their protocol, he informed them that on occasions he would have to be out there with the engine to monitor it “up close and personal”. They really freaked out when he told them that at some point he would be running the engines on methanol and nitro-methane, and be out there alongside them.
The people there at Gary were aircraft types, and had certain guidelines to follow when testing engines, but we were, (as we became known) those “car guys.” We didn’t want to know if the engine was up to spec, we wanted to know how hard we could run them, after all, this was an “Air Racing” project. Brad ran an engine on gas, and the 26WD was supposed to make about 3,000 horsepower, but Brad tinkered with it and got 3500 HP, consistently. He had VP Fuels make us some gas with some additives that he thought would be better, and I had called Champion Spark Plugs and had them make me some “colder” spark plugs. I knew some of the Champion engineers and tech reps from Indy car racing, so I was able to pull this off, and the plugs had a number proprietary to me. This was a “freeby” from Champion, but for some “political “ reason, I had to pay a local Champion dealer in Reno $10.00 for each one that I ran. I never quite figured that deal out. I think that Brad ran four engines on gas before switching one over to the alcohol/nitro for testing.
Brad had designed the alcohol system, using an Enderle throttle body that was used on “Top Fuel” dragsters, that bolted on in place of the carburetor, and conveniently there was a pipe plug in the intake runners just before they fastened to the cylinders that was the same thread as a dragster fuel injector nozzle. He built a fuel distribution ring that provided for a hose to connect to the 18 nozzles. I think that he used three “fuel dragster” fuel pumps to supply the necessary amount of fuel to the 3350. I could go on and on about this, but that’s basically what it amounted to.
Unfortunately the dyno instrumentation was limited to 4,000 horsepower, so we never knew exactly what we got, but Brad did some calculations, fuel flow and stuff, and determined that it was close to 5,000. I think Brad did a post earlier that described how he would have a tanker come each morning, and hook up to the system, and he would run it dry.
I am posting 6 photos, one shows Brad in the “control room”, and the others are him standing beside the 3350 when it was running. In the photo with all of the fire, that blur on the left is Brad’s head, you can just barely see his “earmuffs.” I don’t know who was the craziest, Brad or whoever took the pictures!
Attached Files
...! 
Comment