Casper's Autopsy Bonneville '09

Gasuout

Johnny
Mar 20, 2008
2,188
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Santa Ana , Ca.
Come on Johnny stop praising Pat:D:hug: Just Kidding I couldn't agree more with you Johnny... Pat it really sucks I know how hard you guys work and frankly it is not fair.

Holy shit , dont tell him that .... we'll have to get him a bigger helmet . :rofl:

Fair ... its just racing .... breakin parts is part of pushing the limits .

40 seconds wide open is beyond pushing the limits .... it out right crossing the line . :D
 

mytmousemalibu

Cut your ride, sissy!
Apr 12, 2008
2,230
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Kansas
:hug: Glad to have you to learn from!

On a further note, gotta be someone that can machine you some steel pistons? I understand that could get mighty pricy though. Would the weight penalty be to severe though? Perhaps a hybrid piston like some engines have? a steel head and aluminum body? Wonder if a forged alum could somhow be machined for a steel cap/insert?
 

McRat

Diesel Hotrodder
Aug 2, 2006
11,249
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Exit temp for the water was 158 at the start, and 180 deg at 200mph, and stablized.

The forged pistons were engineered for SoCalDiesel by Mahle for racing applications. That is all the info I have on their metallurgy. That's why you might see Casper's picture in Mahle ads in diesel magazines.

I want beryllium pistons for Casper, but they are outlawed for Formula One racing, which is what we are doing next with the truck. Lighter than aluminum, stronger than steel. :D

J/K of course.
 

paint94979

Beer Nazi
Sep 18, 2006
11,715
8
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Exit temp for the water was 158 at the start, and 180 deg at 200mph, and stablized.

The forged pistons were engineered for SoCalDiesel by Mahle for racing applications. That is all the info I have on their metallurgy.

I want beryllium pistons for Casper, but they are outlawed for Formula One racing, which is what we are doing next with the truck. Lighter than aluminum, stronger than steel. :D

J/K of course.

LOL Pat i wouldn't be surprised if you were serious:rofl:
 

JoshH

Daggum farm truck
Staff member
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Feb 14, 2007
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I wonder what a hunk of beryllium would cost. Just make sure you pay the machinist well :D
 

mudygmc

New member
Dec 8, 2008
302
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Buffalo MN
What about adding another stage of water injection. A bigger stage only for high rpms. You see pulling tractors with 6+ stages of water to keep them cool. Is there a limit on how much you can inject?
 

Trippin

SoCal Diesel
Aug 10, 2006
663
2
0
Pat do you have a picture of the pistons? Reason im asking is to see where the galling is located! If it's in the middle of the pistons it would need more piston/wall clearance. If it's around the pin area, the pins need more clearance. Top fuel piston/wall clearance is absoluty crazy due to thermals. Can you send a damaged piston back to the mfg. and have them do a hardness test on the crown. You might need a set made out of 4032, wich would have less heat transfer from the dome to the skirt, giving less thermal growth @ the skirts. If the material is 2618, the thermal transfer would be much faster to the skirts. What were you showing for coolant temps? It might be time to start cooling the block through all freeze plugs or other way's, and ditch the conventional pump as well. Just my thoughts, thinking from the Gas/Methanol world.

It is not a skirt galling issue. I wish it were.

Mahle engineering and I speak on the average of twice a week regarding Duramax piston design. I began urging them to manufacture a Monotherm piston for the Duramax 4 years ago. The fact that we even have a forged aluminum piston today is a result of those discussions. They wanted to do a forged piston first.

Pat's pistons represent the latest advancements.

Perhaps this latest set back will be just the ammunition I need to get the Monotherms finally built.
 

Mike

hmmm....
Feb 17, 2007
2,184
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San Angelo, TX
Exit temp for the water was 158 at the start, and 180 deg at 200mph, and stablized.

The forged pistons were engineered for SoCalDiesel by Mahle for racing applications. That is all the info I have on their metallurgy. That's why you might see Casper's picture in Mahle ads in diesel magazines.

I want beryllium pistons for Casper, but they are outlawed for Formula One racing, which is what we are doing next with the truck. Lighter than aluminum, stronger than steel. :D

J/K of course.

Have fun Pat. :joker:
 

McRat

Diesel Hotrodder
Aug 2, 2006
11,249
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Norco CA
www.mcratracing.com
I wonder what a hunk of beryllium would cost. Just make sure you pay the machinist well :D

OK, you asked for it! :D

Back when I was a machinist it was about $600 per cubic inch. It was a round slug about 5" in diameter, and each piece arrived with it's own X-rays mapping out defects that you had to machine around. It is difficult and dangerous to machine since the dust it gives off can give you a fatal lung disease, berylliosis? I don't think you could purchase it, but I don't know for sure. It's a strategic material used in nuclear weapons, and was one of the ways the CIA knew Saddam Hussein was trying to make nuclear weapons. The US gov't knows where all of the ingots of beryllium go. Some racing organizations ban it's use in pure form to keep costs down. Beryllium Copper is safe to machine and own, and is not the same thing, it's used for high quality bushings.
 

SteveFord

What's Next?
May 8, 2008
1,317
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36
Iowa
Can you inject pre turbo, pre intercooler, and post intercooler with water/meth or whatever in different stages during the run to try and keep temps down? I'm just shooting out stuff and maybe it's been tried. What about spraying N20 on the intercooler? Just trying to figure out a way to keep heat soak from happening if it's happening from running that long of a period of time. Then again I don't know if there are stipulations you have to meet for what your doing.
 

McRat

Diesel Hotrodder
Aug 2, 2006
11,249
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Norco CA
www.mcratracing.com
Can you inject pre turbo, pre intercooler, and post intercooler with water/meth or whatever in different stages during the run to try and keep temps down? I'm just shooting out stuff and maybe it's been tried. What about spraying N20 on the intercooler? Just trying to figure out a way to keep heat soak from happening if it's happening from running that long of a period of time. Then again I don't know if there are stipulations you have to meet for what your doing.

In the LSR class I race in, nitrous is forbidden. It's on the "honor system", they ask you if you have it, but don't really check for it.

Nor can we run anything but pure water and pure pump diesel. More water might be an option. I'm using just over 1 gallon in 45 seconds, IIRC.

We could go water-cooled intercooler in an ice bath like Banks did.
 

JoshH

Daggum farm truck
Staff member
Vendor/Sponsor
Feb 14, 2007
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OK, you asked for it! :D

Back when I was a machinist it was about $600 per cubic inch. It was a round slug about 5" in diameter, and each piece arrived with it's own X-rays mapping out defects that you had to machine around. It is difficult and dangerous to machine since the dust it gives off can give you a fatal lung disease, berylliosis? I don't think you could purchase it, but I don't know for sure. It's a strategic material used in nuclear weapons, and was one of the ways the CIA knew Saddam Hussein was trying to make nuclear weapons. The US gov't knows where all of the ingots of beryllium go. Some racing organizations ban it's use in pure form to keep costs down. Beryllium Copper is safe to machine and own, and is not the same thing, it's used for high quality bushings.
It is also used in a few different guided missiles ;)
 

SteveFord

What's Next?
May 8, 2008
1,317
0
36
Iowa
Let me ask this. Can you re-route after your intercooler to like some sort of aftercooler kind of like what they do or use to do with superchargers. Just wondering if you can make something that sits in the bed that you could have like dry ice inside then back to the intake? Like I said just shooting ideas as this seems like a crazy idea.
 

Trippin

SoCal Diesel
Aug 10, 2006
663
2
0
Beryllium copper alloy is what is currently used for valve seats in Nascar Sprint Cup and other forms of racing. It transfers heat very well from the valve into the cylinder head. The first valve job I did with this stuff in 1986 I ground it with stones and it put me in bed for two days vomiting my guts out. I had no idea it was toxic. :(
Now we machine it with proper exhaust ventilation.

The good stuff is about $28.00 per valve seat and that is just 1.375 in diameter and about .375 deep.
 

McRat

Diesel Hotrodder
Aug 2, 2006
11,249
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Norco CA
www.mcratracing.com
I stand corrected. I've machined beryllium copper, and we did it outside the beryllium lab instead of inside the lab. IIRC, the ejector rack bushings were made of it.

They didn't seem to be worried about it.

One thing nice about working on the beryllium parts was each one got a practice block with it. First you cut the aluminum, then it's inspected, then you get the go-ahead to cut the real part.

So you sat around most the day waiting for inspection. Nap time! :D
 

McRat

Diesel Hotrodder
Aug 2, 2006
11,249
26
38
64
Norco CA
www.mcratracing.com
Let me ask this. Can you re-route after your intercooler to like some sort of aftercooler kind of like what they do or use to do with superchargers. Just wondering if you can make something that sits in the bed that you could have like dry ice inside then back to the intake? Like I said just shooting ideas as this seems like a crazy idea.

Ideally, I would run dual intercooling with the twins. One for each stage, but space is already tight on twin dmax with GT55 on it.

The original plan was to have the GT55 in the bed of the truck with ice water intercooler, but ran out of time to get it done.
 
Jun 28, 2007
3,259
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NE Pa
Ideally, I would run dual intercooling with the twins. One for each stage, but space is already tight on twin dmax with GT55 on it.

The original plan was to have the GT55 in the bed of the truck with ice water intercooler, but ran out of time to get it done.

Are you allowed to run a CO2 tank?