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| Time for a temporary
oil feed system. Shown is a small oil reservoir connected
to a model plane fuel pump, the oil then passes on through
a filter to the engine oil input. The scavenge is then
piped through an oil cooler and back to the reservoir.
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You can see there
is a splitter which temporarily has a pressure gauge attached,
this will be replaced at some point by an electronic sensor
and gauge. |
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| Time
to calibrate the Simplex Fuel Nozzles. I made a clear
test rig using a gold fish bowl with the burner ring mounted
on the top, the idea being I could see the nozzles and
check at what pressure fuel was injected and how well
it was being atomised.
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Here we go again,
4 out of the 8 nozzles don't work. I'm going to remove
them all and see if they are serviceable. Pictured above
is one of the 8 Simplex Burners, the allen key adjustment
screw with the locking ring around it can be seen in the
middle. Hopefully some oven cleaner should remove any
carbon deposits that may have blocked the injectors.
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| The
start of the exhaust assy. A piece of stainless tube witch
is machined so that it fits the face of the Solent's exhaust
insert. To this I welded a flange. The fuel ring injectors
threads were then re-tapped and coiled to an M5 Thread,
(easier than the 5/32 that it came with). The flange is
bolted in 8 places now by M5, 50mm countersunk bolts.
This means that without a lot of hassle I can experiment
with various sizes and shapes of exhaust nozzles.
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The base of a
garden paraffin lamp is going to form the exhaust spike.
I am going to weld some stainless penny washers in the
middle of it to stiffen it up and then weld it to the
exhaust assembly. Time to make one of the exhaust nozzles
I guess. |
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As they are fairly
new and shiny, I thought you may like to see a picture
of the custom HT cables I have made up. They look a lot
better than the old ones which also had insulation problems.
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Start of the new
oil system. I soon realised that when making test runs
I was turning the oil pump on to early, resulting in dangerously
high exhaust temperatures. The reason for this was that
the bearing seals partially rely on case pressure to keep
the oil in its place. Without this gas pressure the oil
leaks out and gets burnt. I decided to use a 20 psi VW
oil switch, which when activated due to sufficient case
pressure, will energise a relay which will then in turn
power the oil pump, providing oil pressure as and when
required.
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First of the experimental
exhaust cones. This one has an exhaust diameter of 125mm
down to 65mm, which is as small as I expect the Solent
will operate safely with. If it grunts a little to much
with this, then I can always open up the nozzle some more.
Thanks again to Tim Jones for rolling the tapered nozzle.
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