Top Fuel Factoids

Jack wrote:

I prefer the 2 wheel variety...

Yeah,but in the boat ur in front of the engine-on a top fuelie ur laying on top of the engine.where would u rather be if something decides to go boing?????Lol.bj

theres a reason they put the drivers in capsules with f16 canopys in tf boats these days,this guy survived :S

hocbj23 wrote:

Jack wrote:

I prefer the 2 wheel variety...

Yeah,but in the boat ur in front of the engine-on a top fuelie ur laying on top of the engine.where would u rather be if something decides to go boing?????Lol.bj

I bet if something goes very wrong on either the bike or boat (or car for that matter) the driver will be the last to care... now his wife/kids will probably be upset.

140 Top Gear - Richard Hammond Crash 3


Of course he managed to survive... good thing too he is my favorite on that show!

hardr0ck68 wrote:

hocbj23 wrote:

Jack wrote:

I prefer the 2 wheel variety...

Yeah,but in the boat ur in front of the engine-on a top fuelie ur laying on top of the engine.where would u rather be if something decides to go boing?????Lol.bj

I bet if something goes very wrong on either the bike or boat (or car for that matter) the driver will be the last to care... now his wife/kids will probably be upset.

True enough but I've never seen a man drown on asphalt...

My dad used to work on a small Top Fuel team in California. He gave me a used piston and rod. The piston is the diameter of a coffee can and the rod is super beefy looking but the whole thing weighs next to nothing. Plus it looks brand new. That stuff burns very clean.

I thought liquids were non compressible?

Puppet used to say, "you can light a match on the floor with a puddle of nitro methane and it won't ignite"
"But hit it with a sledge hammer and it will go off"
Goggle Larry "spiderman" McBride's explosion.
Or go back awhile and check out Jim McClure's Harley Fuel expolsion, Bruised his insides which eventually led to his death.
The clyinder head blanket jacket came out of this misfortune.
Strapped down to keep engine parts in.

I have seen several "match in a bucket of gas" demo's (nothing happens) the match is not hot enough, as in degree's. question still stands (for this discussion) that liquids are not compressible.

Cylinders run on the verge of hydraulic lock at full throttle.

I guess you're talking about this? Yes, you are right, most liquids are non-compressible. Chances are what they mean by this statement is there is almost too much fuel in the cylinder. And remember, the fuel always will have a certain mass fraction burned by the time TDC arrives. This means that there will be a certain amount of gas in the cylinder available to be compressed at TDC. I also suspect these engines run very low compression. You can get nitromethane to auto-ignite at 6:1, so the piston to compression chamber roof gap is likely large, given the huge bores.

muddy1 wrote:

I have seen several "match in a bucket of gas" demo's (nothing happens) the match is not hot enough, as in degree's. question still stands (for this discussion) that liquids are not compressible.

light the same match in a room with an empty tank full of fumes and see what happens :S

muddy1 wrote:

I thought liquids were non compressible?

the fuel is vaporized for the most part by the time it reaches the ports/combustion chamber other wise the motor would basically be flooded and wouldnt light off.and yes liquid will compress,but only to a certain extent then something metal usually gets a wake up call! :laugh: