BillyBones Posted April 16, 2021 Share Posted April 16, 2021 Frosty, actually many cranks are cast. You can tell the same way we tell if anvils are cast, raised lettering. Racers spend big bucks to get forged cranks for their cars. Look up any hot rod catalogue and they will have listings for both cast and forged. Their have also been many many an article devoted which to choose for your application. Cam shafts on the other hand i am not sure about. Fun fact, top fuel drag cars have some of the cam lobes up to 180* out of time, that is why they "lope" or miss on the line, when they launch the torque of the engine actually twists the cam into proper time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted April 16, 2021 Share Posted April 16, 2021 Right you are, I had to redefine my search terms to even find mention of cast crank shafts and that was mostly how to tell the parting lines from forged. I didn't look for cast cams, I'll take you word for it. I used to spend a lot of time at the local drag strip, even got a job sitting the a pit gate. Loved the sound of dragster engines, some sounded like they were going to come apart on the line but when they hit it. Beautiful music, if really REALLY LOUD. I could here them running from home about 7-8 miles as the crow flies. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyBones Posted April 17, 2021 Share Posted April 17, 2021 I spent many a summers night at the drag strip when i was a kid. My dad was a racer. He ran mostly door slammers but we were at races with some of the biggest names in drag racing. The guy that did the heads on my dads car is the same guy that did the heads for Don Garlits. i remember i had a t-shirt that said "Pit Crew" on it i always wore. I spent my own time on a strip but never sponsored or anything just going out for test and tune or something. I had a NO2 powered Mitsi that could turn a 13.5 in the 1/4. A few years ago i built a TH 700 for a guys Olds Cutlass and he let me run it. I worked for him so it was not like we had just met but that was a huge thrill. 418 small block, blown, running nitro methane. It dyno'ed at 1800HP. I went 180 MPH at an 8 sec flat. Drag racing and baseball are the only 2 sports i enjoy. Oh, another memory of racing, when i was a kid my dad also street raced. We have a road here that is straight and level for 3/4 mile till it goes up a hill, then still straight for a mile or 2. The police would sit on top of the hill late at night. If they turned on their lights that meant that a car was coming and we needed to get off the road till it went past. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted April 17, 2021 Share Posted April 17, 2021 I've never made a pass on a strip myself. I worked for the San Fernando Drag strip where real drag racers tuned their cars as it had a long shutdown area that ended in a sand wash. We used to see lots of names and a few were regulars but it was still just a neighborhood drag strip. I believe it was finally closed down in the early 70s. I'd stopped sitting the gate I'm thinking 67-68. A friend and I had to go to the Winter Nationals in Irwindale Ca. to see my first 6sec run. Street racers are faster now than top feulers back then. I still love the smell of nitro methane and rubber smoke. The super fuel of the day was hydrazine and nitrous was starting to show up. Hydrazine tended to blow cars up. Not just the engines, sometimes a large % of the cars too. Hydrazine also tended to bring tears to the eyes of the folks in the stands. It wasn't a long lasted fuel, banned I believe, for good reason. A couple years ago, 2018 Olympics to be specific, I discovered a televised sport I actually look forward to watching. Curling. Of all the things available, Curling excites me. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyBones Posted April 18, 2021 Share Posted April 18, 2021 At our local strip the shut down is kind of short and the sand pit, you would rather run off into the creak next to track. If you run faster than an 11 sec. 1/4 (well 1000 feet now) you can only run 1/8 mile. The track is still NHRA sanctioned ( there is also a NASCAR sanctioned round track there) so every once in a while we will get a big name racer come and show off. On the 4th of July we have the "Night of Fire". Jet powered semis running. National Trail raceway in Columbus (that is where i ran the Olds) used to be home to the Summer Nationals, then it became the Buckeye nationals, now it is up by Cleveland. Anyway i always wanted to go to the Winter Nationals. I do not know if it is still true but Cali and Ohio used to be the top 2 in number of drag strips in the state. Any group of folks who love drag racing as much as i cant be all bad. I did get to go to a filming of that show "Pinks" at a drag strip in Louisiana. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluerooster Posted April 18, 2021 Share Posted April 18, 2021 I'd rather attend a "Cackle fest" where you get to see the old AA Fuel Altereds '32 Fords, Willys, and what not. They don't run those any more. And many of the old time front engine rail jobs. Nitro methane, can't light it with a match. Fewer BTUs (less power) than Gasoline. Produces vast quantities of nitric acid when burned, and when you burn 15+ gallons of it in about 3-4 seconds, you get 8000 HP, and ~350mph from a ded stop. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted April 18, 2021 Share Posted April 18, 2021 I still say that there is nothing like standing about a mile from a Saturn 5 lifting off on a trip to the moon. Slow start; sounds like a flickering torch but your chest is compressing to that "flicker" too! Rather a lot of hp and burns kerosene and Oxy in the first stage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyBones Posted April 19, 2021 Share Posted April 19, 2021 Blu, we have a few guys here that still run gassers and the old style funny cars with the shortened wheel base and straight axles. Many of the older guys still raise the fronts of their cars also. Thomas, that is certainly a thrill. I never got to see a Saturn launch but i did get to see a space shuttle launch. Watching on the TV gives no justice to just how fast that thing is really moving. The M-1 Abrams has a turbine engine. One night when i was in the field my tank commander asked me to start the tank to charge the batteries. When they start it sounds like a jet plane. Starts with that low woooooo sound and gradually gets louder and higher pitched. After about 5 mins of it running these 2 medics come out of the bushes. They were on their compass course, got lost and heard our tank and thought they were near the airstrip. We did have one on post, 20 miles away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted April 19, 2021 Share Posted April 19, 2021 There is something about BIG that seems to resonate in the human spirit; perhaps that's the foundation of "Anvil Envy"... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted April 19, 2021 Share Posted April 19, 2021 I'd LOVE to attend a rocket launch, maybe some summer while Deb and I are cruising in the RV! I love the raw power of feeling every cylinder in my chest when a fueler leaves the line. Another chesty power machine is a RR yard engine, a regular locomotive will vibrate, even rumble in your chest when they're getting the train moving but a yard locomotive literally jerks long trains around. Major HP and they don't muffle it like a locomotive meant for polite society. I think big and powerful appeals to humans on an instinctive level as being a better survival strategy. Of course that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George N. M. Posted April 19, 2021 Share Posted April 19, 2021 I think that is part of the attraction of railroad steam engines. The Union Pacific's newly renovated Big Boy, the largest operating steam engine in the world, was in Laramie for a few days last summer and it was seriously impressive. If anyone is ever in northern New Mexico or southern Colorado the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic RR runs from Chama, NM to Antonito, CO. When leaving Chama, because it is a steeper grade than out of Antonito, the trains are often double headed with 2 steam engines pulling. That is a sight you don't see every day. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goods Posted April 19, 2021 Share Posted April 19, 2021 My son is working on a satellite project that he started when he was 16yrs old, now at 18yrs old and a few scope changes they have a launch date of Jan 2023. He has at least an initial invitation to the launch and we’re hoping to be there with him. I’ve always wanted to see a launch, but I never expected my son, at his age to be the senior software engineer on a government satellite project, before he even graduates from college. (Sorry, proud father...) I hope we are close enough to feel it! David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted April 19, 2021 Share Posted April 19, 2021 Sorry . . . what in all that's holy for? You should be doing hand springs! Thank you for letting us know, I'm honored to be let in on such an accomplishment. You the Dad! Back to the topic we'd been talking about before this great news showed up. On the south side of Anchorage is the Potter Marsh RR siding, it has a RR name I can ever remember. There is a Steam Rotary Plow parked there. I thought it was a museum display but nope it's just stored there till it's needed. I'd been driving past it for years until there was a local news special about one of it's sister plows clearing a record snowfall on the White Pass & Yukon line. It started with a helicopter shot of a blank snow field filling a steep walled mountain valley. Then in the distance there's this plume of what looked like white smoke or maybe steam on a COLD day. The helicopter flew towards the enormous geyser like plume an angled geyser. The copter approached from away from the direction it was aimed and a train was revealed in a vertically walled canyon a little wider and a little deeper. The top of the train was maybe 2-3' below the level of the snow field and one of these beasts was leading the way. The roaring of the engine was audible over the sound of the copter and the black smoke from the boiler was being absorbed by the rotary blower's out flow. There is another in regular use in the Donner Pass. Frosty The Lucky. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjBQ3MaBYiU Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyBones Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 Steam rotary plow? So...Snow Piercer is not real then? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 3 minutes ago, BillyBones said: So...Snow Piercer is not real then? Did I say that? I - don't - think - I - did. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gEfX8-g7Dw Frosty The Lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 Now that's a snow blower if I've ever seen one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillyBones Posted April 20, 2021 Share Posted April 20, 2021 Even the old lady said that is pretty cool. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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