http://vimeo.com/22640463

 

I saw the race on tv. What happened, after the exhaust fell down, that caused you to retire?

 

nice 10 seconds... where some minutes of the rest of the race? You looked like you just went around the droppings...?

 

The real reason was that our engine slowly began losing power. Each lap became a little slower than the previous. As the engine continued its use, she slowly lost compression and there becomes a point where your flying with a bent wing where its better to land than keep flying over water.

You can keep driving a motor with low compression (side seal springs in our case) and ultimately you'll have a big catastropic failure and bits and pieces start flying around inside the motor. This is bad as you can probably imagine. Pulling in early before she let go saved all the hard parts of the engine and allows for a quick and simple rebuild. We saved the rotors, rotor housings and irons. All we needed was seals, springs and gaskets.

We have since fixed this problem and our engine program is back to where it should be.

Great question.

Eric

 

Have you rectified the side seal weakness or just replaced them? I know these are notoriously weak and just wondered if you have found a different part or spring to keep them from collapsing

If this is proprietary info, I completely understand, but whatever you can pass on would be of interest.

Thanks for all the information you post; it is great reading!

 

We've switched to a more stock injector type layout. Previously we were using two larger injectors up stream to atomize better. They did, but the engines didn't last long.

On a similar note, the side seal springs (not side seals) had a revision done to them in 2009. These (same as the current 2011 engine springs) were annealed at a higher temp. They are preferred or better than the pre-2009 springs.

 

Eric, I dont remember but would these new side seal springs be found in the newer Remans? Sounds like a stupid question but I thought id ask...

 

The new side seal springs were introduced in Feb of 09 and have been in the system since then. They are the same part number ending in B. A is the earlier number. B has been in use since 09.