off-road jato

How can I make my nitro engine run on diesel?

samguan

you never know until you try it.

i8tweety

My Feedback: (11)

The diesel conversions do not allow you to run on diesel fuel.


http://www.davisdieseldevelopment.com/

cummins driver

My Feedback: (31)

I wish we could run off of real diesel. If i had the money and time to experiment with it i would.

Seems like it would be that hard. Diesel has plenty of lubricity in it, although you might still need to add a little.

I wonder if you could mix it 50/50 with nitro, and get it to run decent? At least you could dilute your nitro and save some $$

SAVAGEJIM

As tweety said, these are not real diesel engines, as far as buying diesel fuel from the pump and pouring that into your nitro engine.

Now, that Davis diesel, I dont quite understand it, I have not yet looked at the design to try to understand how it works.

Now, it is impossible for our model nitro engines to be run on real pump diesel like you see in Mack trucks. For one, the engine would have to be totally redesigned and rebuilt from the ground up. It would have to be made of steel, or if alum, very thick and very strong alum, not this cast butter soft alum that our taiwanese engines are made out of. The sleeve would have to be made out of steel for sure, and the piston as well, the piston might have to be cast under hypereutectic conditions.

Why? Because diesel has ~19.3KBTU/lb where nitro fuel has approximately one quater of that 5KBTU/lb (I am assuming nitromethane, I do not know the actual potential energy stored in nitro fuel).
What this means is that one drop of diesel will make nearly FOUR times the explosion as nitromethane. So, for a given squirt of diesel our nitro engine carbs give, the resulting energy release and therefore pressure inside the combustion chamber will rupture the butter soft alum block casting and the soft brass sleeves as well as more than likly shatter the piston, compress the conrod to Eulser buckling, possibly shear the crank pin, etc. Good times indeed.

cummins driver

My Feedback: (31)

Actually most real diesels run aluminum pistons. Thats why when you start hot rodding them, you need a pyrometer(EGT-exhaust gas temperatue gauge) to monitor the temp of the exhaust gas. Over 1300* for more than 30 seconds to a minute, and you will likely be replacing a piston[X(]

Anomie

You can also take a look at the [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/forumid_87/tt.htm]Everything Diesel[/link] forum. Many members have performed their own conversions and may offer more insight.

SAVAGEJIM

Whoa! I didnt even know we had such a forum! I am looking at the RC CAr Engine forum, but I dont see that sub-forum, just Car Nitro & Gas Engines and Direct Manufacturer Engine & Motor Support

HJJFFFAA

It's still not pump diesel. I'd also like to point out that diesel fuel oil combusts way faster than nitro so timing profiles will have to be completely reworked.

SAVAGEJIM

No doubt about that! Another fuel that is also close to kerosines in the fuel spectrum that burns veary rapidly is Jet Fuel! Military grade JP fuel is what gives our fighter jets the ooomph to bust mach2

HJJFFFAA

I always thought jet fuel WAS kerosene. Shows how much I know. What is it exactly? I never hear enyone say anything other "jet fuel".

SAVAGEJIM

Actually, yes, jet fuels are kerosenes. Pump Diesel fuel is actually on the other side of kerosines closer to heavier fuel oils and towards he side of lubricating oils and raw crude. Gasolines are on the otherside of kerosenes on the more volitile side of the crude oil spectrum (closer to the natural gasses).

HJJFFFAA

Ohh I get it now. Kerosene isn't a specific fuel but rather a classification for fuels.

SAVAGEJIM

Here is a pic I got off a disc that came with my petrochem textbook, you can see that on the very bottom of the refinery column, tars and goo are collected, just above that are lube oils, heavy fuel oils, and diesel, above that is kerosines, above that is gasolines, above that is naphta (made by thermal cracking and with the help or reformers), and finally natural gasses (butane, methane, propane, etc.).

HJJFFFAA

Cracking?

SAVAGEJIM

Thermal cracking is a process in which the long hydrocarbon chains of crude oil are broken down by heat into smaller chains, thus as you crack really long chains (the really long chains are what make your plastic polymers, and also the slightly shorter chains are your tars), you brak them down into more smaller chains that can be used for fuels, the burn and release energy much easier.

So, lets say you have a long chaim, say 20 units long. By breaking that down by heat or catalysts, you can make smaller chans of sa 2x 8 units long and one chain 4 units long, and these would be in your combustible fuels.