Thread: Need help

Tweet

I made a foolish bet against this person who has an electric 1000 HP series wound motor. I told him for $500 bet that my 1000 HP 540 CID big block engine would make his weakly electric motor smoke if we connected the shafts together. So we shaked hands on the bet. So I said give me a few weeks to build my engine, so he said sure. Well just out of curosity I looked up the specs on his electric motor and what I found has me shaking in my knees. His beast has over 4000 foot-pounds of torque!!!!! Here is the link
to his motor specs. So my fellow gear heads just how on earth do I get 4000 foot-pounds of torque out of my engine?

Sounds like the 540 is in for a world of hurt. And you're out $500.00.

Man I should have used a Diesel Engine. Oh well from what you guys are telling me, then I might as well cough up my $500 bet. I'll just keep in mind next time to do my homework before making such bets again.

Yeah, maybe a diesel from an ocean liner

Thankfully, I learned not to take foolish bets when I was still a young man. I was in a bar in the early 60's and had 3 one-hundred dollar bills in my pocket from my Christmas bonus. Well, at that time, having $300 in my pocket was a pretty big deal for me, so I was bragging about having a pocket full of hundreds to the guy sitting next to me, whom I didn't know from Adam (I had already had 3 or 4 drinks). He said "I'll tell you what, you lay down a hundred and I'll lay down a hundred, then you lay down a hundred and I'll lay down a hundred and the last one to lay down a hundred picks up the stack."

That is something most gearheads either don't know about, or at least, won't usually think about; with an electric motor the full torque is practically instantaneous, where torque has to build up in an internal combustion engine. So in just about any case, you would be beaten before you even got off idle.

Now, I'm curious: is his motor installed in some plant? What is the source of electricity for it? It would take a rather large bank of transformers, and other fairly specialized equipment to power that thing up, and that is something that most folks just don't have ready access to.

You'd need a monster diesel to win that bet, a 3406 Cat like in my IHC Eagle only makes about 1200 foot-pounds.Electric (and hydraulic) motors aren't like real engines!

Originally posted by techinspector1
Thankfully, I learned not to take foolish bets when I was still a young man. I was in a bar in the early 60's and had 3 one-hundred dollar bills in my pocket from my Christmas bonus. Well, at that time, having $300 in my pocket was a pretty big deal for me, so I was bragging about having a pocket full of hundreds to the guy sitting next to me, whom I didn't know from Adam (I had already had 3 or 4 drinks). He said "I'll tell you what, you lay down a hundred and I'll lay down a hundred, then you lay down a hundred and I'll lay down a hundred and the last one to lay down a hundred picks up the stack."

Tough, Tough, lesson Tech. and expensive too!

Well folks, I did the smart thing and just gave away my $500 bet to the fellow just so I can have a working 540. Anyways he told me his motor is series wound. Well I looked up what a series wound motor is and found out that this kind of motor is for heavy loads, like winches, cranes, and oil pumps, and traction applications in freight trains. I'm no expert with the electrics, but after reading up these suckers, I sure as hell want do the bet thing again!!! Oh well at least my 540 will outrun those suckers in a race.

Maybe someone here isn't paying attention but these electric motors require 750 volts. Now, having worked in many different Bowling Houses, etc, since I retired from the U. S. Navy, I know what voltage is available in the many local areas, like, max 440. Where the #$#@%^ are you going to come with that kind of voltage against a gas engine out in the open. Give me a break.

From what the guy told me, he said he has plenty of different power supply set-ups at his shop for testing repaired motors. Since this is a DC motor, he told me that it uses huge rectifier banks to turn the AC into DC. The test was to be done at his shop where the guy actual repairs, test, and Dynos the motors.

I just got off of a 30,000 hp steam turbine ship and let me tell you, a steam turbine might be able to do it. Like electric motors, they too can make torque at 0 rpm. You may need a reduction gear to make adequate torque, though.

If you can tweak the rules a little, put an automatic trans behind your gas engine with a high stall converter. Maybe you could stalemate him long enough to burn the windings up in the electric motor. Seems like it might work even tho I can't say I have any experience to back up the claim. I would think the big block at a dead pull @ stall speed would last longer than an electric motor with 700 or whatever volts smokin' the windings.

Tell him no auto transformers allowed, you know, the ones that drop the voltage on pump motors and the like for a lower current draw on startup.