Thread: i need some TF info for school please

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ive decided to write about TF motors for my english paper
i need to know their specs and whatnot
and anyone that would be kind enough to let me "interview" them about this topic over emails or PMs would be my hero lol
thanks in advance
steve

Mooneye and Jerry Clayton are both very well versed in Top Fuel--Might want to PM them.....

Originally Posted by Dave Severson

Mooneye and Jerry Clayton are both very well versed in Top Fuel--Might want to PM them.....

thanks man i appreciate it. ill pm em after i work on my bike lol

also go to www.nitroggezers.com and www.wdifl.com and email jon ewald <wdifl> and george<nitrogeezers> also www.bikesters.com and email fred those guys should help ya out pretty good! also if ya want you can get on nhra and look up the drivers fan clubs theys be willing to help.

Top Fuel
Reserved for supercharged, fuel-burning dragsters, built specifically for all-out drag racing competition. Minimum weight at conclusion of run, 2,300 lbs including driver.

Engine: Reciprocating 90 degree V8 automotive-type engine. Single camshaft. Multi-valve and/or overhead camshaft engines prohibited. Maximum 500 cubic inches. Minimum 490 cubic inches. Maximum bore center spacing 4.800 inches. Maximum two valves per cylinder. Only one cylinder head design (hemispherical chamber) is acceptable: Intake valve angle 35 degrees +/- 1 degree, Exhaust valve angle 21 degrees +/- 1 degree. Engine block must be forged aluminum.

Dry-sump oil system.
Valve covers vented via minimum 1 1/4" I.D. hoses to rear 8 qt. baffled catch tank. No vents below valve covers. Unless constructed of titanium, SFI 14.4 ballistic valve cover restraints required.
SFI 7.1 lower engine ballistic restraint device (flexible ballistic material shaped to cover the bottom of the motor from header to header and from crank hub to rear motor plate to catch shrapnel. Non-flammable material liner to absorb oil. (oil absorbent material new for 2008).
Flange or lip must be fashioned to prevent intake to block gasket from extruding out.

Supercharger: Limited to Roots type. Rotor helix angle may not exceed that of standard 71 series GM-type rotor. (High-helix rotors are twisted at 6.5 degrees of twist per inch of length). Maximum size 14-71. 22 1/4" case length, 11 1/4" case width, 19" rotor length, 5.840" max rotor diameter including fixed stripping (teflon strips imbedded into grooves in the rotors to help seal rotor to rotor and rotor to case). (white strips seal rotor to rotor and orange strips seal rotor to case). Case must be one-piece with removeable front and rear bearing end plates. Spacer or components between supercharger and injector "hat" constructed of aluminum or composite material only, 2 1/2" maximum thickness. Variable speed/multi-speed devices prohibited. SFI 14.3 restraint system mandatory (ballistic bag covering entire blower and four straps anchored to pins at the headers, all fire-proof material). SFI 23.1 burst panel(s). Single panel must meet or exceed 10 sq. in. rupture disc area. Two or more panels must equal or exceed 12 sq. in. rupture disc area. Aluminum blower to manifold studs mandatory. Maximum blower overdrive 1.50:1. (the blower jams about 50 psi pressure into the motor and it takes about 800 hp just to turn the blower)

Maximum fuel injector hat air inlet opening 65 sq. in. Max height from crank centerline to top of hat 46.00". No electric or electronically controlled fuel injection. Fuel limited to 90% nitromethane/10% methanol. Maximum two fuel pumps
Don Garlits said years ago that the amount of fuel being blown into the motor would be about equal to the amout of water from 5 shower heads at once. I figured up the mileage with the help of one of the crew members at the last event.......1 mile per 55 gallons. Well, they're making 1,000 hp per cylinder now, so that's the amount of fuel it takes to do it.

Heads are billet, no water passages. Two spark plugs per chamber. Two magnetos (22 amps each). (Yep, you could weld thin material with 'em) They tell me though, that the motor is runnin' like a glow-plug motor when she gets wound up and doesn't really need the magnetos. They also tell me that the motor is takin' in so much fuel that it is just short of hydraulicing itself. At (I think) around 350 degrees, nitromethane changes chemically and releases its own oxygen and that's what allows such a fat mixture. (or lack of mixture )
I've heard two explanations for the zoomie flames at night:
1. nitro burns slowly and is still burning out the pipes
2. it's the air burning (or some component in the air...water vapor maybe?)
I don't know which is the correct explanation.

I asked one of the crew chiefs what the over-the-nose spring pressure was on the valve springs.....650 lbs.

What I wrote here is specific to NHRA Top Fuel cars. Other venues such as Nostalgia Top Fuel have different specifics (for instance, they are limited to one fuel pump and one magneto). They can also use the open face helmet with mask. NHRA requires a full face helmet with shield.

wow. thanks for all the help guys!
tech, do you mind if i PM you for your name (i need it to cite my sources)
you can give me a fake one if you want i just need a name for you lol

Sent you a PM.

Tech has given you much of the specs for running a top fueler and most of those rules have come about as results of the ways those things go---
I don't know how in depth you want to get for an English paper as say maybe for a paper for a science class or auto/machine etc

If you want to convey the drama around something that is so violent, yet a thing of unbelievable beauty--you know-how it stimulates you senses---sound, sight, smell, taste(track or road house food) they shake the ground enough that it shows up on the ricter scale

Then there is the danger---fire, explosions, uncontrolable mass, accelleration/deacelleration

The artistry of the metal workers and artists/painters graphics

I guess as you can tell I've been hooked for a while

Do a search for Keeling & Clayton California Charger

The current issue of Rodders Journal has an article about a book called Fuel & Guts that is pretty good and has some pictures of cars from early days of drag racing before the corporate bill boards that are the norm today--you can find it at stores like Borders or Barnes and Noble

Jerry

thank you sir!!!

Jerry, thanks for painting that picture. I'm not sure anyone but us drag strip junkies would understand it though.

If any of you ever get the opportunity to stand between two funny cars at the line in the starter's box, do it. It's better with funnys than it is with dragsters because of their slab-sided construction. The sound just goes right through to your bone marrow. Unbelievable. I'll set this up for any of you that can make it to the January fuel meet.

At Indy once I poured the bleach on the outside tire, stepped over the front of the body, poured the inside tire , pulled Ramsey up into it, gave him the wave to burn out------just as John Wiebe did his in the other lane---My ears rang for three days
These days with the rev limiters----no match no way, even slab sided

Originally Posted by techinspector1

Jerry, thanks for painting that picture. I'm not sure anyone but us drag strip junkies would understand it though.

If any of you ever get the opportunity to stand between two funny cars at the line in the starter's box, do it. It's better with funnys than it is with dragsters because of their slab-sided construction. The sound just goes right through to your bone marrow. Unbelievable. I'll set this up for any of you that can make it to the January fuel meet.

You think they'd let me flag? Naw, as Garlits once said "I might be dumb, but I'm not crazy", well not that crazy.

And then there is the time at Fremont--night race--earlier in the afternoon there was an obnoxious guy with a large sombreo leaning over the fence as we pushed down--leaning way out so far that we had to drive around him
wellllll----first round he was still there causing trouble--so I told Rick to lite it off just as we got to him and wing it----yep-set the sombreo on fire and blew it up in the air where it just sorta spun around before balling back to ground like some July 4 fireworks


Memories---

Originally Posted by jerry clayton

And then there is the time at Fremont--night race--earlier in the afternoon there was an obnoxious guy with a large sombreo leaning over the fence as we pushed down--leaning way out so far that we had to drive around him
wellllll----first round he was still there causing trouble--so I told Rick to lite it off just as we got to him and wing it----yep-set the sombreo on fire and blew it up in the air where it just sorta spun around before balling back to ground like some July 4 fireworks


Memories---

LMAO

There is an excellent article on Nitro Funny car motors in the current issue of Hot Rod Magazine. I got mine on Thursday, should be on the newstand within a day or so. Pages of info and lots of pictures too.

Pat