About to start over!

The first parts are ordered for the rebuild!

We'll then when stuff has arrived, of course, go on reporting news on this website.

Today rods and some little stuff were ordered, Joris is still sorting engines in Canada and the workshop is looking a lot better now, too - thanks to Kai Uwe and his unbreakable spirit of getting things done "properly".



The way it looks now, we're getting three complete engines and one has turned out to better leave its internals in Canada, but the block is still good and it will all be shipped in January, so we should have it here by the end of February.

Kai-Uwe and Johannes are working on a new steering system, Thorsten said he'll take care of that damn leaking Kippley transmission and I am already trying to increase the capacity of the fuel system a little.

I am posting little things on the FB page here and there until we're back at full go.

Now we'd really like to thank our sponsors!

That would be Alliance tyre, Eagle Clutches, Wollf's machine rental, Scheepers Motorsport, Tractorpullingshop.de and Lil' Johns Motorsport!

And there are some other guys I would really like to thank:

That's for sure my team, Kai-Uwe, Malle, Thorsten, Johannes.
Also Thomas Tönnies, Andreas Rötter, Max Wehri, Vincent Meyer and for sure Joris Mecking, our "man on the other side of the pond". Also Murray Tucker - our man "down under".
Dirk Wessel and Enrico Vollertun of the Green Monster Team and the Green Monster Team in general.
Blake and Bowdy Otte and never to forget, Wayne Longnecker.
Marvin, Malte and Hermann Behrens along with Daniel Schneidereit and then last but not least Marc and Sabrina Westje!

Thank you and Danke Leute - ohne Euch alle ginge es überhaupt nicht!

I hope everybody is having a nice Christmas and a good 2020!

A few pictures of what we've been doing so far

Kai Uwe is rebuilding the workshop:

Joris is busy getting us new engines:

Sorry for no updates for a while!
After the carnage we have in the meanwhile acquired two new engines (and want more) and will rebuild for next season!

Engine explosion Tractor Puller Wind Up!

It runs! For 2 seconds...

Short summary of the weekend.
(Google translation - too busy to write this twice)

We had the tractor ready on Friday noon and then went "on the practice field", to get some data for the efi at all.
Unfortunately there was no grip and in the " We-Let-the-wheel loader-Now--Run-and-brake" somewhere the connection between engines and wheels was " gone
Since " the idiot " on top of it (so me) with the helmet and all strapped in doesn't know what happens, he (me) then " kept it full " and let backed off when it sounded oddly high and it no longer went forward. At that time, there were already two pistons and a rod on the field.
What now exactly and why came first, we don't know ourselves. We have set up 4 different theories during the weekend (if someone wonders why different things have been told).
The fact is:
A rod bolt ripped half a thread out of a rod. It may be that this one has "rattled loose" because the last 90° have not been done. This rod has also gone "round" and has destroyed everything in its surroundings.
There is also a rift with another rod.

Let's get to the good news:
Clutch closes slowly atapp. 2800 u / min. I'm totally thrilled about that.
We need app. 3000 u / min until the turbos are fully there.
In short - they are! Lever forward and about half a second later the turbos spool up. We had "no control and only on the spring" 0.7 bar (10 psi) boost. This will later be increased electronically.
Fuel quantities have been pretty good. Scheepers Motorsport has done a heck of a job.
In short - all the stuff I've been working on and googled in theory - WORKS!
If only the gear popped out or something let go, we'll see.
The fact is, however, that at 7800 rpm the engines "actually" are not allowed to fly apart. That's where I screwed up. Either the wrong parts in it or forgot the last 90° on one rod bolt.

Now the view into the future:
QUitting is not in question. This thing has to run, because otherwise it's just a " pile of worthless metal ",
On the subject of "worthless" metal:
We broke up: two rods worth approx. € 120 and parts of an engine that was about 2500 € (incl. Freight etc. ).
If the most tuning parts can still be used, it wasn't that bad now. Whether the block can be used again - we will see. It has some evil quirks - but "in principle" it's still in one piece. The rods and the pistons went straight down through the sump.
If the engine turns out to be fixable with stock parts next week, the wrenches will fly here.
If the damage is bigger - then the reason will prevail.
These things are available at every corner on the other side of the ocean.
Here in Europe you can get them too, but they are almost twice as expensive as when I get them from USA.
But then it doesn't make sense to get only one. Then rather 2 or 3, because the freight costs "per piece" are significantly smaller.
We're then talking 6 weeks until these are here and still 2 weeks of work so by then the season is almost over and an investment of app 5000-7000 €. That money I just don't happen to have laying around at the moment.
If one really wanted to push the envelope now, I could buy an engine for 4500 € here in Europe, order a few rods in the USA (pistons are in stock) and this thing will be back on the track in two weeks.
That's what I could pay off over half a year and make my bank happy - but that's NOT what we're going to do. Tractor pulling is what you do with spare money.
In addition, in the next 8 weeks, I have several Australian pullers as guests, who want to see pulling in Europe "from up close" - so we'll stay quiet now, take the engine apart, check what cab still be used, search for some good engines and then continue.

But generally:

If you can't cope with the consequences of such a crash, you shouldn't even start with pulling.
I was completely aware that the " worst case " can happen and that this means a short stop on the project. That it happened right at the beginning is annoying - but oh well.
Thanks to all the electronics, we have so much data that we know this thing generally works. And that was the most important thing to me. Show how it's done and "that" it works. Even if this only took 2 seconds. It's all captured in the data logs.

So the mood is not bad now.
It's just fucking Tractor Pulling man!

And now I have to get rid of something.
A lot of people have helped and made things (Thomas, John, Marc,..), but what Thorsten, Malle and Kai have been doing here in the last couple of weeks, is just priceless.
And also Peter Scheepers and Knut Lammers did a really good job and that went far beyond what you can expect.
Thus:
So many thanks to all of you - for everything!!!

Er läuft - für 2 Sekunden

Kurze Rekapitulation des Wochenendes.

Wir hatten den Tractor am Freitag Mittag soweit fertig und sind dann "auf den Übungsacker", um überhaupt mal ein paar Daten für die EFI zu bekommen.
Leider gab es da keinen Grip und bei dem "wir-lassen-den-Radlader-jetzt-mal-mitlaufen-und-bremsen-dann-Versuch" ist irgendwo die Verbindung zwischen Motoren und Hinterrädern "weg" gewesen.
Da "der Idiot" oben drauf (also ich) mit der ollen Halskrause und Helm überhaupt nicht mitbekommt, was alles so passiert, hat er (ich) dann mal "voll drauf gehalten" und auch erst losgelassen, als es mir in der Drehzahl doch etwas merkwürdig hoch vorkam und auch nicht mehr vorwärts ging. Zu dem Zeitpunkt lagen aber schon zwei Kolben und ein Pleuel auf dem Acker.
Was jetzt ganz genau und wieso zuerst gekommen ist, wissen wir selber noch nicht. Wir haben im Laufe des Wochenendes bestimmt 4 verschiedene Theorien aufgestellt (falls sich jemand wundert, warum verschiedene Dinge erzählt wurden). 
Fakt ist:
Eine Pleuelschraube hat ein halbes Gewinde aus einem Pleuel gerissen. Es kann sein, dass diese sich "los gerappelt" hat, weil die letzten 90° nicht angezogen wurden. Dieses Pleuel ist auch definiv "auf" gegangen und hat alles in seiner Umgebung zerstört.
Bei einem anderen Pleuel ist aber auch schon ein Spalt zu sehen.

Kommen wir zu den guten Nachrichten:
Kupplung schließt langsam bei ca. 2800 U/min. Davon bin ich mal restlos begeistert. 
Wir brauchen ca. 3000 U/min bis die Turbos voll da sind.
Kurz gesagt - sind sie! Hebel nach vorne und so etwa eine halbe Sekunde später blasen die Turbos an. WIr hatten noch "steuerlos und nur über die Feder" 0.7 bar Ladedruck. Das wird dann später noch elektronisch ehöht.
Spritmengen waren schon ziemlich gut. Da hat Scheepers Motorsport ganze Arbeit geleistet.
Kurz gesagt - der ganze Kram, den ich mir da in der Theorie ausgeklüngelt und gegoogelt habe, funtkioniert.
Ob mir nur der Gang raus ist oder etwas abgerissen ist, sehen wir noch.
Fakt ist aber auch, dass bei 7800 U/min die Motoren "eigentlich" nicht auseinander fliegen dürfen. Da habe ich Mist gemacht. Entweder die falschen Teile drin oder stumpf an einer Schraube die letzten 90° vergessen.

Jetzt der Ausblick in die Zukunft:
Aufhören kommt nicht in Frage. Das Ding muss alleine schon aus dem Grund "rennen", weil es sonst nur ein "Haufen wertloses Metall" ist. 
Beim Thema "wertloses" Metall: 
Wir haben kaputt gemacht: Zwei Pleuel im Wert von ca. 120 € und Teile von einem Motor, der etwa 2500 € (inkl. Fracht usw.) gekostet hat.
Wenn von den Tuningteilen das Meiste noch zu gebrauchen ist, war es jetzt auch nicht so schlimm. Ob der Block noch mal zu brauchen ist - wird sich zeigen. Er hat ein paar böse Macken - aber "im Prinzip" ist er noch ganz. Das Pleuel und die Kolben sind akkurat nach unten durch die Ölwanne.
Sollte der vorderste Motor sich in der nächsten Woche als "mit Serienteilen wieder zu richten" herausstellen, fliegen hier die Schraubenschlüssel.
Ist der Schaden größer - dann wird die Vernunft siegen.
Die Dinger gibt's auf der anderen Seite des Ozeans an jeder Straßenecke.
Hier in Europa kann man sie auch bekommen, sind aber quasi doppelt so teuer, als wenn ich mir sie aus USA hole.
Nur macht es dann keinen Sinn nur einen zu holen. Dann lieber 2 oder 3, weil die Frachtkosten "pro Stück" dann erheblich geringer sind.
Da reden wir dann aber auch von ca. 6 Wochen, bis die hier sind und noch 2 Wochen Arbeit, so dass die Saison quasi fast vorbei ist und irgendwo 5000 - 7000 €. Das Geld habe ich im Moment nicht eben so rum liegen.
Wenn man es jetzt über's Knie brechen wollte, könnte ich hier in Europa einen Motor für 4500 € kaufen, in den USA ein paar Pleuel bestellen (Kolben sind auf Lager) und das Ding stände in zwei Wochen wieder auf der Bahn.
Das könnte ich dann über ein halbes Jahr "abstottern" und meine Bank glücklich machen - aber das lassen wir mal fein. Tractor Pulling macht man mit dem Geld was über ist. 
Außerdem habe ich in den nächsten 8 Wochen mehrfach einige Australische Puller zu Gast, die (bei denen ist ja jetzt Winter) mal Pulling in Europa "aus der Nähe" sehen wollen - also bleiben wir jetzt mal ganz ruhig, nehmen den Motor auseinander, gucken, was noch zu gebrauchen ist, suchen "über'm Teich" mal nach schönen Motoren und machen dann weiter.

Aber mal so ganz Generell:

Wer die Folgen eines solchen Crashes nicht verkraften kann, darf mit Pulling gar nicht erst anfangen.
Ich war mir völlig bewusst, dass der "Worst Case" eintreten kann und dass der "Pause" bedeudet. Dass es jetzt gleich am Anfang passiert ist doof - aber nun gut.
Dank der ganzen Elektronik haben wir aber sooo viele Daten, dass wir wissen, dass Hobel "so ganz generell" mal geht. Und das war mir eigentlich das Wichtigste. Zeigen wie es geht und "dass" es geht. Auch wenn das nur 2 Sekunden gedauert hat. Es ist per Datalogging fest gehalten :).

Die Stimmung ist also jetzt nicht schlecht. 
It's just Fucking Tractor Pulling man!

Und jetzt muss ich noch was loswerden.
Es haben sehr viele Leute an dem Schlepper geholfen und auch Sachen gemacht (Thomas, Johannes, Marc,..), aber was Thorsten, Malle und Kai in den letzen paar Wochen hier reingehauen haben, ist mit Geld nicht zu bezahlen.
Und auch Peter Scheepers und Knut Lammers haben richtig gute Arbeit gemacht und das ging weit über das hinaus, was man erwarten kann.
Deshalb:
So vielen Dank Euch allen - für alles!!!

My oh my!

4 days to go!
The last couple of....

Die letzten Wochen haben wir genutzt um noch ein paar Kleinigkeiten fertig zu machen und dann war da noch eine Sache, die leider "noch mal ganz" von vorne muss.
An Vatertag soll dann alles fertig sein, Freitag etwas testen und dann geht's am Wochenende los!

... of weeks we used to finish the last little bits - and then there is this thing, that needs completely redone.
This upcoming Thursday it's the last day and then some testing on Friday and then it's "gone Pulling" this coming weekend!

It will be some VERY easy steps for now, as we can't afford to break it. So - low gear, low boost, low weight and plenty of fuel - and then collect data and see what all will fall off!

Es werden mal ein paar ganz kleine Schritte, weil wir es uns echt nicht leisten können, was kaputt zu machen.
Also, kleiner Gang, wenig Ladedruck, wenig Gewicht und reichlich Sprit - und dann mal Daten sammeln und gucken, was alles so abfällt :)

Wir fahren Samstag morgen rüber nach Volkmarst und sollen Sonntag mittags das erste mal starten!

Kommt vorbei!!!

Back Home

Wind Up! is back home in Eastern Friesland.

Last Sunday we (Johannes and me) took our "Mascot" (Renault van - or the "French mini bull") with the trailer of Wolffs Mietpark  down to Scheepers Motorsport to pick up the tractor. The big question was, will the van pull this heavy load?
Actually it's quite ridiculous to use a van to haul all our sh*t to events, but then.. actually not.


The Mascot came with a workbench and some cabinets and was used as a "rolling workshop" before.
Along with Christian Gerdes we put in a foldable twin bed which sits high enough to still get a foldable army bed below it. So we can theoretically sleep three guys in there. Actually, there is enough room to put another foldable bed in there - but we're only pulling in summer and there is this invention called "tent".
Anyhow.. we also put one of those 200 bucks Chinese diesel heaters in there and it works just fine. While we were at the Pull at Füchtorf we had a cozy 21 C / 70F during the night while outside it was down to 3°C/38 °F.

So - it sleeps three with heating, has a workbench, 12V and 230 V power supply on board, takes all the fuel containers, benches, pavilions, power tools, stove, fridge... perfect.
The question though remained: Does that 3l 130hp Nissan four-banger under the hood have enough power to get us where we want to go?
Pulling out of Peter Scheepers driveway and 2 mls down the road was the first test. Up the Rhine river bridge!

Well.. what can I say?
It's an angry little Gremlin!
Pulled through all 6 gears and accelerated up the steep ramp onto the bridge.
Also the little tunnel under the Ems river which is rather steep on it's way back up it just kept going in 6th gear.
Going down the motorway it also easily exceeds every speed limit  - we're all set!!!

Arriving back home on a Sunday evening half of the team and their girls were there, so unloading was easy and the tractor is now back in Thorsten's "emergency care" part of the workshop.
There are still some little things to be done before we can go pull at Volkmarst next month.
The major thing is the turbo shielding:
 Thanks to Freakshow Performance we had some already pre-cut and bend sheet metal and Thorsten is now busy building the shielding.
I am tinkering around with more electrical stuff and the fenders will need some more attention, too. But basically things are looking very promising for us to be out on the track next month!!!

Btw: I am keeping the Facebook site of the team quite up to date as well as the picture gallery.
I don't have much time to write a lot at the moment as we're actually working on the WindUp!
So .. like the Facebook page and check out our picture gallery!

Scheepers-Motorsport - WindUp! EFI-installation

First time building some rpms at Scheepers Motorsport

First sounds Wind Up

Almost ready to fire it up!

Breathtaking work by

http://scheepers-motorsport.com

EFI Installation Wind Up!

At Scheepers Motorsport

Yesterday we went to Scheepers Motorsport to help a little bit with the EFI installation on Wind Up!.
They have done a tremendous job in the past couple of days and it we're getting closer to the first start up!

Where we hope to run this season!

Out into the sunshine!

At Scheepers Motorsport

We've made it!!!!
Last Saturday we've hauled the tractor over to Scheepers Motorsport, where Peter Scheepers will do all the wiring and Peter and his buddy Knut (one super smart electronics engineer) will help us get the basic tunes in.
Them guys are coming out of the motorcycle dragster world and have also worked in the US on salt lake racers in the US.
They've also been responsible for that shocker run of Boomerang at Zwolle two years ago.
Always good fun with those guys!!!
These are Peter and me:



I am still not sure why many of my US friends found it funny that we hauled the tractor behind a 4WD car with a "small tire" trailer...
Those trailers have become very popular here because the small 10 inch wheels make for a low center of gravity and make hauling down the Autobahn a charm...
Sebastian Wolff helped out tremendously with letting us use his trailer and his personal Mitsubishi Pajero.
It's amazing how much grunt sits in a 3 l Diesel!

I have in the meanwhile purchased a "one fits all" vehicle. A Renault Mascott.
Which is actually a diesel dually truck with a van body mounted on top.
It will haul all our sh*t, tow the tractor, sleep 4 people and should get us about 15 mpg.

So - we have planned to do the first official pull at Volkmarst, which isn't too far away from home and one of the most fun Tractor Pulling events one can witness!

After Ahoy it's back to work on the machine!

The engines are fastened, the clutch is in, throttle linkage almost done, all oils are filled up, I am busy with the electrics and Christoph has been helping with the fenders.

What a week

Last week I was back with my old team.
First we had some visitors from the US:

Then won the Unl. at Ahoy and "my" old Green Monster even finished 2nd in the modifieds.

And then it was out of the high level world back to work on our "low budget machine". But we made some good progress!

In the final stages

By now even I believe this could be done soon!



Latest pictures

ENGLISH! Workshop February 2019 part 2

English shop video

As promised, some video in English.
I have bought a better microphone in the meanwhile. So I hope to get better Audio next time!

Busy busy busy

 t's getting warmer outside and we need to hurry!

Today we built the driveshaft. Commentary in German. A summary in English with more from this week will follow later!

Here are a few up to date pictures:

I

Workshop Mid February 2019

For our international friends - I did a little English summary!

Youtube channel

We now have a youtube channel!
Of course you can see it all on FB, too where we now have a "site" along with a "group, but for those who resist FB... Youtube will have it, too!

Meanwhile the tractor has moved to the "intensive care" part in the workshop.

Check the videos (sorry... they are in German) for the latest news!

New motor mounts and hoses...

Of course - the transmission coupler got lost. Not by me, but of course, it's my problem.
After some investigation, I did find out what spline was used on the input shaft: Rockwell SQHD side gears. So for luck, the Hot Head guys still had an old diff and will get me that gear that we can then turn into a coupler.
I also got a new fuel pressure regulator as I need to get my fuel pressure way up there. I know you can drive a 5.5 A/F on methanol if you add enough water and it seems to run a lot better (at least on bearings) than pure methanol with 3.x A/F. But nevertheless - more fuel capacity never hurts. So with a base pressure of 90 psi we should get app 320 ccm from each injector... Given the 3 inch inlet limit on the engine, we should be getting close. The first ideas about a twin injector per cylinder set up are already in the making.
Kai has been so kind (or unhappy with the old motor mounts), he built some new ones. Stuff almost starts to look professional!
Weight brackets are also in the works!
Finn has done my turbo stuff and I should pick that up at the event in Zwolle.
In the meanwhile, I am busy doing all the air lines and fuel hoses.

Water injection and boost control

After checking Sloppy's youtube channel again after a (long) while I kinda liked what he did with his boost controller mounting. Got me to this idea:

No bracket to build! For luck Thorsten had two fittings the right size in his "various shit" box.

Those who know me and my way of tuning know that I SWEAR on water injection (by now). I still feel bad about telling Daniel of the Green Monster Team back then that "water doesn't burn and WDF it should do in a combustion chamber."
Took me a while to understand, that methanol without oxygen isn't burning either. Well.. actually it didn't cross my mind that using methanol as a cooling agent isn't the smartest idea either until we had bad bearings etc.
Now that I am limited on injector flow (you know ... money) I very much prefer water instead of methanol as internal cooling agent.

 So - I bought one of those Water / Methanol injection systems (cheaper than one high flow methanol injector).
To get an idea what I am dealing with, I did some rough flow tests today.
The pump puts out about 300 ml in 10 sec unrestricted. The good news is: It does pretty much the same with nozzles.
The bad news is - I wanted a little more. But this better than nothing and should be sufficient to start out with.

I also got the aluminum shielding tubes for the driveshaft today. Now I only need to find that old transmission shaft coupler again and we are golden!!!