Montag, 3. Juni 2019

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!!!

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