M13KYF Posted October 13, 2008 Share Posted October 13, 2008 Top Fuel Dragster motors are quite possible the most amazing racing engines in existence. If you are not convinced by the time you get through these facts, you will be! * One Top Fuel dragster 500 cubic inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower than the first 4 rows at the Daytona 500. * Under full throttle, a dragster engine consumes 1½ gallons of nitromethane per second; a fully loaded 747 consumes jet fuel at the same rate with 25% less energy being produced. * A stock Dodge Hemi V8 engine cannot produce enough power to drive the dragster supercharger. * With 3000 CFM of air being rammed in by the supercharger on overdrive, the fuel mixture is compressed into a near-solid form before ignition. Cylinders run on the verge of hydraulic lock at full throttle. * At the stoichiometric 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture for nitromethane the flame front temperature measures 7050 degrees F. * Nitromethane burns yellow. The spectacular white flame seen above the stacks at night is raw burning hydrogen, dissociated from atmospheric water vapor by the searing exhaust gases. * Dual magnetos supply 44 amps to each spark plug. This is the output of an arc welder in each cylinder. * Spark plug electrodes are totally consumed during a pass. After 1/2 way, the engine is dieseling from compression plus the glow of exhaust valves at 1400 degrees F. The engine can only be shut down by cutting the fuel flow. * If spark momentarily fails early in the run, unburned nitro builds up in the affected cylinders and then explodes with sufficient force to blow cylinder heads off the block in pieces or split the block in half. * In order to exceed 300 mph in 4.5 seconds dragsters must accelerate at an average of over 4G’s. In order to reach 200 mph well before half-track, the launch acceleration approaches 8G’s. * Dragsters reach over 300 miles per hour before you have completed reading this sentence. * Top Fuel Engines turn approximately 540 revolutions from light to light! * Including the burnout the engine must only survive 900 revolutions under load. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK350Z Posted October 13, 2008 Share Posted October 13, 2008 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mwalker56 Posted October 13, 2008 Share Posted October 13, 2008 Interesting post Mike, i saw some top fuellers in Perth a couple of years, they trully are amazing! Incredible force from the exhaust gas as they go by, if you've not seen them i highly recommend making the effort. We managed to get pit passes in Perth and found the guys that run them are very friendly and happy to talk about the hardware. Interestingly they will entirely rebuild the engine after each quarter mile pass! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stew Posted October 13, 2008 Share Posted October 13, 2008 Yeee haw! Well you had better crack open a cold bottle of budweiser and watch some racing boy! These things are cool though and the facts are good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamesyj Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 I remember being at Flame and Thunder a year or two back. They did a few runs at dusk, a mental sight with the flames from the exhaust. I'm a sucker for a big V8. Everyone with fingers is their ears, me with a massive grin on my face! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bronzee Posted January 7, 2009 Share Posted January 7, 2009 Interestingly they will entirely rebuild the engine after each quarter mile pass! Not surprising really. Imagine the rigor pushing it to 4g's! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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