How Much Fuel one Cylinder of a Top Fuel Dragster Burns
06-19-2015, 11:49 AM
#1
Le Mans Master
Thread Starter
How Much Fuel one Cylinder of a Top Fuel Dragster Burns
Total used per motor per run is about 22 gallons according to this article . Here is a video of one cylinder's worth of fuel being injected
Considering the end result is about 8000 HP it takes a lot of fairly pricey fuel to start with in addition to the gazillion dollars consumed by the vehicle and its support team
https://www.yahoo.com/autos/s/watch-...133016181.html
Considering the end result is about 8000 HP it takes a lot of fairly pricey fuel to start with in addition to the gazillion dollars consumed by the vehicle and its support team
https://www.yahoo.com/autos/s/watch-...133016181.html
06-21-2015, 09:44 AM
#3
Drifting
Member Since: Jan 2006
Location: Wichita Falls Texas
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St. Jude Donor '08-'09-'10-'11-'12-'13-'14-'15-'16-'17,'22
That is a nice visual aid to help you "see" or understand why, if the car ever "drops a cylinder", or does not actually light off the mix during one revolution of the crankshaft, and burn the fuel during that stroke, the next time around, there is more fuel in the cylinder than there is room for in the combustion chamber at top dead center. So the engine "hydraulics" and instantly destroys itself.
I had one break a cylinder head and lift one end of the head an inch and a half or so off the block at one end, the affected cylinder, and the rest of the head still on the block. It drove the top end of the connecting rod out through the top side of the block, and split the block from top to bottom, leaving a gash as wide as the connecting rod.
It blew a chunk of the thick copper head gasket out, with so much force that it pierced my arm and wrapped itself around my arm bone. The blood and the bending around my bone, heat treated and work-hardened the copper and made it so stiff that the surgeon had a hard time working it off the bone. I was watching him work at it (with a local anesthetic), and he really had to tug. I still have the piece, and you cannot bend it by hand.
This incident was in my top fuel boat.
Dropping a cylinder can be painful, in more ways than one.
Eddie FourFather Hill
I had one break a cylinder head and lift one end of the head an inch and a half or so off the block at one end, the affected cylinder, and the rest of the head still on the block. It drove the top end of the connecting rod out through the top side of the block, and split the block from top to bottom, leaving a gash as wide as the connecting rod.
It blew a chunk of the thick copper head gasket out, with so much force that it pierced my arm and wrapped itself around my arm bone. The blood and the bending around my bone, heat treated and work-hardened the copper and made it so stiff that the surgeon had a hard time working it off the bone. I was watching him work at it (with a local anesthetic), and he really had to tug. I still have the piece, and you cannot bend it by hand.
This incident was in my top fuel boat.
Dropping a cylinder can be painful, in more ways than one.
Eddie FourFather Hill
06-21-2015, 10:01 AM
#4
Prior to us racing on the asphalt, we had a top fuel sand dragster. Same parts, only race 100 yards. We were at the start line and the dragster next to us started their engine and it died, instead of clearing the engine of fuel( manually turning it over in the opposite rotation) they put the starter back on and turned the engine over. As soon as the driver hit the mag switch, the first cylinder to fire blew that part of the head off and it hit the crew member in the groin. I never heard what happened to him, he was taken away in an ambulance.
06-21-2015, 02:17 PM
#5
Burning Brakes
* One dragster's 500-inch Hemi makes more horsepower then the first 8 rows at Daytona.
* Under full throttle, a dragster engine consumes 1 1/2 gallons of nitro per second, the same rate of fuel consumption as a fully loaded 747 but with 4 times the energy volume.
* The supercharger takes more power to drive than a stock hemi makes.
* Even with nearly 3000 CFM of air being rammed in by the supercharger on overdrive, the fuel mixture is compressed into nearly-solid form before ignition. Cylinders run on the verge of hydraulic lock.
* Dual magnetos apply 44 amps to each spark plug. This is the output of an arc welder in each cylinder.
* At stoichiometric (exact) 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture (for nitro), the flame front of nitromethane 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.
* 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 off its fuel flow.
* If spark momentarily fails early in the run, unburned nitro builds up in those cylinders and then explodes with a force that can blow cylinder heads off the block in pieces or blow the block in half.
* Dragsters twist the crank (torsionally) so far (20 degrees in the big end of the track) that sometimes cam lobes are ground offset from front to rear to re-phase the valve timing somewhere closer to synchronization with the pistons.
* To exceed 300mph in 4.5 seconds dragsters must accelerate at an average of over 4G's. But in reaching 200 mph well before 1/2 track, launch acceleration is closer to 8G's.
* If all the equipment is paid off, the crew worked for free, and for once NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run costs $1000.00 per second.
* Dragsters reach over 300 miles per hour before you have finished reading this sentence.
As amazing as that all is, nothing compares to the 16,785 gallons of fuel used per second of the Saturn V. Just to put that into perspective, that is approximately 11,000 top fuel dragster engines all running WOT at once. Or a line of top fuel dragsters end to end for 52 miles.
* Under full throttle, a dragster engine consumes 1 1/2 gallons of nitro per second, the same rate of fuel consumption as a fully loaded 747 but with 4 times the energy volume.
* The supercharger takes more power to drive than a stock hemi makes.
* Even with nearly 3000 CFM of air being rammed in by the supercharger on overdrive, the fuel mixture is compressed into nearly-solid form before ignition. Cylinders run on the verge of hydraulic lock.
* Dual magnetos apply 44 amps to each spark plug. This is the output of an arc welder in each cylinder.
* At stoichiometric (exact) 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture (for nitro), the flame front of nitromethane 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.
* 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 off its fuel flow.
* If spark momentarily fails early in the run, unburned nitro builds up in those cylinders and then explodes with a force that can blow cylinder heads off the block in pieces or blow the block in half.
* Dragsters twist the crank (torsionally) so far (20 degrees in the big end of the track) that sometimes cam lobes are ground offset from front to rear to re-phase the valve timing somewhere closer to synchronization with the pistons.
* To exceed 300mph in 4.5 seconds dragsters must accelerate at an average of over 4G's. But in reaching 200 mph well before 1/2 track, launch acceleration is closer to 8G's.
* If all the equipment is paid off, the crew worked for free, and for once NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run costs $1000.00 per second.
* Dragsters reach over 300 miles per hour before you have finished reading this sentence.
As amazing as that all is, nothing compares to the 16,785 gallons of fuel used per second of the Saturn V. Just to put that into perspective, that is approximately 11,000 top fuel dragster engines all running WOT at once. Or a line of top fuel dragsters end to end for 52 miles.