Drag engine facts
06-02-2004, 07:46 PM
#1
3.0 BAR
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2003
Posts: 5,282
Drag engine facts
Hey guy's found this on Honda-Tech and thought it was pretty interesting and some of it amazing. Thought I'd share with the HMT crew.
*One Top Fuel dragster 500 cubic inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower than the first 4 rows of the Daytona 500 *Under full throttle, a dragster engine consumes 11.2 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 the 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 the 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 gasses. *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 sec, dragsters must accelerate 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 mph before you have completed reading this sentence. *Top Fuel Engines turn appr. 540 revolutions from light to light, and including the burn out, must only survive 900 revolutions under load.
*One Top Fuel dragster 500 cubic inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower than the first 4 rows of the Daytona 500 *Under full throttle, a dragster engine consumes 11.2 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 the 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 the 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 gasses. *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 sec, dragsters must accelerate 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 mph before you have completed reading this sentence. *Top Fuel Engines turn appr. 540 revolutions from light to light, and including the burn out, must only survive 900 revolutions under load.
06-02-2004, 08:56 PM
#8
0.0 BAR
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 0
Re:Drag engine facts
Originally Posted by Travis
im glad you guys all concur with me. 
I read something that said something along these lines:
"Imagine you're driving a Z06 corvette, just cruising. Miles ahead, there is a dragster car waiting for you, on a 1/4 track. You mash on the gas as hard as possible, getting closer to the dragster at a blistering speed. Remember, he will take off the line (0 MPH) the very second you cross it. You mash the heck out of the gas, getting up to 200 MPH when you hit the line. You're cruising, smiling, thinking you just beat the dragster. About 3/4 the way down, you hear the rumble of a engine roaring like all hell broke loose. Woosh! He flies by you, crossing the finish line seconds before you even get there. That's what I call acceleration!"
06-02-2004, 09:05 PM
#10
Guest
Posts: n/a
Re:Drag engine facts
i have some nitromethane.. its some pretty sexy ----. it wont burn for ---- tho you have to have somthing like alchahol in it to dilute the gas so it can get hot enough to burn and it only takes nitromethane 1/4th of the air that gas does to ignite
