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Ian

Project "Why Not"

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I nearly got run over filming this I hope you know, all for the love of MOM

 

You were busy hiding behind the quad I recall :D:yankchain:

 

 

If you have ever wondered what it's like to drive Project Why Not, this video should give you a good idea :D

 

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That looks great fun. Who needs a cutting deck, a few laps round your lawn on Why Not and it would save you from having to cut the grass for a while  :)

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That looks great fun. Who needs a cutting deck, a few laps round your lawn on Why Not and it would save you from having to cut the grass for a while  :)

Yes, looks fun but it would probably be easier to cut the grass the old fashioned way than having to spend hours cleaning up Why Not and a pair of nutters. :hide:                A pressure wash of all three might help though.  :D 

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no wonder you cant drive in a strait line , you dont look where your going you look at the steering wheel all the time :rolleyes:

 

You need to look a couple of feet in front of you to see the pot holes.. The bouncing is so bad you can't see anymore than a couple of feet in front anyway :lol:

 

 

awesome! :thumbs:

 

Thanks Mark.

 

 

Brilliant mate

 

Thanks James

 

 

That looks great fun. Who needs a cutting deck, a few laps round your lawn on Why Not and it would save you from having to cut the grass for a while  :)

 

Thanks Rob. As luck would have it, it's not my grass I'm tearing up so I don't have to worry about cutting it :D

 

 

Yes, looks fun but it would probably be easier to cut the grass the old fashioned way than having to spend hours cleaning up Why Not and a pair of nutters. :hide:                A pressure wash of all three might help though.  :D

 

Hi Alan, I wouldn't want the pressure washer jet anywhere near me.. It can strip paint off things 30ft away!!

 

 

Afternoon all, with Project Horse Gut finished apart from a couple of little bits, I have turned back to Project Why Not and the exhaust flame system..

Starting at the top, the green paint on the flame fuel tank just had to go..

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That's better, paint stripped then blasted with some red oxide..

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The flame fuel pump will be going about here... It is a little higher than the tank, but once it's been primed a fuel tap and not return valve should stop it from trying to drain out.

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25ft of brake pipe and some pipe connectors turned up in the post..

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I had been wondering what to use as jets in the exhausts until I noticed a couple of knackered Wheel Horse carbs on the rack.. Both carbs put up a fight but I managed to get the jets out..

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As it turns out they are a nice tight fit over the brake pipe..

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A bit of tweaking later had a small hole blocked at the end and the threaded bit ground away.

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I expect the jets will get clogged up once in a while so I had to find a way of making them removable.. So into the lathe went a bolt..

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A little while later..

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Ta- Daa removable jets :D    They are both a nice tight pressure fit so shouldn't come out in a hurry...  How the brass will cope with the heat I don't know.. One way to find out I guess :)

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The copper exhaust pipes on the Villiers Twin could withstand the heat, even with a 180 degree bend. I know brass has a lower boiling point, but they should be okay, if not slightly discoloured :D   :fingerscrossed:

Edited by Vinnetrow

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The copper exhaust pipes on the Villiers Twin could withstand the heat, even with a 180 degree bend. I know brass has a lower boiling point, but they should be okay, if not slightly discoloured :D   :fingerscrossed:

 

Thanks Max, that gives me hope that the jets won't suddenly turn into a molten puddle :lol:

 

Before the flame jets were fitted the exhausts got a good clean up and a coat of red oxide..   Red oxide isn't a "high temperature" paint, but the over spray that had got onto the pipes hadn't burnt or flaked off despite WN getting lots of muddy thrashings about the place, so I thought a coat wouldn't hurt and help keep any possible future rust at bay.

 

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One of the jets welded in.. Well, the nut not the jet :)

 

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Speaking of jets, I needed to give the home made jets a smoke test to see how they flow... That should do :D

 

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Nigel dug out his brake pipe flaring tool.. I've no idea on the make but it is very old, very well made and easy to use.. A proper tool in this age of cheap tat!

 

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Here it is in action flaring a short section..

 

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Which Nigel then soldered into the jet.

 

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A steam Punk exhaust.. :lol:        The fencing wire won't be staying, once I know the flames work then I will make some weld on clips to stop the brake pipe from moving.

 

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That fits well..

 

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Fitting the flame fuel tank took a bit of thinking about.. I could of just welded a couple of bits of box to the tank and bolt them to the frame... But I didn't want to spoil the look of the tank which is a nice shape, so I made up some nice brackets..

 

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Fitted but not fully welded.. I'm happy with how it fits in the small space that's the only place left to fit it :D

 

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The final spark set-up..  This produces very good sparks at both plugs and as Nigel and I found out yesterday it has no problem lighting TVO.......   On the bench that is..

 

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With all wiring and plumbing done on the flame set-up there was only one thing left to do......   Yep try it out....

 

No flames just lots of smoke and TVO pouring out the exhausts!!        A bit of over fueling me thinks that just floods the spark plugs!      That should be an easy fix tomorrow... The smoke looked good though :D

 

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Looks like a lot of vapour, did you try throwing a fag butt at it ?

 

Lucky for me he didn't :D

 

 

i think he would have gone up in flames if i had chris :D

 

As we found out mate, it wouldn't of quite happened like that!

 

 

As it turned out the only way we could get the mix (a strong TVO mix, 50/50 paraffin and petrol) to light was in the workshop in controlled conditions!    Which means we put a very small amount in a tin lid and checked to see if the spark plug would light it.  It did!!

 

But pump the warmed up mix into the end of an exhaust and give it a spark... No Joy!     Even trying to light it with a blow torch didn't work, it just kept blowing the torch out even at tick-over!

 

And there chaps is the root of the flame thrower problem, the exhaust gasses are so great they blow the spark on the plugs out! I could change the spark plugs for glow plugs, but as a blow torch won't light it I can't see that glow plugs would!

 

 

Sooooo.... Flames are out I'm afraid but.... I do have another idea.. I won't give anything away other than despite spending a long time trawling the internet, I can't find any sign of anyone anywhere trying this or even asking if it's possible :D

 

 

In other news I have a pair of small headlamps for Why Not... I'm sure some of you can guess where they came from :D

They need a bit of work, the chrome is too far gone with deep rust pitting for them to be re-chromed and the yellow bulbs just have to go..

 

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It was a bit hard to hold a lamp in place and take a photo at the same time, but this will give you an idea...   I need to mock up some brackets and roll WN outside so I can get a good look, hopefully they won't make WN look all "Toy Town" :lol:

 

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Lucky for me he didn't :D

 

 

 

As we found out mate, it wouldn't of quite happened like that!

 

 

As it turned out the only way we could get the mix (a strong TVO mix, 50/50 paraffin and petrol) to light was in the workshop in controlled conditions!    Which means we put a very small amount in a tin lid and checked to see if the spark plug would light it.  It did!!

 

But pump the warmed up mix into the end of an exhaust and give it a spark... No Joy!     Even trying to light it with a blow torch didn't work, it just kept blowing the torch out even at tick-over!

 

And there chaps is the root of the flame thrower problem, the exhaust gasses are so great they blow the spark on the plugs out! I could change the spark plugs for glow plugs, but as a blow torch won't light it I can't see that glow plugs would!

 

 

Sooooo.... Flames are out I'm afraid but.... I do have another idea.. I won't give anything away other than despite spending a long time trawling the internet, I can't find any sign of anyone anywhere trying this or even asking if it's possible :D

 

 

In other news I have a pair of small headlamps for Why Not... I'm sure some of you can guess where they came from :D

They need a bit of work, the chrome is too far gone with deep rust pitting for them to be re-chromed and the yellow bulbs just have to go..

 

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It was a bit hard to hold a lamp in place and take a photo at the same time, but this will give you an idea...   I need to mock up some brackets and roll WN outside so I can get a good look, hopefully they won't make WN look all "Toy Town" :lol:

 

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looks great Ian :thumbs:

 

 Do you think you are getting enough oxygen in the mix?  Have You tried a spark plug at the end of the tailpipe on the out side, a little way back so air could be mixed in before the spark, I suppose it's possible you could be trying to ignite fuel and  carbon monoxide.  :confused:  You could always add  nitrous oxide in the mix to increase the oxygen :hyper: . With your skills I'm sure you could fabricate some sort of combustion chamber to fit around the end of the pipe to create a venturi effect using  the exhaust gasses to pull clean air and fuel in from around the outside of the pipe with the plug firing it at the end. Maybe just a length of larger pipe around the end of the exhaust would do with the outer pipe sticking out further than the inner to get the 'draw' (similar to the old 'airline' powered vacuum cleaners) and the fuel injected between the two, Just a thought,

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You might have a point with the lack of oxygen in the mix, I do have an interesting idea that would give me full control on how much air, how much mix goes into the exhaust and it would also atomize the mix better..

It might still come to fitting a flame thrower system, but I'm hoping my new idea will work instead..   

 

But more on that when it happens :D

 

 

Yesterday the front of my workshop looked like a mower dealers :lol:   Two of them are for sale as it happens, just not my two :D

 

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Other than having a bit of tidy up (the workshop needed it) the reason for parking everything out front was to make space for putting my big bench up again so WN can get stripped down and painted..

 

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For the past er... 8 odd years I've been using a bench that basically was a large computer desk with a very large slab of thick chipboard as a top.

It served me well for many a year with WN, the 6x6 and others being built on it..   However when WN was taken off the bench late last year it didn't fair too well, broke a few welds and the frame got twisted..

 

So yesterday a new bench frame was constructed....    Thanks for all you help and welding yesterday Nigel :thumbs:

 

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It's a bit hard to tell from this photo but it has a hanging shelf frame.. I just need to add a few more bit's of box and some boards..     When I find some I will be fitting some strong castor wheels to the legs so I can move the bench about when I need to..

 

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Doug is right, I doubt there's any oxygen in order to get the correct stoic mix. You could try stopping the spark to the engine when you go for flames....

 

I've tried all variations Mark, even creating a serious miss fire to try and ignite the flame mix didn't work!   It has to be a lack of air as Doug said... But hopefully that won't be a problem after tomorrow :)

 

 

Nothing to report on WN other than my big bench has gained it's top ready for when I strip her down for painting.

 

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"Lack of air won't be a problem after tomorrow?" could we be seeing an oxygen bottle installed? :D  I think you should add a couple of pulse jets  :woohoo:

 

Well, the problem is still there!!  Don't you just hate it when you pay extra to get something delivered earlier only for it not to turn up when it should of done!  :banghead:

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Evening chaps, progress on WN has been very slow of late, but that will change on Thursday when progress will suddenly be very fast :)

 

I've been playing with headlamp positions, bearing in mind if I do decide to fit them they will have much better looking "hot rod" curved brackets..

 

So the question is.... Do the lamps make WN look all "toy Town" or not?

 

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So why will progress start going very fast Thursday??   Well, today this happened.. WN being winched onto the big bench..    Thanks for your help Nigel :thumbs:

 

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Thursday is strip down day, I feel a time lapse video coming on :D

 

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I might have a few machines to move out the way first mind :lol:

 

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