An interesting video

[Alain B]

 

[neilpilot]

He used rubbing alcohol, which is isopropanol with 9% water content.  I would have liked to see the same test using 99%+ IPA. 

[carusoam]

Bravo!

Chemical reactions slowed down and made visible, and practical for engineers at the same time!

Seeing this video...

1) I immediately thought of Ross! Who eloquently describes the burn cycle of our engine's with respect to ignition timing and those kind of details... visual proof and explanation of flame fronts for the Mooney pilot...

2) while looking for Ross' contact info, I realized he already hit the like button!

3) the rubbing alcohol is a great example of what running ROP is like with the extra fluid cooling and cleaning....

4) the placement of the spark plug and valves is interesting for having the longest possible time delay to complete the burning cycle.  Our engine's get two plugs to cut the distance in half.  Their location is closer to the piston.

5) acetylene is a high density fuel in terms of energy per molecule.  The black exhaust is a sign of not very efficient use of the fuel, it isn't getting burned completely.  They could use an O₂ line to the intake and show visibly the improvement in the exhaust stream.

Fabulous high speed HD video the likes I have never seen before!

Right up there with the super cooled water turning to ice.  Would be nice to get the slow motion HD camera on that too...

Thanks for sharing this one, Alain!

Best regards,

-a-

 

 

Edited January 18, 2017 by carusoam

[N201MKTurbo]

That's not the location of the spark plug in a B&S engine. It looks like he moved it there so he could just make a spark to the block with a wire instead of using a real spark plug.

[Alain B]

43 minutes ago, N201MKTurbo said:

That's not the location of the spark plug in a B&S engine. It looks like he moved it there so he could just make a spark to the block with a wire instead of using a real spark plug.

A regular plug would not work as there is no ground path due to the plastic cylinder head  , if you look carefully you will see the  nail ( spark plug ) is very near the engine block effectivly serving as a ground . 

Edited January 18, 2017 by Alain B

[N201MKTurbo]

8 minutes ago, Alain B said:

A regular plug would not work as there is no ground path due to the plastic cylinder head  , if you look carefully you will see the  nail ( spark plug ) is very near the engine block effectivly serving as a ground . 

He could use a regular spark plug, he would just have to run a ground wire to it.

[RobertGary1]

Fancy camera but the lighting is so bad its hard to see what's happening some of the time.

-Robert

[DAVIDWH]

Now if I can just get that  Acetylene bottle in luggage compartment connected to the fuel line, no more need for a turbocharger.

Lower cost and much better climb rates.

[1964-M20E]

45 minutes ago, DAVIDWH said:

Now if I can just get that  Acetylene bottle in luggage compartment connected to the fuel line, no more need for a turbocharger.

Lower cost and much better climb rates.

not the acetylene bottle but the O2 bottle and increase the amount of fuel you can put into the engine and burn it. 
You have to run ROP though

[thinwing]

I was hoping he would attempt a run using that tequila from the bottle he holding at the end

[Sean S]

I never imagined using acrylic for  cylinder head so you could see the action. Very cool!

[milotron]

Very cool. If he wanted to see the charge still burning out the open exhaust port, he should have run some nitro methane through there!

[N201MKTurbo]

I was on a tour of the ASU aviation school at Gateway airport a while back. They have a transparent engine there that is made of glass. It has an electric motor hooked to it so it doesn't stop turning if you get it too lean or too rich. You can disconnect the electric motor. The motor also acts as a dynamometer and can tell you how much power it is making. You can adjust the mixture and the timing. It was a lot of fun to play with. 

They run it on denatured alcohol so the fumes don't kill everyone in the classroom (there was no fume extraction). The instructor said you can run it on anything but if you run gasoline it gets all carboned up and you have to take it apart and clean it every few runs.

Edited January 22, 2017 by N201MKTurbo

[1964-M20E]

23 hours ago, N201MKTurbo said:

I was on a tour of the ASU aviation school at Gateway airport a while back. They have a transparent engine there that is made of glass. It has an electric motor hooked to it so it doesn't stop turning if you get it too lean or too rich. You can disconnect the electric motor. The motor also acts as a dynamometer and can tell you how much power it is making. You can adjust the mixture and the timing. It was a lot of fun to play with. 

They run it on denatured alcohol so the fumes don't kill everyone in the classroom (there was no fume extraction). The instructor said you can run it on anything but if you run gasoline it gets all carboned up and you have to take it apart and clean it every few runs.

if you go back see if they have some video they would be willing to share.

[Danb]

That is so cool, I've just kinda understand combustion after reading stuff about it for years. Just a little show and tell for us nonmechanicle wizards

[thinwing]

On 1/22/2017 at 9:11 AM, milotron said:

Very cool. If he wanted to see the charge still burning out the open exhaust port, he should have run some nitro methane through there!

Why screw arround with nitro methane....just turn both valves on that gas welder into the intake and see what happens!