3/13/13

Feh!  It is spring break and the railroad is DEAD!  It has been all I can do to keep myself from going nuts around here.  Usually I'm happy to be able to slack off but I'm getting kind of bored.  It is so bad that I actually cleaned the screen of my laptop… yes, the broken screen on my laptop.  It may not work, but it sure looks good.  So, what can we talk about today?  I think I have the wiring of Lil' Wiggly's alternator fingered out.  I just need to get the little pigtail connector for it and wire it up.  I've found them for $9.00 and up.  I'm thinking that I'll see if the Boys of Pep or some other local parts house has one before ordering on line.  Juan would think they would.  Oh, I also want to take one more look at the connection on the alternator and make sure I'm looking at the right part.  I am about 99% certain it is, but I'm still not ready to pull the trigger on ordering one.  Ok, so THAT subject has petered out.  What now?  Well, I've been playing with my “Stuff Calculator” spreadsheet and my turbo A-14 numbers are coming out way more optimistic than I'd previously thought.  Ok, maybe not “way more” but they do look like promising figures.  I think we might just have to revisit the turbo idea once we get the engine into the Spit.  I'd love for the thing to go “Vrrrraaaaaaaapisssshhhh!” every shift, but unless I make it a blow-through system, it won't.  Oh, wait a minute!  I do have that DGV top hat and blow off valve thingy.  I could use them to make it a blow-through.  I've also got that very expensive custom air-to-water intercooler.  Hmm, perhaps I need to rethink my rethink of the turbo.  Yes, I think I might redesign the thing yet again as a blow-through system.  Ok, so engineering exercise number one will be thinking about the water for the intercooler system.  By the way, “engineering” back there really should be pronounced “futile waste of time.”  But I digress.  So, there are two schools of thought on intercooler fluid capacity.  SoT one is: lots of fluid in a tank so it takes longer to heat-soak the entire mass.  SoT two is: small quantity with a radiator.  And before I even go into the pros and cons of each, I've already decided I'd rather go small quantity with a radiator.  The tank of fluid is much simpler but way heavier.  Well I say it is simpler.  It doesn’t really get rid of the quantity of components; it just substitutes a radiator for a storage tank.  Both systems need plumbing and a pump too.  Ok, so it is lighter… and that is reason enough for me.  Sure, a radiator could conceivably be as heavy as, or heavier than, a storage tank, but the fluid inside the tank versus the radiator… ok, I'm full of shit.  Unless we’re talking a huge tank of fluid, the weight savings might not be as significant as I'm thinking.  Now, having said that, I believe that from an engineering standpoint you DO want a significant amount of fluid for maximum heat-sink capacity, in which case the weight penalty would be noticeable.  So, we’ll go with the radiator, shall we?  I wonder if I have a small radiator of some sort lying around.  A tiny little oil or transmission cooler otter suffice.  Oh, one of the other “pros” of… well, truth be told, either system, is that the intercooler will act like a radiator most of the time.  It will be drawing heat out of the system whenever the ambient incoming air is cooler than the intercooling fluid… such as any time the system is not under boost.  Hmm, I have a dry-ice fuel cooler in the paint booth which we could plumb into the coolant line for times when we want really cold intake air temps.  Of course that would only be useful in a drag racing situation and I don’t see this thing… then again.  If I remember my power to weight numbers from the other day, 12 psi making 135 horsepower should be right up there with Fiona's P:W ratio.  Ok, I just did some math and it looks like we’d need to cram 17 psi into the thing to equal Lil' Wiggly's P:W ratio.  Pshyeah, maybe once.  So, the thing will not be a drag racer with a blow-through carburetor system, no matter how well we can intercool it.  I might still plumb the fuel cooler in there for really hot days.  Yeah, I could carry an ice chest and just refill the cooler with ice chunks from time to time as I go for long hoons.  I don’t remember if the thing is water-tight though.  Filling it with ice water would be the best heat sink but I think the thing is, as I said originally, made for dry-ice which Juan does NOT want in a sealed container.  Ka-boom!  I'll take a look at it some time when we’re at the shop.  I think I know where it is.  Damn it!  I need to concentrate on finishing Lil' Wiggly before chasing this rabbit!  Ok, since we’re not going to the shop this weekend I guess this thought exercise is acceptable.  Well, in for a penny, in for a pound.  John asked if I wanted to take the body off of the frame while we work on the Spit.  It might make some of the work easier but where would we store the damned thing?  He suggested hanging it from the walls… or was it the rafters?  I suppose we could take a look at that option.  It might be necessary anyway to get to the rear suspension.  I just don’t know.  Of course the body could be hauled outside while we futz with the frame.  It’s not like the whole car didn’t sit outside for some forty odd years.  Ok, I guess we will look at pulling the body off the frame.  How hard could it be?  Famous.  Last.  Words.