Antron has a Bad Day

[Jeff Higgins]

I met this kid during Friday qualifying here in Seattle a couple of years ago. One hell of a nice young man. I'm sure glad he is o.k...

[herr_oberst]

Watched that yesterday. Looks like the new cockpit canopies might just be already saving lives.

[TheMentat]

I can hardly imagine how loud that was when the engine let go!

[Jeff Higgins]

Originally Posted by TheMentat

I can hardly imagine how loud that was when the engine let go!

It actually makes no noise at all, when compared to the noise it makes when it's running. I've seen countless top fuel and funny car motors let go in person - you never hear anything. It just gets quiet.

[jyl]

In the video, the engine explosion can be distinctly heard.

[TheMentat]

Originally Posted by Jeff Higgins

It actually makes no noise at all, when compared to the noise it makes when it's running. I've seen countless top fuel and funny car motors let go in person - you never hear anything. It just gets quiet.

I dunno man... I don't doubt that many types of failures are relatively quiet. But having heard these things run in person, and comparing the engine noise in the video to the sound of the engine blowing, it must have been absolutely deafening!

[flatbutt]

thousands of a second away from having two men wrecked!

[Jeff Higgins]

Wow - you guys are right; I listened to it with the sound up this time, and I definitely heard the "pop". I've quite honestly never heard one do that before. Really, the dozens I've heard in the last 40 years just quit making noise. This is a new one on me.

[TheMentat]

Originally Posted by Jeff Higgins

Wow - you guys are right; I listened to it with the sound up this time, and I definitely heard the "pop". I've quite honestly never heard one do that before. Really, the dozens I've heard in the last 40 years just quit making noise. This is a new one on me.

Last time I was at Kent for the big show, I think I recall somebody telling me that when the supercharger lets go, it is extremely violent. He mentioned something about a kevlar "jacket" that they use to contain all the fragments (no idea if this is true).

[herr_oberst]

tires let go simultaneously, right when the engine let go, which was weird, and could explain that muffled pop?

[VINMAN]

Yeah they use kevalr jacketing around the blowers. Similar to the ones they use around bellhousings to contain clutch explosions.

Jeffs's right. Most of the time when these motors let go, it just gets dead silent real quick.

[Jeff Higgins]

Originally Posted by TheMentat

Last time I was at Kent for the big show, I think I recall somebody telling me that when the supercharger lets go, it is extremely violent. He mentioned something about a kevlar "jacket" that they use to contain all the fragments (no idea if this is true).

Yup, it's true. They strap it down to the motor to keep the fragments in.



I was at SIR in the mid '70's for the Fall Nationals when Billy Meyer lost the blower on his funny car. It destroyed enough of the body to where what was left caught the wind in a big gaping hole, then flipped up and tore from the chassis. Pieces of the blower wound up raining down in the grass next to the traps, just past the end of the grandstands. Some fools started scrambling for the pieces; my brother and I stood and watched in amusement. Yeah, they were kind of hot...

One of the common failure modes is "dropping" a cylinder, where the plugs fail and quit lighting the mix. You can see the car in the left lane drop all of 'em - they start looking like a sprinkler, pumping unburned fuel out the header pipe. The mags must have failed - it's rare to see the fire go completely out across the board like that. The unburned fuel is the mist you see when it slows down. They can drop one and sometimes even still win, depending on how far along they are.

Unfortunately, sometimes a dropped cylinder will be suffering enough blow-by that all of that fuel that should be coming out the exhaust is filling up the block. Melted piston, broken rings, whatever. Blow-by from another cylinder can light it, or it can simply hydraulic lock. That's what usually pops the blower off. The combustion from a then newly exposed, still running cylinder then lights the whole works, and ka-blooey, up she goes.

[Jeff Higgins]

Oops - now that I look closer, that's an alcohol motor above. My bad. You can tell because it's only single plugged, and the injectors are different. It also has funny car zoomies on it, but funny car and dragster motors are the same otherwise, be they alcohol or nitro burners.

Here is a top fuel motor. Same blanket, but twin mags and different injectors.



Funny, too in that they are not twin plugged for the same reasons we twin plug. They really don't need it, other than to ensure (or hope) that one stays lit all the way through the run. It's almost impossible to get nitro to detonate; they run up to 60 degrees advance in these things. The stuff burns very slowly, and even releases its own oxygen when it does.

[Don Ro]

Originally Posted by Jeff Higgins

... and ka-blooey, up she goes.

Learn something new every day.
Now I know how to spell "ka-blooey".

[Don Ro]

innerestin' info/pics on dragsters from the Pelican BMW R1100S moto forum back in '06.
.
BIG HP...loud pipes...

[sammyg2]

I had my blown hemi pop the blower one time at speed. It was quiet because I couldn't hear anything for about 15 seconds after the initial boom.
That was on 118 octane with a few "adders".

A guy I know has an "in" in pro ranks and i'm learning quite a bit about the inner workings, scandals, etc.
it is very ugly once the carpet is pulled back and amazing how much info restrictions NHRA has in place.
Bacsically don't say anything they won't like or you'll be out of work.

Oh and that BS story about you know who getting his ride back? Rumor has it it's BS.
Seems a sponsor in Texas has lots of money and likes that young driver and wanted him to keep driving and MONEY bought his ride back, even after he made direct racial slurs towards antron at the banquet.
Light in the loafers was mentioned.

It's worse than a soap opera.

[sammyg2]

Originally Posted by Jeff Higgins

Funny, too in that they are not twin plugged for the same reasons we twin plug. They really don't need it, other than to ensure (or hope) that one stays lit all the way through the run. It's almost impossible to get nitro to detonate; they run up to 60 degrees advance in these things. The stuff burns very slowly, and even releases its own oxygen when it does.

Often times the plugs are melted by 600 foot, the engines turn into diesels.

[5String43]

"Wow!" I have not heard the term, "light in the loafers," for maybe 35 years. Takes me back.

[herr_oberst]

Sammy, interesting take on S.M. Do you have any info about Larry Dixon? He must have done something to get relegated to second class status. I know he pissed off Prudhomme by jumping ship to the Alan Johnson team, but everything else on his sitch has been corporate double speak.

(Fifty nine wins, a young man in his prime and out of a job. Despicable treatment)

[trekkor]

That was a wild video.
Glad he is OK. I've seen him run in Sonoma a few times.

The blown motors aren't very loud. ( compared to the running motor as mentioned )
Here's trackside footage I shot from Sonoma.
Two blown motors in one pass!



Every year I can hear the dragsters running from home.
Can't recall ever hearing a blown motor.


KT