£15 flowbench and DIY headwork

[graffian]

I did my heads with the vacuum cleaner in 1985!
Funniest thing was when the bloke who bought the motor off me was selling
load of parts and in the ad was a set of "professionally bench flowed" heads;-)

 

[Mr Fro]

haha, was supposed to be a joke however, it could work on a mercury based manometer..

Walked in to that one. :-)

 

[CRB]

Just pack it in, I have far too many projects as it is.


?What do think I can get out of the LT?

 

[Wedg1e]

I think the OP 'needs' to do a Rover V8, I suspect there'd be some interest on here

 

[ronan]

I think the OP 'needs' to do a Rover V8, I suspect there'd be some interest on here

A cracking engine.

 

[optima21]

in this book

they do a rover v8

they also have a lchapter on building an orifice plate flowbench.

as for projects, I'm already fully booked for the next 10+ years

 

[Mr Fro]

I have that too - good info - also David Vizard's A-series book is worth a flick.

 

[MachOne]

I know some people have big budgets for their cars, and mine is pretty small, but for me its about the challenge of doing something and following my ideas, rather than having people telling me I cant do what I want to. So when I decided that I

so I fell across this web page

www.dwyer-inst.com/Products/AirVelocityIntroduction.cfm

and then I began to play. now I based my flowbench on 40mm plumbing fittings as they are cheap and easy to get hold of and larger than the ports I was wanting to test.
................................., it was to improve the driveability as Im a slow driver. what has been impressive is the increase in torque across the rev range, so the engine is smoother to drive and I can trudle about at in 5th gear at 1500rpm (but dont do it too often)

Hello optima21 , seems to have started a nice topic and a lot people have interested in the same area.

I will be using several of these LCD Digitall Manometer Differential Air Pressure Meter Gauge Tool ±2Psi which is more than ample for reading of my homemade orifice flowbench with 4 vacuum cleaner motors as the pressure source , just placed a order for 3 units of ebay. The Digitall Manometer Differential has a range - 2psi to +2psi and in inches of water column to psi that's a staging - 55.4152 inchwater and + 55.4152 inchwater which I know my bench will not pull on the cylinder heads i intend to work on.

10 inchwc = 0.361 psi and 28 inchwc = 1.012 psi

I'm just about to start making my own pitot tube probes for measuring the air velocities inside of the intake ports and exhaust ports of my working engine in progress. I'm modeling them of the dwyer pitot probes and Bruce's from units which are more compact units http://www.flowbenchtech.com/probes.html , a wealth of good information on Bruces forum worth joining. http://www.flowbenchtech.com/forum/index.php.

A few other forums to join is www.speedtalk.com and http://www.maxracesoftwares.com/forum/index.php the amount of cylinder head information and methods of testing methods and procedures available on these forums is enormous. Larry from www.maxracesoftwares.com has a awesome program worth buying which will eliminate any guess work.

Another book worth reading is by Author Harold Bettes " Engine-Airflow "

Air Velocity Measurement using a Pitot Static Probe

http://www.flowkinetics.com/pitot-static-probe-measurement.htm
http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/pitot-tubes-d_612.html
http://www.efunda.com/designstandards/sensors/pitot_tubes/pitot_tubes_theory.cfm
http://www.basicairdata.eu/pitot-tube.html

 

[doubleboost]

Simply Amazing

 

[delcbr]

Hi Optima21 I sent you a message did you receive it?

 

[optima21]

Hi Optima21 I sent you a message did you receive it?

yeah I did thanks, but there's nothing to keep secret so I'll reply here

the valves were ground back by using a powerfile, I cant remember if the valves were held in a lathe or a pillar drill though.

I can't really remember the website links that I followed for getting information from, I can remember the puma racing one though and this one below

http://www.hotrod.com/articles/0610phr-cylinder-head-porting/

there as one about making ports in motorcyle heads smaller though, which was the inspiration for me and the ports being too large in my polo head for the size of the inlet port.

I did use these books too,

and I suspect that this book

https://www.cartechbooks.com/david-vizard-s-how-to-port-flow-test-cylinder-heads.html

will be a good read too, as David Vizard has been writing engine performance and modification books for decades, and his books from any era are always worth a read.

the head I did wasn't a performance head so it was't hard to make an improvement, I think more modern engine will be harder to get gains from unless you know what you're doing.

 

[armalites]

I think David Vizard wrote some stuff in Car and Car Conversions back in the day. I remember reading an arcticle(maybe not by him) about air pressure in a wheel arch creating lift.

This is what major players in motorsport are doing chasing tiny gains

I think the OP 'needs' to do a Rover V8, I suspect there'd be some interest on here

A cracking engine.

Whilst they are iconic and quite light they cost a fortune to rebuild properly and don't make big power without a load of work. They seem to generate a lot of memories for many people but the reality is a crate LS motor can be bought with a reliable 400bhp(1000+ doable) on tap and capable of 250K miles for not much more than a top quality rebuild on a Rover V8

 

[MG David]

I do like your way of adjusting the vacuum level with the bleed in flap.

A number of years ago when I was thinking of doing something similar I asked a friend who had worked in engine development at Rover Group what pressure drop was best to use. He told me it didn't matter but that it was better to always use the same. He also said that when they were taken over by BMW they found BMW used a greater vacuum than Rover did. Parallel testing revealed that both pressures led to the same conclusions.

 

[8ob]

you're equipment is too posh for my garage, with a vacuum station, stay away from dysons, they suck at sucking, even with all their technology ......a basic wet/dry workshop cleaner is best vac is best.....

this thread only started because of a comment on the thread about dyson vacs on here

ohh and if you want to know about flowbenches, many years ago I stumbled across this one

http://www.flowbenchtech.com/forum/

see you can have a forum for anything

I have been looking at adding a flow bench into the mancave worktop, dont think I can or want to give one a dedicated space. If a decent vacuum pump was mounted in a box outside and piped in would the pumping losses be too great over say six metres?

Bob

 

[optima21]

I have been looking at adding a flow bench into the mancave worktop, dont think I can or want to give one a dedicated space. If a decent vacuum pump was mounted in a box outside and piped in would the pumping losses be too great over say six metres?

Bob

dont think it would be too much of an issue, and the larger and smoother the bore the less the vacuum drop will be