Wooden pistons. - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: GK
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 01, 2018, 08:35:34 am
content: Now who would have expected that to end in failure?

author: RoGeorge
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 01, 2018, 08:55:51 am
content: I guess he used imported wood, because in Russia trees are made from metal.

author: Rick Law
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 01, 2018, 07:47:45 pm
content: Interesting experiment! Thumbs up for their scientific curiosity.In the video, the main guy shown he knows engines very well. I am sure he is well aware even if wood piston works at say 50% of the same engine/piston life, the labor cost in replacement would probably have made wooden pistons financially not practical. But, very interesting non-the-less.

author: GK
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 02, 2018, 09:24:50 am
content: I admit I was curious to see just how many seconds it would idle for. Rather than wooden pistons, I'd like to see just how much nitrous or turbo boost one of those Ladas could take.

author: Nominal Animal
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 02, 2018, 01:53:32 pm
content: Quote from: GK on June 02, 2018, 09:24:50 amWhen I was a kid, a friend of mine stuffed a dirt bike (125cc) engine into a moped (50cc) chassis. Pure suicide, that thing. Way too much torque; it was more like a hammer rotating around the real wheel than anything else. Give it a bit of throttle, and it'd do a half-backflip, with your head first into the ground. Which is why, I guess, I've been an avid viewer ofProject Binky: two-liter turbocharged four-wheel-drive Austin Mini.

author: nctnico
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 02, 2018, 02:16:18 pm
content: This clip brings back memories. My parents had a couple of Ladas. I would like to drive in one again just for fun.Quote from: GK on June 02, 2018, 09:24:50 amQuite a bit:

author: Rick Law
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 02, 2018, 05:40:52 pm
content: Quote from: Nominal Animal on June 02, 2018, 01:53:32 pmI admit, watching "Idiot on wheels" and "Idiot Drivers" types of videos on youtube is one of my favorite pass time and majority of those videos on youtube are Russian.Having seen so many of those Russian videos, I am of the school believing all cars there should be powered by nothing more than a 50cc engine.Quote from: nctnico on June 02, 2018, 02:16:18 pmFinally, a Lada that can catch up with a speeding Proche 911... May be... Question is, how well does it deal with Russia winter.I've often consider Lotus to be better styled than Lamborghini and Ferrari. I think the Lotus is more gentleman-smooth verses Lambo/Ferrari's louder style. It is a sin we are abandoning cars for SUVs.

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 02, 2018, 07:12:47 pm
content: Quote from: GK on June 02, 2018, 09:24:50 amSomewhere I saw a video where they took a tired old Chevy 350 straight from a junkyard wreck and put it on a dyno adding progressively more nitrous. Seems like it got up to the point where it was producing over 600HP before it finally failed. The results suggested that you could get pretty crazy power for a reasonable amount of time from even a junky old motor so long as you add enough fuel to keep up with the nitrous.

author: GK
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 03, 2018, 11:40:19 am
content: I reckon that Russian bloke wouldn't find it difficult to hunt down a turbo charger from a wrecked agricultural diesel or something.

author: Ian.M
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 03, 2018, 11:57:31 am
content: I'm not surprised it died quickly. Charcoal is a reasonably good insulator, so as soon as the wood started to char it would have caused a hotspot which would have resulted in premature ignition and detonation, which will have rapidly eroded the hotspot, leaving a ring of glowing char around it to detonate the next cycle.Wooden pistons that can run for more than a couple of minutes are possible, but they need to be made of hardwood with a tight interlocking grain to have enough strength and the piston crown *MUST* be made of metal so its surface cant char. The problem is cooling the crown as the wooden body will have a much lower thermal conductivity than a cast aluminum one would, so its difficult to avoid the wood under the metal crown charring.

author: amyk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 03, 2018, 04:32:19 pm
content: Look at YouTube user "ChargerMiles007" if you want more wooden pistons (and other engine parts made from odd materials). He did it a lot earlier and with more variations than the Russian guy.

author: james_s
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 05, 2018, 12:13:50 am
content: Wooden pistons is the sort of thing that seems like an interesting experiment to do once, but it's been done and obviously doesn't work, so probably not much point in doing it again.There are lots of other materials that could be interesting to try though. Glass? Stone? Cast concrete? JB Weld? Plastic? Probably not a whole lot of point there either though.

author: NiHaoMike
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 05, 2018, 04:34:18 am
content: Might be interesting to repeat the experiment in something less demanding like an air compressor.