They Said it coulden't be done........

...They said it SHOULDEN'T be done....but what the hey, where is it written that a Fuel Altered can only have one engine!
Here are a couple of pics I snapped this morning of "The Terrifying Terd". The wheelbase is set to be 120 inches and the engines will be low percentage (20 to 50%), 6-71 blown 440's. High gear only, into a Mopar rear.
I fabbed a coupler from a drive pulley and a pair of flex plates to join the engines, and will be driving the rear blower via shaft in order to keep the engines as close together as possible.
The ch***is is only tacked together at this point, but the way you see it will be the final configuration. I have no idea what it's going to run, but I can safely predict an overwhelming abundance of smoke and fear.

 

I never thought I'd see the day that the Great State of Tennessee would have such severe snowstorms on June 1st....

 

they just didn't know the pics couldn't be done huh!!

 

Where exactly are these pics??

 

Here ya go

 

Wow...ugliness at its best! Good luck with the rest of the build, and show us more pics as it all goes together...

 

Get ****y once it HAS been done .

 

It's not my first rodeo dude...built a couple of these things in the past, this is just my first twin.

 

I stand by what I said then. Looks like a fun build, but having 2 runs into a LOT more issues then 1. There are a LOT of old builders here and have heard "look what I'm GONNA do". I'll be the first to say cool once you have done it, but all I see are two bare blocks sitting on top of a frame.

I wish you luck. I'm just mearly saying, build first, then get ****y. As Ryan said "I love the optimism".

 

I hear exactly what you're saying. It's all about cashflow and parts ac***ulation from here on out. When I set out to build this thing, I didn't impose any sort of timeframe or budget on myself...it'll get done when it gets done. My only concern is that the final version matches the machine it was concieved to be.

 

Since my last post wasn't constructive enough for someone in the moderating crew, I'll try it again...please post a Tech article on how you made the engine coupler...good luck with the rest of the build and show us some pics of some of your previous builds, if they're H.A.M.B. friendly...

 

I personally think if you can pull it off it will be cool as hell. Of course the "fear" might be you after you set the hammer down . Post pics as it goes along, and if you finish and we are at the same show, I'll even buy you a beer.

 

The coupler is as simple as simple can be. The front engine gets a standard Mopar automatic flexplate. The crank snout of the rear engine gets a standard accessory drive pulley that has had the belt groove cut off, and a second Chrysler flex plate welded in its place. From there, the two plates are simply bolted together. The engines end up 3 inches apart from eachother.
As for my other cars, I don't have a scanner handy, but one of them ended up in the April 97 issue of Hot Rod in a story called "A Few Moments in Hell".

 

And, I will drink said beer, sir.

 

I have that issue in storage, I'll dig it out for a read...what did you use to true up the remains of the pulley to the flexplate while welding it? Are both motors going to be internally balanced?

 

I used two blocks, set upside down, with two cranks installed. I simply lined the blocks up, bolted the ***emblies together, and then tacked it together. It spins perfectly true as is, but the final welding has yet to be done. I'll snap a couple of pics once it's done.

 

I dig it, build it!

 

Are we talking the dog bone flex plates? Those should fit together nicely...personally if it were me I'd still have someone balance them in case it's slightly heavier with weld on one side...sounds good though...

 

Need a driver?

 

hahahahha, me too ! build that bish and lets see it!

 

It's almost impossible to have too much horsepower....

 

Might need to lower those engines about a foot or so. Would be very hard to line up with the rearend unless your running a drive down to it of some sort.

 

The pics are deceptive...the engines are at 15 inches (crankshaft centerline) and dead level with the pinion. I might add that it is set up as a "true" altered, in that the front engine is set back 25%

 

So, all the power from the front engine is being transmitted to the balancer of the rear engine via the pully/welded flexplate arangement?

I would get one hell of a balancer then and add a couple extra keyways to the crank snout and balancer!

 

The engines are internally balanced, and so there is only a hub...same as used with a blower, on the front engine. The hub and keyway that I am using would be the same as what a conventional T/F car would have, and is more than capable of handeling over 1000 horsepower.
The thing you have to remember about a twin engine set-up, is that you don't achieve full net total horsepower of the two engines. Meaning, if you take two 1000 horsepower engines and couple them together, you don't get 2000 horsepower at the flywheel...you get more like 1300. The front engine becomes more like a helper to the rear engine. In other words, the only time that the full potential output of the front engine would get transferred through this coupler, would be if the rear engine quit running all together.
This is also why I'm going to be running these engines on very low percentages of nitro. Remember, nitromethane is a load sensitive fuel. The higher the percentage, the more finicky it becomes. Since I've got one engine taking up a good percentage of the others load, the combination of the two would seek to drop as many cylinders as it would take to equal the load imposed by the clutch. You can see this effect if you watch a modern fuel car doing a burnout. It starts with all the candles lit, and then begins dropping them until only three or four are actually hitting. I studied the history of twin engine nitro combinations. blown and unblown, and found that the same pattern of destruction existed in all the examples I could find. Gasoline and alcohol combinations seem to function without much carnage at all because they are not subject to the same load dynamics. My plan here is to creep up on the highest percentage of fuel the combination will absorb while at the same time keeping all 16 cylinders hitting, thus achieving optimum torque. I'm guessing it's going to be in the 20% range.
Ha...I just started rambeling there....I think I think about this stuff too much.

 

It's been done before.
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Wellll...yes and no. That car was from Austraila. I've talked to him...really nice guy, but...his car was 140 plus inches, (stretched F/C ch***is, where mine was built as a true 25% set back altered) and run on straight alcohol. He has since removed the front engine, shortened the frame and gone to nitro. He contacted me about a year ago to help him get a baseline tune on the Fuel motor.

 

Look at the wrinkle on the tires, and it isnt even moving!!