New vegetable oil powered vehicle landspeed record

According to their Fbook, they went 203mph without a backup run before they blew a HG. Nice job guys! Keep it up!
 
They did run 203 with a printed slip that says 193 that run was on diesel. Second run was pure veg oil and cracked a block, got oil and water mix wasnt good.

<Moose>
 
Yup, after a long week of prep, we made it down to the salt mid-Speed Week. Only had a few little snags during inspection, once those were cleared up it was too late to run. Got up and in line nice and early Thursday morning for our next licensing run. Without a tach or a working speedo, we were relying on a dash mount GPS for speed info. During licensing runs, you are allowed a 25mph window you MUST stay inside of (or face a penalty) to move up the ladder (for us, this run was supposed to be between 175 and 200). Within the first half mile, the GPS unit fell from the window, leaving the driver totally blind as far as speed goes. Thinking there was plenty of room for error (last November at El Mirage, 155 was pretty hairy), the driver floored it and hoped for the best. Luckily, the engine was a bit overfueled on the bottom end (not enough time to properly diagnose a rail pressure issue). This kept the truck to a slow start, which led to a not-so high top speed. The timing slip speeds are a 1-mile average, and we ended up pretty surprised with what happened:

Mile 1: 162
Mile 2: 185
Mile 3: 193 (and still accelerating hard...)

The GPS showed a top speed of 203, so we are VERY lucky it took a bit to get ahead of the fuel, otherwise we would've been very close to the penalty box.

This is a testament to the solid construction of our chassis. The driver really had no idea that he was going that fast. When the crew told what his speed was, he didn't believe them. So now we know we have a completely capable platform to break some serious records with.

This first run was on straight diesel.

After this run, we decided to let things cool down for a while and go over the truck, checking torques and the new front suspension for any potential issues, and look at the data from the first run. Once we were satisfied, we headed for the start line again, this time with the veg oil tank sealed with "official" veg oil (meaning the tank had been inspected and sealed so it could be counted as a record run if necessary). Unfortunately, the run ended between the 1 and 2 mile markers. Lost power and pulled over after hitting 166 by the 1 mile mark. A quick inspection found a small crack in the passenger side of the block. Got it back to our pit for a closer look and found oil and water mixing in both systems. Packed up, headed home, will be pulling engine tomorrow and taking to Big Twin for tear down on Monday to find out a little more of what happened.

Will keep you all updated if interested.
 
crackerman said:
when are you going on the long track?
Click to expand...

After our first run this trip (with an exit speed at the 2-1/4 above 175), we are now allowed to run on the long course. We were hoping to stay off the long course, trying to get up to speed before then, but it looks like we will need at least four miles to get it done. This won't be a huge problem, but will make keeping an engine together more challenging for sure. The old timers call the salt "the great white dyno".
 
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