Cold Burning Fuels and Plastic Pistons for Harbor Freight Engines!
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- Опубліковано 10 лют 2025
- Today some experiments with some different fuels, and a brief chemistry lesson. I'm super happy with how this turned out, I think I might be on to something here! Let me know what you think!
And as always, My social media:
Instagram: / wesleykagan
Patreon: / wesleykagan
Website: www.wesleykaga...
For promotional inquiries: wesley.kagan@gmail.com
Files: grabcad.com/li...
Sources:
Combustion of n-butyl acetate synthesized by a new and sustainable
biological process and comparisons with an ultrapure commercial n
-butyl acetate produced by conventional Fischer esterification: cpb-us-w2.wpmu...
Renewable fatty acid ester production in Clostridium: www.nature.com...
This is one of my most exciting projects so far! Let me know what you think!
The Porsche EV options, Lexus Hybrid Transmission 450h and variants, Jaguar I-Pace power turned up, Ford Mach E(cost my be to much at present) and everyone's favourite go to Tesla..... there you go just one of many project ideas for you......🤣🤣
Twin v cylinder conversion ?? like this ua-cam.com/video/8U1gp4QsnZc/v-deo.html&ab_channel=LeDan
You may be able to 3d print some polycarbonate if you can push the nozzle temp to the 280c range. Although I am not sure how resistant to your fuel it will be. Also once 3d printed you should do some post processing on a lathe to ensure it's concentric.
@@Engineerd3d Nozzle to 280c use adjustable soldering iron parts ?? my iron goes up to 480c....
I recall ford doing the opposite with the ecoboost by upping the temperature and utilizing ceramic pistons and block. Quite a cool idea in my opinion. The goals of the engine were to increase boost and temperature stability. I think efficiency increases with temp
the stuff you do is the stuff me and my friends only talk about. big hats off to you sir
go outside and do it ? wtf lmao. these engines are like 79 bucks man.
@@trendingverge i just meant that as a general compliment because I like the vast amount of stuff he does. I personally do not like these engines
@@cryptoleucus7452 ouch
@@trendingverge lol
You could apply an H series Cerakote coating to the top of the piston. The H series is good to 500 deg F, can be applied to plastic, and most colors have "excellent" chemical resistance.
I really like this idea- a coating like that is the best solution for a heat shield
You have to heat cerakote to over 150 for half an hour for a strong result and I doubt any filament could handle it but you could if it’s made on a resin printer because they handle heat better
@@Industry-insider H series Cerakote coatings applied to plastic parts are supposed to be cured at 150 -180 deg F for 2 hours, which is below the glass transition temperature of ABS.
Cerakote V-136 piston coating is supposed to be cured at 300 deg F for 1 hour (~150 deg C), so maybe that's the one you're thinking of?
@@E.skrty.4 yeah but I don’t think the coating is important in this case because I’m pretty sure the biggest reason pistons are coated is to reduce hot spots and that shouldn’t be an issue at this power level
Silver colored UHT/VHT paint?
I've done similar tests regarding alternative fuels in small, carbureted engines and once completed them I realized the giant flaw in the tests. Run times will remain almost constant due to the fact that carburetors are made to burn x amount of fuel with y amount of air so it should always burn at the same rate. When you choked the engine all you did was lower y. Rpm was likely less with the NBA. You need to use a fuel injected motor with which you can control fuel maps so you can set afr to ~8 rather than ~13.
It’s so awesome how you actually put into practice what most would just keep as ideas. Great channel
Thank you! I appreciate it!
Unreal! Sometimes I'll just be driving around or working on something and randomly think about how this mad lad built his own free-valve system in his garage... now I can also randomly think about a small engine with plastic pistons. Definitely agree with what Tyler already said about doing a cerakote or similar on the pistons! Cannot wait to see how this turns out!
Same here! I’m excited to do some testing, thanks!
The shirt change was so smooth.
Thank you!
This sort of thing is why I'm doing chemistry at university, I'd love there to be a way for us to continue using combustion engines in the future
Don't worry. Internal combustion will be around forever.
@@bigblocklawyer probably not in the quantity they are now.
@@SC710-1 More. Alternative energy is bullshit. Electric cars are utterly dependant on heavy diesel equipment to mine minerals for batteries, bauxite to make their aluminum bodies, not to mention delivering new cars to customers and all the heavy equipment to pave roads and install new electric grid infrastructure to charge these pieces of shit gross polluters. But you can't convince simpleton morons that electric cars use more petroleum to build and charge than internal combustion cars. And for the foreseeable future, until the reality that negative net energy is unsustainable becomes obvious to the brain-dead alternative energy reerees, and there's a shortage of electricity, ICE will always be around in massive numbers.
@@bigblocklawyer Оk calm down, we’ll see who’s right.
@@SC710-1 It'd already been done. You can't borrow your way out of debt, and you can't have electric cars without petroleum and coal. Keep reaching for those stars!
I think the gasoline result are pretty cold because this kind of engines are kind of tuned on the rich side.
Pretty much everything that is thin enough and can combust can be used as a fuel in a gasoline engine.
Ethanol, acetone, etc... Are very good remplacement for gasoline, too bad acetone dilute a lot of things it comes in contact with.
This is the same reason carburetor cleaner can be used to start a motor. It's like 95% acetone which gives it 120 octane and pure ethanol is 112 octane so it's a very stable fuel.
Edit: the only problem with this is that it attracts moisture which can be bad for your motor and fuel lines etc.
@@matthewmorgan582 I agree, if you want to use ethanol with your engine, you must have a good sealed fuel tank and keep the level high.
Acetone on the other hand tand to make the injectors o-rings swell and lose theirs integrity, so if you must find a way to avoid this if you want to use this as fuel.
@@ElectronikHeart Yeah, it makes rubber and gaskets brittle as well. This is also why some engines require ethanol free as it can cause fuel separation and other problems although with the right setup you can run pure ethanol or methanol in a motor.
@@matthewmorgan582 Yeah separation can be an issue with gasoline mixed with ethanol.
But mostly ethanol or pure ethanol fuel don't suffer from this problem as the water will just dilute the ethanol a bit.
The problem with e10 is that the water will only bond to the ethanol and all this water will fall at the bottom with the very small amount of ethanol contained in this kind of blend. Making it almost impossible to burn.
Trail Tech sells an affordable head temp sensor that goes under the spark plug. Might help get more stable temp readings. A spot of flat black paint where you are using the thermo gun could help with accuracy too. Looing forward to the next part of this project.
That’s exactly what I’m looking for- thank you!
@@WesleyKagan Glad I could help. I had the vapor on my 2014 Suzuki DR650 so I could keep tabs on vitals and I remembered they have all kinds of gauges.
That would be great for air-cooled Volkswagens.
I love this. Thank you and keep it up.
Thank you! Will do!
watching the engine walk around in the time lapse was hilarious
In ABS, the S stands for Styrene. You did mention at the start to keep the styrene away from the fuel. Good idea. Napalm is no joke.
but its so cool and I want to impress my friends with sticky fire - 14yr old me. Idk how Ive survived into my 30s with some of the dumb shit Ive done. Glad the dumbest shit I did was before social media existed and cameras were in everyones pockets
@@pastaalalamborghini yep. I played with sticky fire as a 14 year old. There is still a glob of it stuck to the cement on a footbridge that goes over a highway near my childhood home.
it doesnt even work polystyrene does t dissolve in gasoline. if you actually want to dissolve polystyrene use acetone
@@Videoswithsoarin well evidently Mike Manx and myself have both made it work. Maybe you’re doing it wrong.
Also, don’t do it.
You could look into resin printing, you can get a printer for ~$150 and they work out of the box.
Have not looked into it but you can probably get resins that are more resistant to chemicals like acetone.
As soon as I saw the piston I thought that would print well from resin!
Awesome work on this.
I need to order a resin printer, honestly. I’m starting to see them be affordable and would love the detail.
@@WesleyKagan I just picked up a Creality LD-002H for $220 AUD (~$160 USD) and it worked out of the box. All I did was peel off the screen protector and put some resin in and ~4 hours later I had an Eifel tower.
I am sure you could probably find it cheaper in the US.
The LD-002H is the 'old' model and people are advising not to get it as creality is phasing them out, but I have not found any good arguments why not to get it and its at least $100 cheaper.
@@WesleyKagan i was impressed when I saw that you can make custom 1 layer circuit boards with them. For engineering use though i still think fdm provides a better choice of materials.
@@garagecedric I never even considered that. but of course you can. just load up the traces on the LCD and plop the photosensitive side down. then all you need to do is the acid bath, final rinse then clear it.
There are also some high temperature resins out there that are good up to 300-400 degreees C. Might be worth looking into.
Super cool engineering experimentation - love watching these experiments! Oh, and love your computer on the wall. Was wondering how you were going to adjust jetting for 8:1, but running choke was perfect see if it runs fix!
Thank you!
man, I am always so happy to see the notification to a new video you upload. You always have the most interesting ideas. Love the channel
Thank you!
This is cool.
One of the issues I see is, as I understand, most of the heat from an engine comes from compressing air, not the ignition itself.
I've at least heard this for a typical car engine, may not be true for a low compression lawnmower engine.
Would be interesting to know how hot it gets if driven by another motor with no ignition.
This then becomes your theoretical minimum temperature.
Unless you start reducing compression ratio etc.
Oh, and maybe water injection.
And maybe a water jacket.
And an oil cooler.
What else makes an engine run cooler?
That’s my question too and why I want to get some data from the inside. I agree.
It's pretty easy to calculate the air temp if you know the compression ratio, however it's harder to know how much of it that transfers into the piston.
@@garagecedric we know piston area and Q
@@garagecedric it's probably pretty tricky to calculate to be honest.
First you'd need to know how hot the cylinder wall gets, but that depends on how much of the combustion chamber temps conduct to the cylinder, and also how much heat is lost to the atmosphere from the cylinder once it's up to temp.
Then, when you have an intake stroke, some of the cylinder heat will transfer to the intake air charge. This bit is critical as it will drastically effect the compressed air temps. But how much is the intake air heated? God knows, depends on rpm, cylinder temps, atmosphere pressure, cylinder surface area. More stuff I'm sure.
Then the easy bit is calcuting the increase in temperature due to compression (assuming none is lost to the cylinder).
It would be interesting if an insulating layer could be bonded to the top of the piston.
Then it's just the heat from the piston rings I guess.
Fun project. Gets you thinking.
As I side thought, imagine your air is 40c after soaking some heat from the cylinder wall (no idea of that realistic) and you have a CR of 8:1.
That would mean that the compressed temps are (273 + 40) * 8 = 2500k.
Have I done that right? Hot enough to melt steel, nevermind aluminium and plastic.
I guess only a small proportion of it goes to the cylinder wall, and most goes out the exhaust after readily cooling when it extends.
Crazy stuff.
"Maybe it doesn't do it when it burns" I was rolling. Keep up the great work, can't wait to see where this project goes.
"We have not let this cool down, because of who we are as a person"
Why is that so relatable? ....
It's so cool that you are testing scientific theories out in your garage! You may not be wearing a lab coat, but you are absolutely doing real science!
You’re a very interesting weirdo and a smart one at that. Really enjoy watching you do these experiments and it’s helping us to diagnose you.
Keep up the good work and happy new year 👍
ive stumbled across your content by accident i was searching for something and after watching i accidentally kept scrolling and found one of your videos and so far i have been enjoying the content very informative first video i seen was the pencil sharpener and it was hilarious and intriguing thank you for being you
You might be the only person in history to ever pick up a running combustion engine and look like a proud pet owner whilst exclaiming "It's Cute!"
I will take that award, I don’t mind haha
@@WesleyKagan I hope you also have room for the award for "The most outrageously interesting UA-camr" because the different things that you do that almost noone else that I've seen on this platform does. I found you after I searched for videos incase anyone had made a F1 replica. As you do when you're 19 and don't really have your own money, equipment or workspace and then a video on your 60's style F1 car came up and with it all your other content! I'm fascinated to no end with your creativity and inspiration. Keep up the extremely good work! I know I'll be here for it!
Nice video. Would be easy enough to cobble together an AFR gauge in the exhaust stream which would help dial in the mixture for the ideal temps. Keep going with it, interested to see how it turns out. Waiting for an air cooled plastic piston butyl powered motor with air actuated plastic valves 🙂 that can be printed open source.
The craziest thing about this video is that you can leave something in your truck and not have it get stolen. With love from portland OR.
I live in Tempe also! Glad to see someone local on here. Thanks for the content!
To Dyno it you can afix a DC electric motor and apply load to see what kinda of power the engine can output through the motor. It won't give you real HP numbers because of losses in the transfers between mechanical and electric energy but it'll give comparative results.
Or use a car alternator.
Gotta love these harbor freight engines. The youtuber's dream!
15:02 I resonated with that for sure. Loved the vid Wesley
Couple of thoughts, because im jealous of your time and enthusiasm. 🤯
1. If I remember right Butyl acetate was one of the additives that BMW used in the early 80's F1 turbo 4cyl to achieve 1200 + Hp's with higher boost and lower combustion temps.
2. You might also take a look at the 'Torlon 'plastic engine project from the 80-90's that used plastics in blocks,heads, pistons etc.
3. One final thought would be coating the plastic in a substance that resists the esters, something like the spray copper that allows chroming plastics.
Love your work, very interesting 👍
Thank you!
Amazing video and amazing topic about trying different fuels and different technology for parts, materials, etc!
If you look at the "warped perception" UA-cam channel you'll see he has a way too measure the power on those small engines. You could definitely call it a dynamometer for lack of better phrasing.
ua-cam.com/video/hcHSrN4hwa4/v-deo.html
@@woopdeedoodaa that is the video series I was talking about!
Another great video. Always Quality on this channel.
Love your videos, dude. Don't stop
I'm here to help. You can anneal PLA and it will handle the heat. Plus, you can make a video on annealing PLA. When you get done with the Pistons, make brake calipers for your Porsche too. It will work. Let's go.
you could try PTFE gaskets and rings to seal, Cole-Parmer have a great open access chemical compatibility database. I use it for pumps and tubing at work all the time, highly recommend
Just use copper
You gotta do this with an O2 sensor in the exaust so the mix is right.
I agree I think a fuel injection system might be something to consider. Rubber is a problem though.
@@WesleyKagan so hardlines and brass fittings :)
@@WesleyKagan how about a plastic connecting rod with thin aluminum bearing
Just when I though I could not like you as a person more than I already did, I spotted the Lagavulin bottle... Great video!
Rig an alternator up, load it with a known known amp load (heating element) and you have a basic power measuring device. 750w equates to 1 bhp
Ford made polymer based engine back in the early '80's . It worked so well that they couldn't keep transmissions under it.
I’d never heard of this until now. Apparently it was based on a Pinto engine and weighed only 69kg vs 188kg for the cast iron version. Also it was rated at 237kw @ 9200rpm
IRC Honda was doing something similar for the S2000, but it wasn't cost-effective. Or something along those lines.
It cant have had plastic pistons, it simply gets too hot, and plastic is useless at conducting heat - unless you know a plastic that is viable to 2500 degrees C. The crank too can't have been polymer either, nor the bores etc. Part polymer most likely. The weight is in the block and heads and sure they could be rigid enough in polymer.
Wesleys piston would have lasted less than a minute. As would the Ford.
Master Milo actually did a test of putting all sorts of stuff in the tank of a normal gasoline car and the amount of chemicals a combustion engine can run on is mindblowing, including brake fluid. It wasn't about "eco-friendly" stuff or efficiency at all, just a pure test of "will it work?". And it sure did. :)
"Hmmm. Some styrofoam... Let's not mix that with the gasoline..."
Former crazy kids know what that means.
Cool stuff again.. As usual on your channel!
Thank you!
One thing to consider if not already is the thermal expansion coefficient of the plastic, trying to get fine enough tolerance to get good compression could result in a lock up and going to a two stroke with no valve train friction plus adding a teflon bore sleeve could reduce the need for as high compression to get started.
Really enjoyed this, and feel like it could he a whole series if you were interested!
Borosilicate glass
Pewter
Copper jacketed abs
Metalisized (sp?) plastic with some sort of nickel plating
Homemade dyno? Water pump being the easiest.
So cool of an idea!!!! Good luck!
I have just started watching your videos .. HF engine w/ free valve.. Brilliant work I look forward to watching all and getting up to speed 👍
Thank you very much!
As a mining engineer I am biased about replacing metals (mined with varying emissions and smelted using fairly high energy and emissions) with plastics (pumped from the earth and extracted/synthesized with high energy use and emissions). Aluminum pistons may be some of the cleanest metals if hydro electricity is employed (Quebec) and when considering it is highly recycleable. A biofuel alternative is quite interesting. Colder combustion is interesting, too. I still like hydrogen fuel cell tech due to efficiency over ICE. You make us think. Thank you
This is an interesting project for sure, not least because I've always been fascinated by the saga of the Polimotor.
This is why all mechanical engineers are required to take thermodynamics. The temperature spread is the entire and really only point of burning fuel in an engine. The difference between incoming air temp and outgoing air temp is directly related to efficiency and power development.
Sick idea! I’ve been using ABS in engine bays for the past year to make brackets and similar parts due to its high melting point. The problem is the shrinkage which is pretty definite. I believe that’s why it didn’t start, because it can’t compress the NBA (lol) enough. ASA has better characteristics for printing.
An idea that I’m working on that I’d be interested in seeing you do is lost PLA forging of aluminum car parts like an intake plenum for supercharger or intake manifold made out of ASA or ABS.
Doesn’t matter the title, I see an upload, I click
super neat, I think if we want ICE to continue, we gotta be realistic with it long term. This could be a great solution done right
Thank you!
“We did no let this cool down because of who we are as a person….”🤣😂🤣😂🤣🤣. Wes Don’t ever stop man. Ever.
Don’t plan on it, thank you!
you're going far on UA-cam for sure brother keep it up
Wesley: "it's adorable, I can pick it up"
Predator: "Get that sleeve any closer and I'll rip your hand off!!"
Great video! Testing carbon fiber nylon filament should be fun, but you'll need a tempered steel nozzle, all metal hot end and the filament must be extra dry.
PC on the wall is awesome very nice setup, I miss Phoenix went to school there
Always enjoy your uploads.. even if the techno jargon loses me sometimes🤔 I do try though🤓 Thank you and keep up the good work!
Thank you!
Needs more teflon/graphite (for lubrication), and aerogel powder (for insulation). And maybe composite plastics (special FDM filaments).
You should try combining an ICE with a Stirling engine.
A cooler burning engine has lots of benefits. Scaled up, engine oils will have to be reformulated due to their inherently lower temperatures. Really interesting approach to making plastic pistons actually work!
Thank you!
Absolutely love this episode.
Keep up the awesome work!!!
Thank you!
This is super fun. There are so many experiments and projects like this I want to do. Gotta make some more money first to fund the madness. At least the temperature delta you got drops it into a more reasonable range.
Yeah every bit counts. Thanks! I appreciate it!
Perhaps think about methanol as a fuel instead of n-butyl-acetate. It has a lower adiabatic flame temperature of fuels that are typically used in ICE. It's high heat of vaporization leads to a lot of charge cooling relative to gasoline. It is pretty gentle on most plastics but is corrosive to metals. It can be mixed with water to temper the combustion temperature even further down, but you are going to have a good ignition coil if you go that route. Good luck.
every turbo tuner does that meth + water, or ethanol doesn't matter
What about ceramic coating the crown? Maybe an aluminum piston crown insert with ceramic coating to keep heat in the combustion chamber?
That was my first thought as well- my concern is the aluminum and ABS expanding at different temperatures and speeds and causing a fracture
@@WesleyKagan I wonder if there is a ceramic coating that can be applied to the plastic piston itself? Might be a multi stage process, like a conductive spray, then an electrostaticly applied ceramic. I had some 2 stroke piston crowns coated years ago and saw good gain, but I have no idea what the process entails.
This video makes me excited
I have used Inland brand carbon fiber nylon for parts in contact with the engine on my motorcycle and have had very great results for hundreds of miles so far.
Fair enough, I’ll look into it!
That shirt though 🍋🍋
This is a cool idea. It seems like if you could do some sort of vapor deposition of a metal coating onto a plastic piston. Or even something like one of those high temp ceramic paints you could both protect the piston against the solvent effects and a little bit of the heat, but still make the piston injection moldable or printable.
I'm actually looking into some ceramic filaments possibly.
@@WesleyKagan Cool. I was aware of those, but they didn't occur to me. Did you look into Ninjaflex filament? Not for the pistons, but it's fuel resistant, and one of the flavors is heat resistent enough to make carburetor boots and custom gaskets. That's a real help for people who want to keep old bikes going. I plan to make a custom airbox for my UJM that eliminates the need for the hateful old carburetor boots. It might work for your headgasket on your HF motor.
I've been wondering how you have the time and resources to be such a polymath?
this man singlehandedly doing more for engine development than companies
Just recently came across your channel, very cool stuff! One thing that crossed my mind on this one - what about trying a viton O-ring in place of the piston rings? If it can handle the temps of the N-butyl acetate burning, then it would seal the combustion chamber 100%. I say viton because those carburetor O-rings are likely made of the same stuff to tolerate gasoline without breaking down. Even if the plastic piston doesn't work out, maybe try the stock aluminum one with a viton O-ring? Or maybe there are better hi-temp O-rings out there today?
Best of luck with this, you're doing the kind of stuff I hope to be able to do someday!
The shirt change from blue with lemons to white with lemons is hilarious
@wesley kagan Found your channel from the pencil sharpener noticed the 928 as your desktop background had to subscribe. My first car was a 83 928s 5 speed black on black. Loved that car first car i had the engine out. I also have my own v12 6 spewd swap projected m73 5.4L v12 out of a 97 750il bmw into a 80's e30. Keep up the good work!
Pretty crazy project man! I wonder if you can get a partnership with with one of the 3D printing manufacturers out there that produce high temp resistant polymer parts?
Most air cooled engines that are not "forced air cooled" (meaning no fan) are going to be running a head temperature of 350 degrees F (177C). The "head temperature" location is a spot between the intake and exhaust valve. Air cooled or not, exhaust valve temps are normally in the range of 1200F (649C) so this will give you an idea as to the peak temps of the combustion gases that both the piston and head have to put up with.
Hey Wes had to comment! Thanks for pushing creating and trying to do different things! I love it, and love the ideas!
Thank you!
The first thing that pops into my head for piston material is PETG. It's very chemically resistant and easy to print. Can't comment on the heat resistance tho. The second option might be a silicone cap for the piston. It's super chemically resistant and can survive really high temperatures. Add a thermally insulating layer between the two and it might be viable.
Hey! Love the videos. I'd love to see your take on a fuel injected hot vapor engine. Seems right up your alley!
Man, if you could land the kind of sponsorship deals that Mark Rober or that guy from StuffMadeHere have with tools and equipment, I can only imagine what you'd be making. You're doing damned good with your own budget though for sure, always an educational watch even if you're wrenching on a Harbor Fright motor with old Craftsman tools.
Whoa, another amazing project!
Thanks!
I'm pretty excited for this, if you ever need help with electronics let me know
Your one hell of a good hands on engineer ❤️ love what you do 😁👍
Thank you!
Next project... or intermediate project. Build a dynamometer.... something I've always wanted at home but I'd want it capable of up to 600hp. So would be interesting what technology would be viable for a home garage
Love your vids. Greetings from Hamburg, Germany!
how is the F1 project going any chance of an update video
it will be an adventure to make it happen but I think your best bet is annealed high temp PLA. CNC kitchen tested it out to be able to withstand 180 C and hold shape. annealing the pistons will be tricky though. they have to be 100% infill and the best method I've seen is packing them in a container of finely ground salt and baking them at around 80 C and letting cool down slowly. this is going to have the needed high temp resistance and resistance to esther vapors
Any filament that has a crystalline structure will resist ester better, and PLA is a good candidate. I have a lot to try it seems, I'm looking forward to it.
Lagavulin 16 on the table, great Choice,👍
I love your channel. Proper garage engineer
I like this idea, or creating an engine that's multifuel and cheap for use as a generator in damaged areas.
I'm a big fan of Lagavulin also. Nice.
1:15 take the key out, take the key out, take the key out!!!!
1:45 no don't look into the shaft if the key flings out it will take your eye out.
Not to sound overly dramatic but that part was scary. I've seen those keys fly out.
You’re right- if I’m honest I tried to get the key out and it was stuck enough that I deemed it not a problem
@@WesleyKagan I'm glad you checked it beforehand
Consider getting your 3D printed piston vacuum metalized, to protect the ABS from the butyl acetate. Vacuum metalization is the process used to put a thin layer of metal on plastic, for things like digital watches (remember those?) and trim pieces on consumer electronics. If you talk nicely to the people who run batches of this process, you can get a part thrown in with a bunch of other stuff they're doing anyway.
Injury Reserve, pretty cool!
You could potentially measure the work done by the engine using one of the 79cc water pumps. Pump the water up a given elevation and use the mass of water pumped and this change in elevation to obtain work for a given quantity of fuel.
What amazes me is the science and theory used to develop his awesome shirts
You may want to try an HDPE piston as it is a cheap material, has a reasonably heat deformation temperature and is more resistant to acetone like solvents. You'd have to have it machined instead of printed of course. Other potential materials would be POM (Acetyl - machine shops will be familiar with cutting this) or any of the fluoropolymers, but they can get expensive.
Also when you ran the engine with your new fuel, the smoke was visible out the exhaust potentially indicating it being too rich - it made me think this would influence the temperature you were measuring, as a richer mixture will help with transferring heat out of the engine.
Hope this helps, very cool experiment
12:20
This is exactly why I follow this channel. 😆
Dont forget to do your Kagan exercises!
While you’re at it, might as well print a clear head for those sweet sweet slow motion flame 🔥 front shots. I’ve been printing with ASA CarbonX (Carbon Fiber), 100c bed temp, but it may be too brittle for the piston. You’d also need a custom cardboard box enclosure for your Prusa:) great video 👍🏼
3dk Berlin filament: Heat resistent up to 230°C. Prints on most standart FDM printers. 3dktop is safe and suitable for food contact.
I’ll look into it! Thanks!
Even suitable for food? Are you saying we can make it double as a BBQ?!
3dktop looks like it's still PLA, it will still likely be dissolved by the Butyl Acetate.
You might have to invest in a Ruby nozzle and carbon fibre filament, then. And bake to consolidate.
Or
You're only a few steps away from a home forge: PLA/wax loss mould and pouring cast AL (we lemon-ies pronounce ans spell it correctly!!), so pop over to MyfordBoy's channel and 'bridge the gap' ( Myford lathes, not the car fing).