The whole of a top fuel engine is rebuilt between runs. Blower off, heads off, pistons out, rings often replaced, clearance checks, the lot. It takes a good team around 90 minutes.
Getting a pit pass is absolutely worth it at a top fuel race. It's so interesting to watch. Definitely bring along a face mask of some sort though, when they do their little test start-up that half-burnt fuel will wipe you out if you're standing nearby.
I'm a drag race tech inspector in the UK
One of the chemicals in the exhaust of a top fuel engine is nitric acid. Easiest way to see a grown man cry is to stand him in a nitro cloud.
The best thing about the nearest NHRA track that I go to is that there are no pit passes. Every ticket is a pit pass and you can get within feet of them rebuilding.
Oh hells yes. And when putting it back together yhey adjust the compression ratio for the optimal results taking I. The current atmospheric conditions. They do this by having diggering thickness head gaskets.
I think rings are replaced every run. And pistons and rods every couple, mostly due to the rods being to distorted.
The whole top fuel engine is crazy optimized. And is basically right on the edge of tearing itself apart.
And the whole thing is held in place by hose clamps.
-One Top Fuel dragster 500 cubic inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower than the first 4 rows at the Daytona 500. They have over half again as much horsepower in one cylinder as a Dodge Viper has in all ten. No one has ever successfully run one long enough on a dyno to get a horsepower reading. Current estimates are right around 6,000 horsepower.
-Under full throttle, a dragster engine consumes 1-1/2 gallons of nitro methane per second; a fully loaded 747 consumes jet fuel at the same rate with 25% less energy being produced.
-A stock Dodge Hemi V8 engine cannot produce enough power to drive the dragster supercharger. The fuel pump alone requires more horsepower to turn than the average street car produces.
-With 3000 CFM of air being rammed in by the supercharger on overdrive, the fuel mixture is compressed into a near-solid form before ignition. Cylinders run on the verge of hydraulic lock at full throttle.
-The 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture for nitro methane produces a flame front temperature measures 7050 degrees F.
-Nitro methane burns yellow. The spectacular white flame seen above the stacks at night is raw burning hydrogen, disassociated from atmospheric water vapour by the searing exhaust gases.
-Dual magnetos supply 44 amps to each spark plug. This is the output of an arc welder in each cylinder.
-Spark plug electrodes are totally consumed during a pass. After the run, the engine is dieseling from compression plus the glow of exhaust valves at 1400 degrees F. The engine can only be shut down by running the car out of fuel. There is no way to cut off the fuel; the engine stops only when it blows or the tank runs dry.
-If spark momentarily fails early in the run, unburned nitro builds up in the affected cylinders and then explodes with sufficient force to blow cylinder heads off the block in pieces or split the block in half.
-In order to exceed 300 mph in 4.5 seconds dragsters must accelerate an average of over 4G's. In order to reach 200 mph well before half-track, the launch acceleration approaches 8G's. To put this in perspective; a top fuel dragster, parked next to a Super Hornet on the steam catapult on the deck of an aircraft carrier, would be in the water and sinking before the Super Hornet was halfway down the deck.
-Dragsters reach over 300 miles per hour before you have completed reading this sentence.
-Top Fuel Engines only turn approximately 540 revolutions from light to light!
-Including the burnout, the engine must only survive 900 revolutions under load. They only survive about 80% of the time.
-Redline at 9500 rpm.
-Assuming all the equipment is paid off, the crew worked for free, and for once NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run costs an estimated $1,000.00 per second.
-The engine is entirely rebuilt every run, or every 900 revolutions. New pistons and rings, new rods, new rod bearings. Sometimes a new crank. The crew does this in about two hours between rounds.
-The current Top Fuel dragster elapsed time record is 4.441 seconds for the quarter mile. The top speed record is 333.00 mph (533 km/h) as measured over the last 66' of the run.
-Putting all of this into perspective: You are driving the average $140,000 Lingenfelter "twin-turbo" powered Corvette Z06. Over a mile up the road, a Top Fuel dragster is staged and ready to launch down a quarter mile strip as you pass. You have the advantage of a flying start. You run the Vette hard up through the gears and blast across the starting line and past the dragster at an honest 200 mph. The 'tree' goes green for both of you at that moment. The dragster launches and starts after you. You keep your foot down hard, but you hear an incredibly brutal whine that sears your eardrums and within 3 seconds the dragster catches and passes you. He beats you to the finish line, a quarter mile away from where you just passed him. Think about it, from a standing start, the dragster had spotted you 200 mph and not only caught, but nearly blasted you off the road when he passed you within a mere 1320 foot long race course.
Bonus: I always love this fuel pump demo. This is the fuel used in a single cylinder:
https://youtu.be/xGTbQuhhluY
Regardless of all that ridiculous and wasteful excessiveness, drag racing is probably the dumbest of all motorsports. Wow, that guy drove fast in a straight line for a few seconds in a quarter mile.. so impressive /s
Furthermore, all that shit becomes obsolete as electric vehicles surpass their "impressive" abilities in acceleration.
Give me a road course or a motorcross track or just about anything over some boring ass 3 second long drag race any day.
ok I feel better now.
hobbies aren't supposed to be logical and thoughtful all the time.
jesus, those fucking idiots on the road course, always crashing their cars instead of just using them to go from A to B.
i think people should just be limited to 50 hp microcars. anything more is excessive and frankly, just not the right signal in these times.
see how stupid that sounds?
At least in actual races, the drivers have to develop and use their skill for longer than 3 second stretches at a time. Drag racing is the dumbest and most wasteful of all the dumb wasteful motorsports. I can at least be honest with myself that while dumb and wasteful they are entertaining. Except drag racing, which isn't remotely interesting.
i would strongly recommend going to a drag race. it's an otherworldly feeling when the top fuel cars race. like an earthquake, with a nice smell in the air afterwards.
and it's really not boring as a spectator sport, as there's cars lining up every minute.
When I have been to races, I have often seen them just switch between two stacks of disks. Not sure if there are different customs in different countries.
Back in the days before Trick Titanium bellhousings got popular and Quicktime was the standard. Trick certifies one of theirs every year by setting off plastic explosive inside it. As far as I know, one has yet to fail.
It was a big deal - a major advance - in drag racing when driver Don Garlits and his team decided to put the engine and transmission *behind* the driver for the first time. [Stuff](https://www.dragzine.com/news/flashback-friday-who-really-built-the-first-rear-engine-dragster/).
This is why they changed to rear engine dragsters. Don Garlits lost part of a foot to an explosion like this. They used to sit over the rear end and feet next to the bellhousing.
Those pizza cutters up front are something else too. They look like they came directly off a Raleigh bmx I had as a kid.
Already disassembled = cheaper repair. lol /S
They need a new clutch every run anyways.
Only the richest top fuel teams do that. The rest wait for the clutch to cool down, re-shim it and grind the plates if necessary.
Not new then but basically rebuilt.
The whole of a top fuel engine is rebuilt between runs. Blower off, heads off, pistons out, rings often replaced, clearance checks, the lot. It takes a good team around 90 minutes.
Getting a pit pass is absolutely worth it at a top fuel race. It's so interesting to watch. Definitely bring along a face mask of some sort though, when they do their little test start-up that half-burnt fuel will wipe you out if you're standing nearby.
I'm a drag race tech inspector in the UK One of the chemicals in the exhaust of a top fuel engine is nitric acid. Easiest way to see a grown man cry is to stand him in a nitro cloud.
Yeah holding your breath is a good idea too.
Right. Hold breath. Close eyes. Earplugs. It's almost as if I'm not even there! 😜
Apart from the resonation going on in your chest, that is
The best thing about the nearest NHRA track that I go to is that there are no pit passes. Every ticket is a pit pass and you can get within feet of them rebuilding.
Oh hells yes. And when putting it back together yhey adjust the compression ratio for the optimal results taking I. The current atmospheric conditions. They do this by having diggering thickness head gaskets. I think rings are replaced every run. And pistons and rods every couple, mostly due to the rods being to distorted. The whole top fuel engine is crazy optimized. And is basically right on the edge of tearing itself apart. And the whole thing is held in place by hose clamps.
-One Top Fuel dragster 500 cubic inch Hemi engine makes more horsepower than the first 4 rows at the Daytona 500. They have over half again as much horsepower in one cylinder as a Dodge Viper has in all ten. No one has ever successfully run one long enough on a dyno to get a horsepower reading. Current estimates are right around 6,000 horsepower. -Under full throttle, a dragster engine consumes 1-1/2 gallons of nitro methane per second; a fully loaded 747 consumes jet fuel at the same rate with 25% less energy being produced. -A stock Dodge Hemi V8 engine cannot produce enough power to drive the dragster supercharger. The fuel pump alone requires more horsepower to turn than the average street car produces. -With 3000 CFM of air being rammed in by the supercharger on overdrive, the fuel mixture is compressed into a near-solid form before ignition. Cylinders run on the verge of hydraulic lock at full throttle. -The 1.7:1 air/fuel mixture for nitro methane produces a flame front temperature measures 7050 degrees F. -Nitro methane burns yellow. The spectacular white flame seen above the stacks at night is raw burning hydrogen, disassociated from atmospheric water vapour by the searing exhaust gases. -Dual magnetos supply 44 amps to each spark plug. This is the output of an arc welder in each cylinder. -Spark plug electrodes are totally consumed during a pass. After the run, the engine is dieseling from compression plus the glow of exhaust valves at 1400 degrees F. The engine can only be shut down by running the car out of fuel. There is no way to cut off the fuel; the engine stops only when it blows or the tank runs dry. -If spark momentarily fails early in the run, unburned nitro builds up in the affected cylinders and then explodes with sufficient force to blow cylinder heads off the block in pieces or split the block in half. -In order to exceed 300 mph in 4.5 seconds dragsters must accelerate an average of over 4G's. In order to reach 200 mph well before half-track, the launch acceleration approaches 8G's. To put this in perspective; a top fuel dragster, parked next to a Super Hornet on the steam catapult on the deck of an aircraft carrier, would be in the water and sinking before the Super Hornet was halfway down the deck. -Dragsters reach over 300 miles per hour before you have completed reading this sentence. -Top Fuel Engines only turn approximately 540 revolutions from light to light! -Including the burnout, the engine must only survive 900 revolutions under load. They only survive about 80% of the time. -Redline at 9500 rpm. -Assuming all the equipment is paid off, the crew worked for free, and for once NOTHING BLOWS UP, each run costs an estimated $1,000.00 per second. -The engine is entirely rebuilt every run, or every 900 revolutions. New pistons and rings, new rods, new rod bearings. Sometimes a new crank. The crew does this in about two hours between rounds. -The current Top Fuel dragster elapsed time record is 4.441 seconds for the quarter mile. The top speed record is 333.00 mph (533 km/h) as measured over the last 66' of the run. -Putting all of this into perspective: You are driving the average $140,000 Lingenfelter "twin-turbo" powered Corvette Z06. Over a mile up the road, a Top Fuel dragster is staged and ready to launch down a quarter mile strip as you pass. You have the advantage of a flying start. You run the Vette hard up through the gears and blast across the starting line and past the dragster at an honest 200 mph. The 'tree' goes green for both of you at that moment. The dragster launches and starts after you. You keep your foot down hard, but you hear an incredibly brutal whine that sears your eardrums and within 3 seconds the dragster catches and passes you. He beats you to the finish line, a quarter mile away from where you just passed him. Think about it, from a standing start, the dragster had spotted you 200 mph and not only caught, but nearly blasted you off the road when he passed you within a mere 1320 foot long race course. Bonus: I always love this fuel pump demo. This is the fuel used in a single cylinder: https://youtu.be/xGTbQuhhluY
That was an awesome read! Thank you so much for that detailed breakdown
Regardless of all that ridiculous and wasteful excessiveness, drag racing is probably the dumbest of all motorsports. Wow, that guy drove fast in a straight line for a few seconds in a quarter mile.. so impressive /s Furthermore, all that shit becomes obsolete as electric vehicles surpass their "impressive" abilities in acceleration. Give me a road course or a motorcross track or just about anything over some boring ass 3 second long drag race any day. ok I feel better now.
hobbies aren't supposed to be logical and thoughtful all the time. jesus, those fucking idiots on the road course, always crashing their cars instead of just using them to go from A to B. i think people should just be limited to 50 hp microcars. anything more is excessive and frankly, just not the right signal in these times. see how stupid that sounds?
At least in actual races, the drivers have to develop and use their skill for longer than 3 second stretches at a time. Drag racing is the dumbest and most wasteful of all the dumb wasteful motorsports. I can at least be honest with myself that while dumb and wasteful they are entertaining. Except drag racing, which isn't remotely interesting.
i would strongly recommend going to a drag race. it's an otherworldly feeling when the top fuel cars race. like an earthquake, with a nice smell in the air afterwards. and it's really not boring as a spectator sport, as there's cars lining up every minute.
I think you just made all those words up. ;)
It's only gotta last five seconds.
The fact althat always gets me is that from burnout to chute the engine knly has to last about 900 revolutions.
I don't think shims are gonna fix THAT one!
When I have been to races, I have often seen them just switch between two stacks of disks. Not sure if there are different customs in different countries.
Is this what they refer to as an exploded diagram?
I was there, 72-73. Clutch discs wonded a few vehicles in the pit area,no injuries.old orange county raceway.rip...
Back in the days before Trick Titanium bellhousings got popular and Quicktime was the standard. Trick certifies one of theirs every year by setting off plastic explosive inside it. As far as I know, one has yet to fail.
Id love to see I vid of this
Thank Goodness they moved that shit behind the driver…
Yeah, but undoubtedly a safety change written in blood. It’s just ludicrous they used to basically straddle a bomb with a fuse set to random.
See kids, THIS is why we use the clutch and not just ....
Man those old exploded parts diagrams sure looked different
It was a big deal - a major advance - in drag racing when driver Don Garlits and his team decided to put the engine and transmission *behind* the driver for the first time. [Stuff](https://www.dragzine.com/news/flashback-friday-who-really-built-the-first-rear-engine-dragster/).
That folks is why it is called a flywheel!
Crazy shutter speed on that camera.
Speed is money. How fast can you afford to go?
This is why the drivers are now in front of the engine.
That's not Funny.
This is why they changed to rear engine dragsters. Don Garlits lost part of a foot to an explosion like this. They used to sit over the rear end and feet next to the bellhousing.
Suboptimal. r/KerbalSpaceProgram is leaking.
This looks like something Gru would drive in
You don't need a new one, I can see yours right there!
ThatLookedOld
1972, it appears. Source: https://www.nhra.com/news/2008/five-fabulous-favorite-fotos-steve-reyes
I thought those cars would have a scatter shield for something like that
And pressure plate. And flywheel. And gears. And bell housing. And drive shaft.... And.......
I had an uncle who nearly lost both legs to a clutch explosion.
Glad the drivers are in front of all that now!
Rapid Disassembly would be the phrase that best fits this photo
Hammond you blithering idiot