Built a real working JET ENGINE out of AUTO PARTS!

Greetings to all! My name is Blackwidow23. I'm a 15 year old freshman from Chicago, IL.

The purpose of this post is to tell about something amazing that can be done, that I just finished doing.

I am going to tell you how I built a jet engine from auto parts, in hopes of inspiring other young people like myself to give it a go...the sound of success is amazing.

To begin, I will go over the principals of jet engine theory and operation. If you are strapped for time, skip this part, but I strongly suggest that you read this or unless you already know this stuff, you will become very confused.

The first jet engine was invented by Frank Whittle of England in 1933 and it was quickly patented. Simeltaniously, Hans Jorchin Von O'hain in Germany and Gampini in Italy also had the idea, but only Germany and England have the technology to follow through. By WWII, it was being used on the first fighters such as the German ME-262 and the English Gloster Meteor.

A jet engine operates off of an incredible theory of 6 general steps:

-Spool. A motor of some sort spins a fan.
-Suck. The fan begins to suck in air.
-Squeeze. Fans squeeze the air through a progressively smaller space, compressing it.
-Inject. Fuel, usually a refined kerosene (similar to diesel fuel) is vaporized, injected into a chamber. The compressed air also enters.
-Ignition. A high energy spark ignites the mixture of fuel and air.
-Blow. Hot gases blast out the back spinning a turbine wheel. Here is where it gets REALLY cool: The turbine and compressor are connected by a common shaft, so the hot exaust gases power the compressor. It self sustains! Here is a good diagram:

www.salvatoreaiello.com...

Now on to the good stuff.

The heart of this engine is a TURBOCHARGER. It is easy to build off of because it already contains a few parts that are incredibly hard to fabricate, the compressor and turbine wheels, already connected by a common shaft. The bigger your turbocharger, the higher potential thrust for your engine. A fantastic diagram:

static.howstuffworks.com...

Now to the part that I built. Here is a list of required parts for a turbocharger based jet engine:

-Turbocharger
-Combustor
-Flame tube
-Air feed
-Fuel injector
-Spark plug
-Fuel pump
-Oil pump
-Tailpipe

Since there is no room to put a combustion chamber INSIDE the turbo itself, the combustion chamber (combustor) cant be IN the turbocharger. This means that the first thing you should fabricate is the

AIR FEED.
This is the tube that leads from the air inlet of the turbocharger to the combustion chamber. This tube needs to be no larger in diameter than the outlet itself, or you may loose pressure. Keep in mind that the "air half" of the turbo is aluminum and compressed air DOES heat up. This tube should connect into the center of the combustor.

The next thing you should fabricate is the

COMBUSTOR.
This is BY FAR THE HARDEST PART AND IT TOOK ME FIVE TRIES TO GET RIGHT!! So do not give up WHEN it doesnt work the first time.

Your housing must be made of steel or it will melt. Not it might melt, it WILL melt. I learned THAT the hard way. It should be at least twice the diameter of your turbocharger compressor wheel. Just a rule of thumb. Your air feed should feed directly into it.

Now...for the hardest part of the whole darn thing. The dreaded flame tube. The flame tube is a smaller tube inside the combustor housing that slows down air into its center and allows it to enter in a controlled fashion. It needs a very specific pattern of holes in it. It will be the hottest part of your engine. There is really no rule of thumb...its trial and error. You will have to U2U me for details on this...but a quick explanation is that there are three zones of holes. One at one end, to allow air in to the engine for combustion. One in the middle to complete combustion, and one at the end to dilute it with air and cool it. There area also holes all along the length of the tube to wrap the flame with a cusion of air and prevent the fire from ever actually touching the sides of the combustor. Mine is made out of 1/4" thick steel to withstand high temperatures.

Your fuel injector should spray lenghthwise into the flame tube at one end. Fuel pump behind it.

Your spark plug should angle into the path of the fuel to light it.

These should share a common end. It doesnt REALLY matter which, but I would suggest the end thats closest to the compressor.

The flame tube must be centered inside the combustor housing, give at least a half inch of room between the two on ALL SIDES. This is to prevent the actual housing from heating up. It needs to be sealed, so basically an inner tube centered and sealed inside a larger tube.

The next thing to do is to find a way to feed the hot gases from the flame tube into the exaust inlet back into the turbocharger. I did it like this:
' '
______________||||__
|||||||||||||||||||||||| |
___________________|

If |||||||||| is the flame tube and it angles up out of the combustor housing into the turbo.

This is important: You need an oil pump to lubricate the bearings of the turbocharger or it will irrapairably fail. And that is REALLY REALLY BAD!! I would give it a healthy 60PSI of oil at all times for a standard 3"/2" turbocharger. This is too much oil for the turbo but it wont damage it, you will just have oil dripping from it all the time. I have a pan below it where all the oil drains, and than the pump just sucks from the pan

After you hook up your oil, hook up your fuel. I use kerosene because its good for jet engines, but that again I've done this before and you should probably start with propane (no need for a fuel pump).

After all the electrical is hooked up, (spark plug, pumps, fuel injector) you need a spool. I just stick a leaf blower in the turbo inlet.

After its up to about 2000RPM, hit your fuel injector. Get it running, than turn on your fuel pump. Wait two seconds...press the spark plug button or whatever you have to start the spark plug...and if you did everything right...you will get a loud roar...and when you turn off the spark plug...it will self sustian!!!!! Slowly add fuel pressure...it will get louder and higher pitched. Voila, a jet engine!!!!!

I encourage you all to try this, the sound of success is OH SO SWEET!

-Blackwidow23

I have one question, how much did that engine cost? I too am a freshman and I have a job, but I don't make that much money! You have accopmplished a lot by building a jet engine. One more question, what are you going to attach the jet engine to?

All in all it was about $600, but if you can get someone to weld for you for free it will be SIGNIFICANTLY less.

Its mounted by a large brace on a home built hovercraft, which is powered by a leaf blower. I have gotten it up to 16mph but thats at half power and I bet I could push it to twice that.

Next step for me is an afterburner

I think that you watch too much mythbusters. Anyway, I think that I might give it a try. Are you liable for any injuries aquired during the building process?

Not liable, because I'm not supplying you with anything but instructions.

-But-

I must advise you to never ever keep much fuel at all around the thing. I run it off of a dixie cup of fuel at a time, because if anything did catch on fire, it couldnt really hurt me unless I was stupid. Dont put a big jug of kerosene behind the 1200C exaust or this might happen



and that would be bad.

I advise you to get rid of this phylosophy -

"im going to do something dangerous and sue that kid when I blow up"

and think this way -

"Im going to be very careful so I dont blow up."

Thanks for the heads up. I was just joking about me sueing you.

Here are some pics of the completed engine!

The below pic is an overview of the entire engine.

www.putfile.com...

Below is the tailpipe

www.putfile.com...

The turbocharger hooked up

www.putfile.com...

The exaust feed into the turbine wheel

www.putfile.com...

Just a pic from the front

www.putfile.com...

Compressor wheel

www.putfile.com...

Turbine wheel (14 inches away)

www.putfile.com...

Ignition a fuel holes

www.putfile.com...

Crappy pic of the flame tube...but slightly visible

www.putfile.com...

I did take a video, but the trouble is that its 151MB or something insanely crazy like that.

If you want more pics, just post here!

I have a couple of questions for you, if you don't mind?

First, what type of electronics are involved in triggering the spark plug? Does it require a constant spark or just once to light it?

Also, where are you getting your materials from? How are you aligning the locations of all your bolted components?

For the spark plug, I had an ignition key wired to a spark coil and that was wired to a distributor (with points). It was all grounded, and whenever I turn the key the fuel pump turns the distributor. It is a continuous spark, but it only NEEDS to spark once and it goes.

I got the materials from C&B welders in Chicago, IL. It was all aligned through EXTREMELY careful measuring.

MEASURE TWICE, CUT ONCE

Blackwidow23 I have a couple of questions.
What do plan to use the Jet engine for ?
Are you planning a home built aircraft ?
Cheers xpert11.

If it is all your own doing, well done, especially if you have a brain of a 15 year old!

The thing is, Where is the rest of it? I mean where's the plane bit or the cockpit for take offs? LOL

Cut your video in segments of like 5 mins each then you can link it here to the site

This better not be a hoax!

Aircraft? What aircraft? I cant build an aircraft. Maybe a gokart but not an aircraft.

As for the video, I cant even load it onto the computer due to the fact that its in MINI-DV format and I dont have the software.

Originally posted by BlackWidow23
Aircraft? What aircraft? I cant build an aircraft. Maybe a gokart but not an aircraft.

A Go Kart powered by a jet engine I would like to see that.
If you can build a jet engine why cant you build an air frame ?

That would be AWSOME!!! Enter a gocart race. If they will ask what that is on the back of the car, just tell them that it is just an exaust pipe. Then kick the afterburner on the last lap to win the race!