Playing with a new motor

[Leon]

I've been doing a little tinkering on the motor for the lakester and finally have enough done so I can figure how much space I need in the chassis.  The engine is a Honda B-18 normally used in a front wheel drive, but has been converted to rear wheel drive.  It normally ran CCW but part of the conversion is to spin it the other way.



Here's a shot with the custom bellhousing to mount the T-10

[enjenjo]

Looks pretty. Was it a lot of hassle to spin it the other way?

[BFS57]

Hello;
It looks pretty darn nice to me!
I know that the Indy racers use Honda engines ran on ethanol! Man, those engines scream! And the cars go fast as hell!

Bruce

[GPster]

Having played with Corvairs I always wondered the best way to do direction changes like that. Could you run the rear end upside-down? would a regular transmission want to kick itself out of gear if everything in it was running backwards. Does the oil pump in a motor have to be reverse rotation? does the change in rotation of the firing order make the engine vibrate? Years agoI heard a stock car running an asphalt track and it sounded different. I asked why and the engine was reversed rotation. The builder thought engine's rotation torque would be different in loading the tires for traction. How Big is that engine and what class are you headed for? GPster

[Leon]

The engine is 1900cc so I'm going for G/GL initially.  The stock oil pump is junk at high rpm even if I could get it to work reverse, so that's why the dry sump system.  Since a 4 cylinder is a even firing engine, reversing it shouldn't sound any different.  By spinning the engine CW I won't have any problems with the tranny or rear, it should look like any other motor to those parts.  The major consideration is to rephase the cams so the intake and exhaust occur in the right sequence, and since they are separate, it's easy to switch the order.  I just have to rephase them when I hook up the belt.  I also have to scrap the water pump that runs off the cam belt, so I'm running an electric.  Less HP loss anyway that way.  I do have to figure a cam belt tensioning setup that will go on the other side of the engine since I'm pulling the belt the other way.  That shouldn't be too big of a deal.  to start the motor, I took the starter that normally came in from the tranny side and moved it around to hit the flywheel from the engine side.  I had a clutch disk made that fits the Honda with Ford input splines to mate to the T-10.  I will have the crank polished in a clockwise direction when I have the machine work done so I don't tear up bearings.  Not really that hard to run the engine the opposite direction.

[purplepickup]

Leon, I've always been impressed with the work you do and this is no exception.  That's a sweet setup.

I think you talked to me about a land speed car once but I don't remember the details.  Have you posted any pics of your lakester yet and I missed them?

[Leon]

I don't have the car built yet, getting the drivetrain mocked up is the first step so I know how much room I need in the body to fit everything.  So far it's looking like I'll need to add a 4' section to the middle of the stock F86 drop tank making it about 16' long.  Next step will be to drag one of the tanks into the shop and start cutting and welding on it.