As the Eclipse naps in the shop, we leave it be in order to enjoy some other student challenges and accomplishments.
One of our senior engine rebuilding students competes in local tractor pulls. He was kind enough to bring to school one of his many hand built custom tractors. Once rolled off the trailer, he took us through the process of transforming the factory lawn tractor into a mean heavy hauling machine!
The tractor can run on alcohol, has a lengthened chassis, and can pull over 5000 pounds on a single run! This crafty student has been able to create a single piston engine that can pump out more horsepower per cylinder than a high power V8 sports car! Well done!
After the tractor tour, two other engine rebuilding students had completed work on a very unique science project within our course. Mr. Da Silva issued a challenge to create and build a digital fuel injection system for the V8 and V6 engines that were being rebuilt, so they could run digitally, instead of the old carburetor set up.
So, after learning the principles of basic digital fuel injection, we used old car parts and new Arduino microprocessor technology to assemble an electronic fuel delivery system. It ran off the Arduino processor and its own program designed by the students who had learned a great deal about electronics engineering in Mr. Mazer's engineering program.
The main components include the Arduino processor and breakout box...
A solid state relay for control isolation and load capacity...
A GM throttle body with low pressure fuel injectors
And a computer with the Arduino environment to run the software for the system...
After our V8 engine sat on the test bench, it took some fine tuning of the injector pulse width, but after a few tries, we brought the old Chevrolet 305 cubic inch V8 to life! It was a very exciting moment for everyone!!!
Teachers vividly appreciate the passion within students to synthesize the knowledge they have learned in class in a manner which helps solve or improve challenges in real world scenarios. Mr. Da Silva is certainly proud of the combined efforts of his students! Way to go!!!
Until next week, we will keep our motors runnin'!
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