Professor Morris, we will happily absorb any and all knowledge you are willing to impart to the class. If school had been this interesting, a lot of us would've done much better. Another wonderful lesson, thank you.
I remember doing the math back around 1990. After 6000 rpms the stresses blew my mind. I always tried to build bigger cube engines that peak around 6-6500. I love the sound of 8000+ but it's hard to keep that stuff alive for long intervals. Keep showing this kind of stuff, it's eye opening to most people.
That’s very true. With modern low displacement engines revving to the moon it’s hard to get a sense of a big block over 450ci doing that kind of rpm. That’s a lot of big parts moving very quickly lol
My dad was a math guy. He would show me this kind of stuff when I was a kid so when things broke, I understood why. Thanks Steve, for bringing back memories of the greatest man I ever knew.
Can Steve apply boost techniques and methods to the carpentry arena?! Imagine a nail gun ran by a compressor with an SMX! Some serious Rambo action for the average framer. 🤣😂🤣😂
This is exactly why I watch this channel. I always though it was the compression stroke that broke the little end of a connecting rod, but this makes so much more sense! I agree that even touching the high side rev limiter is catastrophic, but I wasn't factoring in the weight of the piston, just the violence of the spark cut and the chaos that it creates. Thank you Steve for the lesson! Keep them rolling.
As a mechanical engineer, I love this math and real-life examples! You have tested (blown up) more engines than most and done forensics to understand where safety margins come into play. Thank you for sharing your hard-earned wisdom!
Great video Steve; I turned wrenches most of my adult life and still learn something new with almost every video you put out; IMHO, you're among the best of the best in the world of engine building, and your willingness to share it with us, makes you one awsome dude. God Speed, Mr Morris.
EVERYONE! BIG APPRECIATIONS FOR STEVE MORRIS!!! SM Shines a huge spotlight on a normally "semisecret sauce" of a self gain sport! AWESOME, for young GEAR-HEADS, to have the opportunity to peer inside the inner workings of STEVE'S speed freak creations, mechanical machinations and DOMINATING motivations!!! He is a driving, ploughing force full speed ahead illuminating the way like a virulent global pandemic...for the next GENERATION!!! GOD BLESS STEVE MORRIS!!!
I remember a bunch of this from the mid 80's in college, now that you bring it back up. At that same time Indy cars were experimenting with ceramic pistons, ceramic pins (or ceramic composites )and magnesium rods. I seem to remember that the failures were because of harmonics, not just the pressures. Now to start with, we're also talking about 3-4 liter 10-16 cylinder engines running 10000+ RPM VS 500+ Cubic inch V8's. So pistons are gonna be much smaller... I'd love to hear your take on this...
The dynamic loads in an engine are truly amazing, not only on the rod piston combination but also the valve spring, rocker arm and pushrod setup. Cam followers can leave the cam profile at max lift and valves can bounce off of the seats as the cam loses control of the follower when closing. Pushrods can bend and flex adding more dynamic forces to the valve, follower, spring combination also. It's amazing that these high performance engines can even get down the track.
Stuff like this would be for a number cruncher math whiz. At 150 RPS, figure out how much a single oil ring weighs, the top ring, and then the wrist pin. I just askefdy, but I'll do it again. At 150 revs per second, how many miles per hour is a piston traveling in a mile. .......I can divide by four, do I'll do that part of the equation 😁
The ramp rates on modern roller cams are insane and never would have been possible without improvements in spring technology and metallurgy in general and the rates still produce enough force to clean break massive aluminum rockers with enough passes. Nothing quite like the exponential curve of going towards near infinite dynamic loads mathematically and then figuring out just how far you have to back the ramp off to keep things alive. Pushing limits is an understatement!
@@ElliHarper I tried it a few different ways, all wild math and doubt my math is remotely close. I was encouraging some math braniac to do it correctly. I guessed 4.5 inches stroke at 150 strokes per second. There's 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour and there is 5280 feet in a mile Somewhere in there, there must be an equation. I can't wrap my brain around it. The piston is also traveling at zero mph at one point...... but don't blink. 😁 I tried again and came up with 460 mph. ......you don't want to have me as your accountant. 😁
@@randywl8925 with those figures its more like 76 MPH mean piston speed, 4.5 x 300 (150 strokes per second means it doers a full rotation 150 times per second which means it travels the stroke distance twice that number) times that number by 60 and 60 again to get inches per hour travelled, then divide by 12 to get feet per hour, then by 5280 to get MPH
Thank you Steve, man, it’s so cool learning some of this stuff. That’s why engines cost the prices they do. You’re paying for a lifetime’s worth of experience
This is an OUTSTANDING video, Steve!! Everything is math, including the physics. Some people clearly don't get why quality engines cost like they do. There's also a reason why F1 pistons are exotic aluminum alloys and cost $50K each to make less than 1/4 of the HP in a SMX while being able to accelerate like a rocket.
To be fair to those F1 guys, they are making their thousand-ish horsepower out of less than 100 ci (1.6l), which is a restriction Steve doesn't have to fight against
Building a race, motor. A race motor that’s is better than the competition!! Absolutely needs this kind of attention to detail!!! Exactly why SME, is so good!! Great video! Great information!! Steve.
I fell asleep listening to this last night, we had a really interesting conversation about how often you have to fix overrevved toys in my dreams. It was awesomely hilarious. Yes do more of these.
Definitely good to have these more in depth videos on the engineering side of engine building. For me, the piston weight during operation was one of the first things taught. I'm a little surprised you didn't mention pre-detonation with this. Sprinkle some pre-det and maybe jumped timing for good measure, and maybe I won't be the only one twitching from bad memories of bone headed mistakes, lol.
ABSOLUTELY LOVE this kind of technical information. I am a total gearhead, and this is the meat of my spiritual food! Keep up the great work, Steve. You are a blessing to all of us that love engines but can't afford to play with them to this degree. Thank you and may His face continue to smile on you!
Thanks Steve for taking the time to go over this type of data. Just wondering about coatings and how much they help in the life of the piston. Again thank you.
Thank you Steve for taking the time out of your busy schedule to share your knowledge and help others. You Sir are a genius when it comes to drag racing. Once again thank you for sharing your time with all of us. 💪👍
Very interesting. The extreme forces at play are amazing. I think it would also be interesting to compare the numbers on the parts it takes for different engines to live at different power levels. This might help put in perspective the extreme nature your engines. Thanks
Keep it coming Steve. 3500 hp dyno pulls are sweet but stuff like this sets you apart from other automotive channels. Is there any way to calculate how much it takes to spool a turbo based on engine size and turbo combinations ?
I am always here for the tech, definitely keep it coming. I’d love to see something about cylinder pressure from combustion. I would imagine comparing idle combustion to peak torque would be as crazy as when you added little bits of RPM above 8500 with the piston weight.
Excellent analogy of what it takes to keep these things alive. The forces inside racing engines is phenomenal. Lightened parts get Quickly into the "Area of negative returns" lol
Excellent lesson Steve. I always learn something from your videos. It is just amazing that any engine can contain the forces that take place internally, let alone produce 5000+ hp.
Awesome tehnical information, which is great too know from all aspects, which gives you more appreciation for the R&D put into the build... Thanks Steve Morris, love all your content!
Mr Steve, I have been a diesel mechanic for 14 years now. I’m 32 from Ga., I’ve been watching your channel for the past few years and I absolutely enjoy your videos especially the informative ones. “Caution, you may learn something from watching this channel” I remember when you started putting this in your videos and it is always absolutely true. I know a good bit, but knowledge is amazing and power. Keep doing you man. Btw I would love to see a SMF “ford big block your design and improvements”. Wish I could afford either one even the SML even though I’m not a fan of them even with their name and support. I enjoy quality but more so I enjoy good people in this crazy ass world, and I believe you are one of those good people, simply because you help others and share knowledge, “maybe not secrets, but that’s ok lol”, so I do thank you sir and I thank all of those who read this and fall in the same good people category.
I love the knowledge you share. As a heavy equipment mechanic that works on diesel engines, I knew there was a lot of stress on the rotating group, but I did not think it was that much. Now I'm going to do the math on a 13.5 liter.
Steve your information is very interesting and every time I watch one of your videos, I learn something. I am not a hot rod guy, but I am an Engineer and I have interest in your designing engines. Keep up the good work.
This is why I love your channel if my wife doesn’t understand something I tell her I have her watch your videos because you make it easy for someone that doesn’t understand engines to understand what you are trying to explain to them and for that I thank you
Fascinating stuff. How ANY of this works is truly amazing to me. Please keep sharing and educating all of us. Maybe a collab sometime with Engineering Explained? He could maybe fill in some of the gaps in math/equations, but I still feel like some of this is just pure magic 😆
Steve, I'm interested in the loads placed on the crankshaft during the gear change and what the difference is between a wide ratio gear set and a close ratio set. I greatly appreciate your knowledge and willingness to share.
Love your videos Steve. You mentioned the lack of countering forces at TDC on exhaust causing greater stress. I am trying to model this in my mind and I think that the greatest stresses on the rod are at about 90 degrees past TDC on intake stroke. I believe the greatest rate of change of velocity per degree of crank angle (acceleration) would occur at about 90 degrees past TDC (with possibly some correction for errors due to rod length and stroke). However, none of this really changes the forces the math is showing.
I believe you are correct in terms of stresses on the shank of the rod- tension vs compression and leverage is greatest at 90* thereby having the highest difference in tension and compression loads on the rod shank (but during the combustion cycle, not intake). Steve is bringing to light the force that most people don’t think about- inertia weight of a piston not under compression and how much energy the pin and rod are overcoming to keep the piston in a cozy warm block. At 90* ATDC the piston weight acting on the rod is much lower than the force it takes to stop and reverse the piston. The high RPM changes things- inertia weight. In the engines I work with, large bore industrial diesel, the highest forces and wear spots are on the opposite side of the wrist pin bore but these engines don’t even see 2K RPMs.
I was a kid of 16 when my education on building 10K RPM small block Chevy motors began. After more than 50 yrs, I'm still amazed the pile of cast iron, steel & aluminum we call engines don't turn into scrap every time the throttle gets mashed. (Not entirely sure there's no black magic, voodoo or alien influence involved.) When you pay for & build your own engines, you have to force the knowledge of the tremendous stresses put on engine components out of your mind. Otherwise, you'd never be able to wind one up to 7,500 & dump the clutch, (for all you youngsters, think release the little button.) To anyone who's never built an engine, brought it to life & abused the hell out of it racing, it's a mind boggling experience & hard to explain. It's also hard to explain the depths of despair you feel when you break one, too! LOL Love when you geek out on the science, Steve; it's hard not to be giddy, when a guy thinks about this chit. GeoD
I was thinking same thing and looking for others to say same thing but so far you are the only one. (2 minutes later) I just did the math... and the number was the same. So...never mind. We thought too much about it.
Because it is all multiplication, you can swap the order as you wish and it will give the same results. This is called associativity. Not true if you mix in + and -.
I would love to see a video on how many pounds of cylinder pressure is pushing on the bottom of a cylinder head on a boosted application! I’ve lifted the head on a couple of engines under boost and just the thought of it stretching the head studs is mind boggling to me.
Is valve train still the limiting factor, or is it normally piston speed when your setting a rpm limit? Or a factor of both? Love the knowledge Steve. I’m a carpenter but cars have been my passion from before I had a license. Been messing with them just as long 😂
Great question. I often wonder whether using a big block billet bottom end plus an overhead cam design would live longer. 4 valves would certainly be lighter rotational mass on the valve train.
@@skeetamacgyver1821Yes, it would live longer and flow better, but the 3 extra cams and wider and higher engine means you could just increase displacement instead. The ls has a much bigger displacement while being lighter and more compact than a coyote, so in case of a v8 it may just not be worth it.
It’s not in your wheelhouse, but as thorough as your processes, your vast knowledge and understanding, it’d be a blessing if you could build my NA Pontiac engine.
This is a knockout presentation of the loads on the piston/rod combo. Don't stop making these informative vids! I am using a lot of your info in the building and observation of my pulling tractor engine.
My oldest brother was an engine builder before he passed away. He had is own shop in Douglasville GA, Hurricane performance. Thank you Steve for this useful knowledge.
Love the math stuff! It blows my mind to try and wrap my head around the times per second the piston travels up and down. Thanks Steve, for taking the time to make the great content...
Steve, this one of the best ever you tube's have seen. As someone who as studied engineering and built few engines this spoke volumes to me, and confirmed your wonderful experience. Thank you from Australia.
I'm not the best with numbers but you always have a knack at explaining in a way that makes it easy to digest. Thanks again for another video, Steve. God bless!
Love it. I’m a cross over from Clay Millican’s channel, and this is almost as good. I’m a techie. Love and appreciate all of this, make the videos as long as you want.
I love watching you explain the nerdy side of engine building one thing I would love to see is a sit down video again just talking about your life when you started building engines and how it's advanced over the years to where your business is now
