hydros.biz Lowrider hydraulics information

WARNING:

DO NOT TRY TO MAKE THIS SYSTEM, UNTIL THIS ARTICLE IS FINISHED
THIS ARTICLE WILL HAVE EXTREME WARNINGS ON WHAT NOT TO DO



Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxP4TY_jtrs


Keeping in mind this idea was in the works for years, finally decided to make it happened. Once started, it took approx 120 hours and approx $1,500.

In short:

Using a piston pump, once the switch is hit, the motor spins up pumping fluid to the cylinders, then at the same time, a valve opens up to allow high pressure from an external nitro tank into the back side of the piston.  All this pressure is not only pushing fluid into the pump head, but pumping fluid directly into the return ports of the block and out to the cylinders.

On dumping, all the gasses are exhausted and all fluids return via the dump valve.  (or turbine if this is another idea). Nitrogen is used because it does not explode and does not compress.

Plenty of pics on how this was done coming soon.

This is how we got 3.5" with a #11 pump head on 24VDC on a Regal V8 using full stack of 3 1/2 (wrong for a 6 cylinder) ton coils

first a compressed gas was needed, as in the tanks used for welding. Pure oxygen is explosive, nitrogen was chosen instead.
Then two dump valves were needed, one at the nitro tank to allow it's pressure to flow into the piston pump tank, and the other dump valve to allow pressure to leave the piston pump tank.

1)  The nitro tank dump valve is wired so that when the piston pump motor engages, the dump valve opens.
once the switch is at rest or off the up side position, then the dump valve closes. - Once the valve opens, this causes the nitro to force the piston toward the pump head, which forces fluid under greater pressure to prime the pump head. And at the same time, by-passing the pump head and forcing fluid straight to the cylinders via the return ports drilled into the piston pump block.

2) The second gas dump is wired to open when the cars dump valve also dumps. The second gas pressure dump valve opens and allows the pump piston to return. As the piston returns, it is allowing two different flows of fluid to return, one is from the regular dump valve, and the other is from the drilled out return ports in the block itself.

I choose spool valves as they hold pressure on both (port) sides at the same time. This spool valve was needed from the nitro tank to the piston pump air/gas chamber.

The first and second images are what was basically used, the last image it doubling if one valve fails to open.

NOTE, all valves used are normally closed.

This is the look at the first gas tank, got it at a garage sale for $5.00,  it's made of steel.  The treads on the hand valve were a 99% match, for what was planned, BUT, not 100%.  At the counter of the gas shop they told me it was a good thing they got a look at it first.

They sent the tank in to have the hand valve changed, and was pressure tested, or hydro tested. What was returned was the same tank with a new tag and the correct hand valve for nitro, and was filled with approx 1,800 PSI of nitro.

They had some tanks made of aluminum, but something about them was just not good or safe enough to use.

Those brass fittings allow you to attach what ever hose or fittings you have in mind. We used NPT and JIC

When looking straight into the hand valve, (no pic, but you can just see part of it in the top pic) you can see another fitting inside of it, this extra fitting will slow down the flow of gas as the orifice is too small.  It's there for safety and strength of the hand valve.

to be CONT...

When the first generation BMH (black magic hydraulics) piston tank came it it was a one piece deal, the backing plate was part of the cylinders or casing. -

First thing we needed to do was decide what type of dump valve/s to use and then how, many holes needed to be drilled into the tank.

A three-way or 3 ports valve only needed one hole at the backing plate, but this might have caused unneeded restriction. (as it was decided to use flow and not pressure to charge the gas chamber. SO, two holes were drilled and taped for NPT, and a 2-way Hydro-aire green was used for -
intake and an industrial dump valve was used for exhaust.

First the piston had to be removed, the shrader valve was removed and all the fluid was dumped out, then the tank was place upside down and air pressure applied to the port made for the shrader valve, using about 15PSI, the piston came out

First pic is all the gunk and chips and old rings I found in the original tank, had to clean it all up.

Note first image has shrader valve removed, top center

Next pics show everything all cleaned up and we can now measure how thick that bottom section is:
length of tank on the outside is 10" -
inside is 9.5" = 1/2" plate thick plate.

The last pics shows the original valve and recessed area on the piston so that the two don't hit each other while in use/misuse.

The top two pics show the fittings for the high pressure gas hoses. I had to have a machine ship do that work.  Because of transporting and fluid management, shut offs had to be installed at what was the original return fluid ports located at the block.

The next to last pic shows the schrader valve has been replaced with a plug and we have jumped ahead to show the intake and exhaust hoses.

This is ready to bolt on and test, during tests, one of the hold down screw bodies broke loose and another cracked. This may have happened at around 800 PSI

NEXT UP, DEFECTS WITH TANK

Here's the problem, that welding screw bodies actually has two different size holes tapped. One side has bolts coming through the block and into the thread body.  The other side of the thread body is made to look like the hold down rods and backing plate are real. There are not even needed, it's to fool people into thinking is was a regular gate pump.
So the thread were too short as well as the welds were weak.

Believe is or not, the first pic is most likely the most amazing pic you have ever seen of any gate pump, It's a one of a kind that you will never see in a car show.
why it's so small I don't know, try to blow it up to see the real engineering involved in making this pump work.

Here is how the tank looked after 10x as strong threaded bolts were added. They has a tinsel strength of 17,000 pounds or PSI (?)  Got them from Grainger.

The backing plate was made from a steel pro-hopper backing plate. Note the ghetto drilling of the hole for the hoses.  

You may not be able to see them, but the old threaded sleeve were never removed, just rotate the tank.

cont...

next up and good look at the block and the use of all it's ports.

Looking at block from the pump head side, we can see two holes drilled in at about 5 and 7 o'clock.  These ports are made so you can position your return plumbing on the left or right side. These ports are also used when building a double pump setup. The return port from one block can be connected to the return port of the other block. So it's like have a whammy tank to equalize the fluid levels in both tanks.

Now there is something very special about these return ports, is that they can be used as pressure ports. It's when you pump a huge amount of gas pressure on the gas side of the piston that can cause the car to raise. Not only will the gas pressure cause the return ports to force fluid to the cylinders, the fluid pressure is also forced past the gears and check valve.

If you hit the switch, you'll also have the gears adding additional pressure to lift the car.

You can't keep all this pressure in the tank as the car will never dump, the gas pressure that is lifting the car must be expelled.

cont...

gas tanks used
configurations
more pics

UPDATED 11-1-2015


I now have another BMH piston pump, and another idea on how to control the high pressure nitro gas. It makes it more simple.

And I now have 3 Adex dumps to insure correct action to purge any left over gas and also as a added safety devise/s.

The big Green is still an option, but, I'll need to buy one or two if the 3-ways don't work.

It is my belief that I do not need Adex valves, Adels would be better, as I believe I need sloppy valves for the gas pressure. I also have four NOS aerospace #8 valves that might be used. Remember, Adel and Adex perform well as they close very fast.  I don't need that with gas.