Pre-1980 2CV 2x2WD Gas Turbine - Please don't judge me

Busy Saturday morning so after lunch I called out the troops aka Uncle Rob and Neighbour Geoff to hold stuff, press buttons, give bad advice and generally talk sh!t. Basically when any guys get together without wimmin.

Set up outside the Lair before the boys got here.



Tank filled with 5 litres of Kero (28 second heating oil)



Many leaks in the fuel line ensued. Uncle Rob and Neighbour Geoff pointed them all out with much hilarity. Here is a technical finger



You will now see why I don't do videos. Couldn't trust Rob with the phone and Geoff had backed so far off he was nearly in the next county but he was ready to call the emergency services so we decided on a vote of 2 to 1 that Rob was the most expendable. Simplified start sequence goes as follows, push trailer to block footpath gate, close farm cow gate; that stops walkers going past. Turn on fuel tap, kill switch to on, press red button until amber light goes off and pray for sustain.



We didn't get complete sustain and so had a wet start. Two things, why didn't we get sustain and now we need to purge the system. Purging is easy, just fuel off, crank her up, and blow a lot of a air through. Try not to breathe the fog of unburnt Kero



No sustain? The Brayton cycle is still air, fuel and spark and we had air and spark so it was likely it was fuel. As it's a ground running APU the fuel is gravity fed in the Vulcan but from a greater height than the start cart. We needed more height which would give more fuel pressure. A search of the Lair for a height improver led to this beauty. Just call me MacGyver.



It lives! It's effin' noisy. Won't get this on a 105dB track session.



STOPPO PRESSO as the Italians say. My friend Darren who now a MSA Trainee Clerk of Course pointed out we were getting lots of reflected noise from the wall in the background. We'll haul it into one of the fields and measure again but at a thirst of one litre a minute I need to go out and buy some more Kero and annoy another set of neighbours

Ps, sound levels are usually measured at 1 metre

I am humbled you took my advice serious. It's a rare thing these days, whether it is at work, or at home.
Even if you decide against it, this means a lot to me.

Daan

The boy (15) just wandered in when I had the video up.

B “what are those old men doing? “
J “Getting a jet engine ready to go in the back of a 2CV.”
B “Why”
J “because they are old and still stupid “
B “fair enough “

Praise indeed.

James

Brilliantly done.

Great job team.

This is genuinely awesome. It's probably just as well I don't have this much technical know-how. My neighbours would have likely lynched me and I'd be divorced and broke.

Carry on!

Another word, nutter.

Great stuff, does this mean the fuel tank is going on the roof of the 2CV.

Awesome work! I used to run Ruston turbines back when I worked offshore. Those things were a nightmare to start, it took two people on the controls (all 1960's technology), one at the front of the panel to push the buttons and one in the back to pull out wires and put links in to keep gas on longer and hold certain valves open/closed. You would sync your watch to the moment the "start" button was pressed so that you could fault find on the scabby logic diagram and listen to the breakers switching to know when the starter motor had disengaged and the Ac lube oil pump had come on. Getting the 4 "burners lit" indicators and 8 thermocouples within temperature tolerance on a first attempt was a rare moment of joy!

While you were crawling over the controls the whole control room would be filling with the noise of the turbine winding up and if the curse word started you got the rumble and vibration of the crude oil pump that it turned driving oil down the pipeline.