How to build your own Jet Engine

Step 2 Get yourself a turbo charger and hide away in the garage building your insane jet powered contraption!

Use care when selecting your turbocharger! You need a large turbo with a single (non-divided) turbine inlet. The bigger the turbo, the more thrust your finished engine will produce. I like the turbos off of large diesel engines and earth moving equipment. The use of one of these turbos will yield enough thrust output to move a vehicle of some sort pretty well. It is best to buy a rebuilt unit if possible. Ebay is the way to go here, as you can really save some money.

As a general rule, it is not so much the size of the whole turbo as it is the size of the inducer that matters. The inducer is the visible area of the compressor blades that can be seen when looking at the turbo's compressor with the covers (housings) on. Looking at the turbo here will show that the air inlet is quite large at almost 5 inches in diamter, while the visible blades of the inducer are only 3 inches in diameter. This is plenty for creating enough thrust to drive a mini motorcycle, go kart, or other small vehicle.

The turbo in the picture is a Cummins ST-50 off of a big 18 wheeler truck.

Comments

[aryanchopda]

hey, can anyone tell me what kind of fuel injector have to use in it?, and what kind of igniter have to use? And how we can buy or make them??? And also can there is any formulas to exactly calculate the size of combustion chamber containing flame tube. If anyone has info please send me.

[dciocoiu]

where on earth did you get your hands on an turbocharger?

[dmoses1]

how are you able to type?

[122699]

you have about a hundred u can choose from on google

[DaPaulness332]

any aftermarket car shop, ebay

[razor7177]

does the turbo charger comes with a single unit...or a double unit....?

[kikazz]

you should make more instructables

[mudler]

okay now I have question on the divided non-divided thing.if I use a divided turbo charger will the amount of thrust acordent to the fuel and burn decrease there for my acceleration ultimately becomes less and more of a hastle or will there be no difrence.also does size make a difrence or is it simply nothing at all because I'm building a tiny little gocart thing and I want the powerXweigt=thrust ratio to be correct so I don't kill my self

[supraman]

Can anyone tell me why it must have a non divided inlet? If I have one with a divided inlet can I just machine out the divider? Thanks

[2.3turbostang]

i know your post is kinda old BUT!! these turbo's are engineered to be used with a divider if they have one. basiclly they're there to keep such a big hole from becoming turbulant with air, you can knife edge the divider(port the turbo...) but dont hack it out, that turbo wil spool like crap if you do! and will be likely to get flame out when de-accelerating and spooling down. just my two cents as a professional turbo engine builder for race cars! ~tyler

[TurbineJesse]

You CAN use a divided inlet. However, a non-divided inlet is more efficient. But again, you can use a divided inlet, and your engine will still run.