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Jet Powered Go-Kart

Hi all, this is a go kart which is powered by a home-made Gas Turbine (Jet Engine), it is the result of 6 months of planning and 3 months of building. The kart and the engine was all home-made thanks to some kind people who helped me find some hard to find parts.

I do know that the engine runs, but as of today (20/Oct/11) I am not sure if it will get any decent speed and I cant find out until April 2012 as it is a fire hazard.

The Turbo Charger was $700AU
The total cost was $1600AU

Specifications:
Turbo: AI Research, 3.9 inch Inducer
EGT Running at idle: 550'c
Oil Capacity: 4.2L
Fuel start: LPG
Fuel Run: Gasoline
Compressor Pressure idle: 15PSI
Max Turbine Speed: 65,000 Rpm

If you have any requests or questions please contact me.
I am not responsible for what ideas you may get from this page or
what damage you may cause to yourself or property.

16 comments

Mar 3, 2012. 12:49 AMThe nerdling says:

that thing is daggy but AWESOME!!!!!!

Mar 3, 2012. 6:13 AMbrendonl (author) says:

Please tell me what is daggy besides the wheels so I can improve on future designing? Thanks :)

Mar 3, 2012. 3:56 PMThe nerdling says:

-if you could rebuild the big tank poking out from the jet to fit inside the chassis, that would be good
-a rounded cage at the back to house the turbo, instead of the big square one with heaps of space, might make it lighter (less metal) therfore go faster.(like the picture)
-do you mean besides the wheels as is, you know theyr'e daggy or your keeping them?
-put a good seat in because that doesn't look comfortable
-better breaking system, that won't work well if you mod it bigtime
-mabey an afterburner like lemonie said look around instructables for ideas, or watch the scrapheap challenge episode where they made jet carts, because one team made one out of a turbo like yours
-small crumple zone on the front

well that's all i could think of, hope it helps :0

Mar 3, 2012. 6:02 PMbrendonl (author) says:

Yer the burner (the big tank) can be cut down in size also ( just made it big since it would be safer for the turbo).
I mean the rear wheels are pretty small and stupid looking, some nice big ones would look better ( but was low on funds and time so skimped on some parts). Yes a nice racing seat...
Yer I saw that episode recently, at least the bearings in mine are just like new unlike there's, Thanks man!

Mar 3, 2012. 8:37 PMThe nerdling says:

if there will be a mk2 i can't waite to see it :)

Mar 3, 2012. 8:42 PMbrendonl (author) says:

Maybe, might get a car like in that pic above and get a jet engine and..... woosh! :)

Mar 3, 2012. 9:31 PMThe nerdling says:

Oct 20, 2011. 12:08 PM

lemonie says:

Lovely.
I think it would benefit from an exhaust-nozzle, _{and an afterburner.}

L

Oct 20, 2011. 6:34 PMbrendonl (author) says:

I did try starting it with the exhaust nozzle on, but I just could not get it to start the EGT was getting way too high. I think I need a bigger leaf blower or something, any suggestions?

Feb 17, 2012. 12:42 PMjustin.d.siegfried says:

Some form of adjustable nozzle with the linkage going up to the drivers seat should work. That way it can fire up with the opening large then shrink as it speeds up.

Oct 21, 2011. 1:05 AM

Catsunami says:

I like it :D I also like how it's an instructable telling you not to try it at home.

Oct 21, 2011. 2:55 AMbrendonl (author) says:

Thanks, I suppose I should put unless you know what your doing or something lol.

Oct 20, 2011. 9:25 PMCoffeeFreak says:

nice build, you can buy used APUs at relatively low prices (for turbine engines) that will drive anything you can hook up to a drive shaft

Oct 21, 2011. 12:21 AMbrendonl (author) says:

Thanks, I was looking at those they look affordable for anyone who lives in the US, but I live in Australia so there quite expensive I think.

142

Oct 20, 2011. 11:27 AM

Kiteman says:

You can get an idea of the potential thrust by standing a set of bathroom scales on edge against a wall, resting the front of the cart against the scales and running the engine - the scales will read off the force with which the jet is pushing.

Convert the thrust into Newtons, and divide by the mass of the cart in kilogrammes, and that will give you an idea of the initial acceleration in ms^-2.

(You can do a similar calculation in Imperial units, but I work in metric.)

Oct 20, 2011. 6:36 PMbrendonl (author) says:

Thanks for the helpful information :) I will have to give that a try when winter comes around again.