Home Made Turbo Jet

by brendonl

51K14914

Intro: Home Made Turbo Jet

Hi and welcome, in this instructable we will go through how i made a turbo jet. This is in minimal detail if you would like more detail and photos please visit my website: http://thejetman.webs.com/

VIDEO AT: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_t8qsfF32TI
More videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_2OUc3sqHk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHHI9QmIrI8

Before we begin as you probably know Propane and LPG are flammable gases so be extremely careful and turbo jets can back fire or explode in certain cases. I am not liable if you or any person or your property are hurt or damaged if you try to build this.

Now for the fun stuff.

Please help me get Likes up on my page on Facebook thanks: https://www.facebook.com/gasturbinebuildersandenthusiasts?ref=hl

STEP 1:

To make something like this you would need a well stocked tool kit which would include:

spanners

a drill to make things easier a drill press

screwdrivers

a welder

an angle grinder

a cut off saw

of course a hammer

a few brains

and maybe a few more things.

The first thing i did was make an oil pump. To make this i used some rectangle shaped pipe, iron plates, hose, welding rods and an oil pump off a Subaru Ute. I welded the pipe to one of the plates, then drilled a hole for the oil pump to fit into( would have been easier to use an oxy). Next I had to put in the drive shaft to drive the oil pump (make sure the shaft is straight). I then had to seal the tubing using pvc pipe cement.

STEP 2:

I did not use any of the math or other mumbo jumbo to get the right size combustion i just did some research and followed my gut .I now needed to find a turbo charger, so I went to ebay and found a good deal $200 including postage for a 200HP Hitachi turbo. Later i found out it leaked water into the oil supply.

To make the combustion chamber i used some pipe which was about 12cm in diameter
and some smaller pipe for the flame tube which was about 7cm in diameter. The flame tube required about 80 holes drilled in it, this is when a drill press and some sharp drill bits come in handy. The holes closest to the top are smaller, then they should increase in size as you get closer to the output end. please refer to the photos of how it goes together.

STEP 3:

Now the final thing to do is hook up the turbo to the combustion chamber, find a spark generator eg an electric fence and an ignition coil, hook the oil pump up to the turbo, and the water supply if needed as well. Then connect the gas if you are sure their are no leaks.

To start it i used an angle grinder with the head taken off, which did not work very well so i suggest getting a high pressure air supply or a leaf blower to start it.

My jet did not start very easy because the bearings were screwed but when i did get it running it sounded like a real jet it was absolutely amazing to watch.

Remember visit my site for more details on how to make it http://thejetman.webs.com/ and later i will upload my latest spark generator.

28/8/10 Tried to start it with an air compressor but failed so I have decided to get a gmc 26cc leaf blower to start it up so you guys can watch a video.

STEP 4: Latest Update

19 March 2011
Here are some new photos.
Does anyone think it would be worth making a jet kart comments please.

14 Comments

yaly 9 years ago

Great work !! Absolutely loved it :D You should measure how much thrust you can get off of it. I have an idea, you can add an iris-like adjustable nozzle for more thrust control.

bmiddleton2 10 years ago

Yep Put it on a cart see wot the thrust is like make it with bigger turbo more fuel and air if need be you be flying about

ssiddiqui4 11 years ago

Amazing build!! Would you recommend adding a liquid cooling system along with a radiator to cool the water? If so, how would it go altogether?
Thanks!

brendonl 11 years ago

Since I made this I have found the turbo doesn't really need water cooling if it is shutdown and cooled using a leaf blower (with the oil still flowing), which prevents any oil getting cooked to the turbine shaft.

rayfalcon 11 years ago

sure would BUT....Id use something like used oils ie. cooking oil, old motor oil ect propane is way too dangerious and also can freeze your valves and stall out the vehicle in traffic or on a hill :)

brendonl 11 years ago

Haven't had that much trouble with propane, the regulators haven't got frozen. I wouldn't be driving the jet-kart in traffic, might burn someones bonnet off! lol I have now made it, it starts on propane and runs on 80% petrol 20% diesel, currently doing a major rework of some parts.

mr.incredible 13 years ago

Great job! Video would be cool. Also Google Sketch-up is great for illustrating things like your drawings. It's real easy to do scale drawings and there are lots of things, like your turbo, that are already created.

My favorite show, no longer running, is Junkyard Wars. There was an episode where they actually created and jet propelled raced cars. One powered with a very similar turbo jet like yours. The other was powered by a pulse jet.

One of the major problems with this type of turbo is they are not designed to handle the heat generated here and will consume themselves quickly. The bearings are the weak link.

Also, even though it is the air intake side, the rubber will quickly get too hot and burn. Try a flexible furnace pipe, or align your fittings better to use a solid pipe.

Instead of drilling all the holes in the inner flame tube, would a tube make of expanded steel mesh work?

brendonl 13 years ago

Hi mr incredible, thanks for the info. the only thing i could find was that piece of rubber motor bike tube, when i started it the tube swelled up to about the size of a football. If you have some mesh or whatever i wouldnt really know wether it would work because of the high heat and that small holes are required first then they should increase in size closer to the exhaust end. But you may not need a combustion chamber as big as mine so you could get away with a lot less holes in the pipe. And also some other flame tubes i have seen have a lot less holes as well and they are relatively the same size.

brendonl 13 years ago

If a blast furnace is what I think it is something for melting metal, that is a darn good idea, might need to add an after burner though to increase the heat. This thing is incredibly fuel hungry though so you would need lots of gas unless you convert it to diesel.

brendonl 13 years ago

Hi well it can be used to make lots of noise, the exhaust gases have reached over 700'c on some peoples jets so you be the judge, or if you are just bored and want to impress your friends that's what it can be used for. Sorry their is no video i only managed to get it going once before the angle grinder died, i will try to get a video up if i get it going one day.

rredmon 13 years ago

so perhaps you could use it for a component of a blast furnace?

rredmon 13 years ago

what's it for?