Back from the hiatus.
We figured out why the EFI engine wasn't working. It turns out that we wired a sensor up backwards, probably due to the fact that we had been awake for ~20 hrs straight. Once we got it hooked up right, the engine ran decently. The amazing part is how fast the thing revs. We could go from 2k to 4k rpm almost as fast as I could push the throttle. This is probably due to the 1.8 lb flywheel and no load.
No word from the paint shop, but we got the rest of our parts ordered. Also, we officially finished the rear axle, which has 8 things attached to it on the 6 diameters....
We also broke in our brand new engine by dropping it on the ground
Good thing we throw away the sheet metal. Turns out that briggs and stratton modified the design a bit by adding ball bearings instead of bushings on the crankshaft and the head is a little different. Hence we will have to put it on the dyno and try it out.
Now that we have the sensor working, we could try the electronic ignition again on a carbed engine. Granted, the sensor is extremely picky, but it would be the easiest to build. Last friday we bought ourselves a set of points just in case none of this works.
The cooled seat is coming along. Final assembly should happen this friday, along with the carbon fibering of the cup holder. The decision to not use aluminum tubing for the seat was made because our real world test showed that it was literally like laying on some aluminum round stock
, no matter how soft the foam was.
Our battery charger and batteries have held up well so far, especially after cranking the engine over for 4 hours and running them past their recommended low voltages. I tried charging two packs in parallel with balancing wires, but I couldn't get the charger to recognize them both. The charger is good for 36v and 30 amps and has up to 10s balancing wires. It is a 3010b iCharger.
I don't have any new pictures, but more should come after next weeks meeting, especially of the rear axle, cooled seat, and engine.