My first engine

When I first heard that you could make a jet engine at home I was excited, but a little unsure. I was watching an episode of Junkyard Wars when the news came to me. For the next hour, I was glued to the television watching in awe as average people built these engines while having very little to work with.

Already having a shop full of tools, I decided that I could create one of these beasts for myself. I even had an old turbocharger laying about, which is the very core of what these home made jets are based on. Surely, if it can be done in a few scant hours on television, then I can do it too!

I started this journey with an old ray jay turbo that I had used on my old race car. I no longer have the car but do have the turbo. Building this jet engine will be good therapy for me as my wife had died recently, and I was going insane just hanging around.

I cleaned out the garage and the carport so that I would have the room to work and build. I had to do this on a wing and prayer as I was mostly broke at this time in my life. I was pretty sure that I could build this without too much trouble. (boy was I wrong as you will see.)

Although my first engine did run, it was not what could be considered a powerful beast. It did, however, prove to be a useful tool in learning more about how these engines work and succeeded in igniting a passion that I carry with me up to this day.

I was fortunate enough to have remembered to take pictures of the construction process, and am happy to share them with you here. I hope that you find the images and information useful and entertaining.

The combustor with turbo flange

This is the combustor with the turbo flange welded on. This is the start of the engine. The turbocharger will bolt on to the square flange at the end of the pipe, and this will allow the hot gasses from the combustion chamber to enter the turbine.

The combustion chamber and flame tube

This is a look straight down the combustion chamber and flame tube that I created. The metal strips that run up and down inside are there to keep the flame tube held in place in the center of the outer combustor housing.

Flame tube

This shows my attempt to make a liquid fuel nozzle, however I did not get it to do as I wanted. The idea was to spray fuel in the nipple (on the right hand side in the photo) and the air passing through the nozzle would shear off and vaporize. Unfortunately it did not work. Also note the air holes on the flame tube. I didn't know what I was doing at the time, as you will see later. I have since become far more adept at building these engines.

The failed nozzle

This is another shot of the failed nozzle. The fuel was set up to spray into the opening at the top.

The failed nozzle

This view of the nozzle lets you see the lip that the fuel was supposed to flow past. If it had worked, the fuel would have sheared off behind the lip, as the air flow would have created a low pressure area there. I was hoping that this would improve atomization of the fuel into smaller droplets that would burn easier.

The combustor with flame tube

The nozzle and flame tube sit inside of the combustor's outer casing. The incoming air flows around the casing on the inside and passes through the holes in the flame tube. By using this method, the burn process can be controlled and kept within the flame tube.

Inside the combustor

A look down the flame tube shows the path the hot gasses will take when the engine is in operation..

The start of the engine

This is the start of my engine. I have the turbocharger bolted to a mounting bracket, and the combustor and pipe work from the compressor to the combustor inlet are in place.

The front of the engine

You can clearly see the outlet of the compressor and the plumbing needed to get the air to the combustor inlet. The combustor is an axial flow combustor, which means that the air will travel straight through. Most designs have the air entering from the side.

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