Karl Buchka
Active member
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2007
- Location
- Los Angeles
Good friend of mine got this on eBay the other day. I was at his shop and we took it apart. It's got some pretty rad and interesting design features.
Here's the complete assembly.
It's attached to a fabricated inconel elbow with a floating piston inside of it. That wasn't included in the auction, but here's what it looks like on a car.
http://lolachampcar.com/images/99 Shell/100_0170.JPG
The top section seems to be made from magnesium. It's very light. It's got three threaded ports and one flanged hole on top. My best guess is the top port is for some kind of non-contact position sensor.
Here's the upper spring seat. I didn't open this assembly up, but the seat is floating on some kind of ball-and-socket joint. The seat looks like anodized aluminum.
The lower cylinder. I think this is made from stainless steel or inconel. It's hard to say. Measuring the density would probably offer some hints. It looks like it uses a graphite bushing for the valve guide. I didn't remove the small cap screw, but I think it's there to keep the bushing from sliding in to the piston assembly. There's no snap ring on the other side.
Here's the lower section with the piston installed. Yes. It has a piston. There's no diaphragm.
Piston with the retaining ring removed. It uses a spring loaded shaft seal. I didn't look too closely at the piston or the rod coming out the bottom, but it's likely made from the same material as the bottom section. Note the "extra" hole in the piston and retaining ring.
That hole houses a mesh filtered gasket with a small bleed port in it. The o-ring is to keep the stack compressed in the hole. I'm honestly not sure what the bleed port is for. I've only thought about it briefly, but nothing is jumping out at me. From looking at photos of the car it came off, the gate seems to be conventionally plumbed, with the lower chamber boost referenced and the upper chamber boost referenced through a three-way solenoid valve.
It's a very cool part. That bleed port is certainly odd though.
Here's the complete assembly.
It's attached to a fabricated inconel elbow with a floating piston inside of it. That wasn't included in the auction, but here's what it looks like on a car.
http://lolachampcar.com/images/99 Shell/100_0170.JPG
The top section seems to be made from magnesium. It's very light. It's got three threaded ports and one flanged hole on top. My best guess is the top port is for some kind of non-contact position sensor.
Here's the upper spring seat. I didn't open this assembly up, but the seat is floating on some kind of ball-and-socket joint. The seat looks like anodized aluminum.
The lower cylinder. I think this is made from stainless steel or inconel. It's hard to say. Measuring the density would probably offer some hints. It looks like it uses a graphite bushing for the valve guide. I didn't remove the small cap screw, but I think it's there to keep the bushing from sliding in to the piston assembly. There's no snap ring on the other side.
Here's the lower section with the piston installed. Yes. It has a piston. There's no diaphragm.
Piston with the retaining ring removed. It uses a spring loaded shaft seal. I didn't look too closely at the piston or the rod coming out the bottom, but it's likely made from the same material as the bottom section. Note the "extra" hole in the piston and retaining ring.
That hole houses a mesh filtered gasket with a small bleed port in it. The o-ring is to keep the stack compressed in the hole. I'm honestly not sure what the bleed port is for. I've only thought about it briefly, but nothing is jumping out at me. From looking at photos of the car it came off, the gate seems to be conventionally plumbed, with the lower chamber boost referenced and the upper chamber boost referenced through a three-way solenoid valve.
It's a very cool part. That bleed port is certainly odd though.
