12
The Pilatus climbs at 4091 feet per minute
and right now, with our Catto 3 blade prop, we are climbing
at 5000 feet per minute with the blow off valve set to only
60 inches of mercury.. Up to 80 inches is available.

Craig Catto tells me with a 4 bladed version of our
prop we can get 30% more thrust.

Paul Lamar

        Hey Paul i was watching that video of the TTC run and had a few questions I see the tach fluctuating a little but more importantly I was wondering why when he pulls the throttle back and the rpms drop the oil pressure rises. If I am reading it correctly which I may not it seems to be in the low 60s in climb at high rpm and then as the rpm dropped it instantly rose with rpm reduction close to 90. What's your thoughts on that or was I looking at it wrong. Love the sound of it keep the videos coming.
        Thanks, Jacob Sturges

        Me too. I am still trying to figure that  out.

        The 4 gallon  oil tank is in there at an 45 angle. I suspect the oil pump
        is having trouble sucking oil. We are considering cutting it down
        and mounting it vertically  with the outlet closer to the intake on the pump.

        This was done before I came on board.

        Paul Lamar

    Hey Paul,
    That could be the reason for loss of oil pressure, we just put together a LSX turbo engine in a rear engine sandrail and put the oil tank in the nose for wieght balance,  it has a 128" wheel base so the hoses must be a 135" to 140" and we have not had any oil issues. The dry sump tech did have us run a huge oil line because of the length, so that might be worth looking into. If I remember from the images I don't see a belt drive so the TTC is probably gear driven, I don't know if you can change gears or slow the pump down somehow, maybe the guy who specd the dry sump speed  is not used to spinning +8k rpms and has it spinning too fast.  Keep me posted I'll be interested to see what you find out.

    Thanks, Jacob Sturges

    Do you spend any time on a 45 degree down slope?
    Our sump is below the engine and your sump is above the engine.
    I think we have AN-16 hose. The pump is direct drive and runs
    at 8000 RPM.

    Paul Lamar


       We defiantly see some really steep and weird angles at the dunes in Dumont and Glamis, there extremely tall and we had to put a little angle on this car as well. I would think in the TTC the oil tank is level in the climb. The other thing is our belt set up is really close to half so when we are doing close to 8000 rpm the pump is only doing 4000 rpm, so hopefully it's not cavitating, might be worth asking the pump manufacturer.
Thanks, Jacob Sturges

It is vertical but the pump is above the oil level in the sump tank.
The outlet hose to the pump is about 2.5 foot long and it is
a dash 16. The larger the ID of hose the lower the suction
pressure and the oil column to lift is heavier due to the hose ID.
There is more oil to lift.

I think my logic is right but I could be wrong.

Paul Lamar

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