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Squirt 2 - Advanced Turbine Jet-Boat
Project.
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Squirt 2 will be our second turbine jet boat. We will be using a surplus US Air
Force helicopter turbine and speed decreaser gear-box (SDG) and a specially
designed billet jet
pump.
This is the T58-GE-8F turbine that is going in Squirt 2. It weighs 350 lbs and produces
1,370 hp @ 6000 rpm. That's about 1,200lbs-ft of torque! The hull shown in
the photos below is a 21ft aluminum white water race boat built by Eagle Power Boats. We
have ordered a 23ft step V version of this boat for our project.
Some shots from my trip to Eagle. We tried the turbine mock-up in a couple different boats they had in production.
Actual shots of Squirt 2 at the factory. Notice the stepped
hull design inside. The stringers were built extra strong to take the torque of the
turbine.
Squirt 2 in the works.
Dissecting the American Turbine SD-309 bowl. We were going to modify this bowl
for reverse rotation, but now I am planning to build a new billet bowl from
scratch. The output shaft on the T58 turns the wrong way for a normal Jet Pump.
Here are some preliminary screen shots of the NT billet pump bowl with a
replaceable stator insert. This bowl will allow us to turn a special reverse
rotation impeller. The welded steel stator is designed to be removed and
re-installed quickly, this will allow us to try different stators
for pump tuning. The number of vanes, entry angle exit angle are the three
primary stator variables.
This is my progress so-far with the Jet Drive. We expect to turn this from
billet 6061-T6 on a CNC Lathe. The design has been improved immensely from the
first prototype. We have abandoned the idea of using the original bowl that we
cut apart.
This is the type of helmet I expect we will need to communicate while driving Squirt
2.
Some shots of the engine. We need to modify the power turbine to allow
it to work in the exhaust up position. Normally this engine is installed in
pairs with one exhaust left and one right. We are building all the fixtures
needed to turn the housing properly.
Power turbine (left) and intake (right). I intend to mount an alternator on
the fuel purifier drive pad in the upper right side of the accessory gear box.
3.25:1 Torque sensing speed reducer. The input is in the lower left, output
on the right, The black part in the upper left is the lube oil pump. Max input
speed is 20,000 rpm. We will make a 4340 billet adapter flange for the output
spline. The brake caliper will be mounted right on the back of the gearbox.
This is what the billet CNC machined, nickel plated steel impeller from PJD
will look like.
Check out this trick 3 piece billet bowl designed by Rob
Chrunyk at Eagle
Power Boats! This is the bowl we will use in Squirt 2. Now that Rob has
made this bowl available, there is no need for us to continue developing the NT
billet bowl design (unless you want to try one. If so contact
Here is a good shot of the Eagle Bowl.
This view shows the special tool we made for pulling the rear half of the
inner race of bearing #5. We had to fabricate several tools like this to use on
various parts of the power turbine assy. This is definitely not a do it yourself
at home project.
This is the jig I made for relocating the power turbine accessory drive pad.
The jig accurately aligns the pad and holds it securely during welding. The entire
casing is made of Hastalloy-X and requires special welding procedures. Zyglo
inspection after welding confirmed a crack-free job.
This is the power turbine wheel itself. It's hard to believe you can get
1,400hp @ 20,000rpm out of this little (14") wheel. The #4 bearing (roller)
is still on the shaft the forward half of the #5 bearing inner race is there
too.
This is my brother Steve Nye's slick idea for stacking the power turbine
assembly. The press-fit is tricky considering the bearing must be heated and the
alignment must be maintained for correct balance. We machined a mandrel for each
end of the power turbine shaft and used the tail stock of a lathe to press the
bearing on horizontally.
These views show the tail end of the power turbine shaft. The constant
velocity high speed coupling employs several balls, is slip fit over the polygon
coupling and is retained by a special nut and key washer. Needless to say proper
stack up tolerances and assembly torque are critical here. The view on the right
shows the power turbine housing complete with high speed coupling and forward
section of the heat shield ready for mating with the SDG (speed decreaser gear).
The SDG seals against the bearing housing with an "O"-ring, no gasket
is used here.
This is the special SDG oil pump programming plate I designed in
AutoCAD 2000 and had water jet cut by my friends at The
Waterjet Workshop in Mississauga.
The beefy output flange and caliper bracket.
The 1/2" aluminum
caliper bracket was also cut by The
Waterjet Workshop.
Brake caliper and disk with integral pulley. I decided to drive the alternator
with a V-belt off the output shaft instead of the fuel purifier pad on the engine.
Yours Truly stacking the SDG to the Power Turbine. (This was quite tricky as
the studs are almost totally inaccessible).
This is how we verified the SDG oiling system modifications. The 4 L
container hanging on the crane holds the $10.00 / L turbine oil. We have
made several modifications to the lube system to allow upright operation and I
want to make sure that everything is alright. The drive shaft U joints are
wrapped in masking tape to keep them from flopping around during the spool up
test.
I used a 1/2" shop air line with a big nozzle to spool-up the power
turbine, SDG and oil pump.
Steve and I celebrate a flawless run-up at the end of the day with a few cold
bottles of Molson's Canadian. We are both feeling very confident at this point!
I AM CANADIAN!
Here is the fully assembled engine (hanging by a strap to the power turbine)
ready to test fit in Squirt 2. The silver cylinder on the front of the engine
contains the starter. This is also a good view of the billet jet pump.
Close up of the SDG and exhaust. The drive shaft is still wrapped in tape at
this point.
I have yet to fabricate the engine mounts and an intake screen.
View from sitting on the windshield.
View from under the bow. (seats removed) Notice how the compressor is sealed.
I will never run the engine without a proper intake screen fitted.
Art, the master of polishing, among other things.
Here is what Squirt 2 looks like after hours of polishing. It still needs a
final buffing, but it looks awesome! All touch up welding, sanding and polishing
was done by Art Begin.
These are the finished Instrument panels. The switch with the red safety
cover is for the afterburner system. The switch in the hatched yellow area
is for the N2 brake or "line-lock".
I decided to go with a polished aluminum checker-plate
deck. It vibrates and makes a lot of noise, but it is strong and easy to mount
stuff to. The master
cylinder for the rotor brake is visible in the left photo.
The square aluminum valve block on the port side in-front of the oil tank is
the afterburner streak and main fuel control.
The two black tanks are for oil. Port side tank is for turbine lube.
Starboard side is for SDG.
The braded lines leading from the oil tanks to the PT housing are vents.
Here is me with my new toy.
The intake screen turned out well. Notice the "NT" water jet
cut into the front motor mounts.
Here are some good shots of the engine mounted in Squirt 2 at the Toronto Boat Show.
Toronto Boat Show.
Squirt 2 was in the Performance Boat Club of Canada Booth.
Speedorama (Toronto)
The after-burner in action in-front of the National Trade Center. (Toronto
Boat Show) The after-burner is for show only and has nothing to do with the
operation of the engine.
This is a close-up of our custom after burner control valve. It has two
solenoids, one for streak (to light the fire) and one for fire. The two
adjustments are: Bias (we are stealing fuel from the main fuel control) and
Output (fire size). This unit was designed to work on the T58, but will work on
other engines too.
This is the accessory drive shaft. All starting and accessory drive loads are
transmitted by this little shaft. The starter motor has a torque limiting slip
clutch that normally prevents accessory shaft breakage. If you have a Lear
starter you should be OK, but if you have an older GE starter beware that the
slip clutch is probably rusty and seized solid. If you try to start with a
seized slip clutch, you risk breaking this shaft. To solve this problem I developed
the NT "soft start" solenoid, it works!
The SDG oil cooler has seven 1/2" aluminum water tubes. Water is tapped
off the jet pump. Oil temp never exceeds 85 deg C.
The fuel deaerator is designed to remove air bubbles from the fuel. The
engine would tend to loose power and flame-out in rough water before I built
this device.
Here is a good shot of Squirt 2 on her maiden voyage.
Squirt 2 puts up a wall of water during a turn with the power on.
Here is a shot of Squirt 2 at speed.
Smoke and fire show for the crowd. (engine is at idle)
Docking the beast!
A jet drive with a brake is very easy to maneuver.
Squirt
2 Streaming Videos
Note: In
most cases your computer will try to play these videos while they are
downloading (streaming video). If your connection is not fast enough they will
not playback smoothly. For slower connections
Right Click on the video and choose "Save Target As". Save the
video file to your desktop then play it from there.
 First
run-up at the shop. Squirt
2 (shop 01)LR.mpg
Brief
on-board tour of Squirt 2. Squirt
2 (tour at the shop)LR.mpg
Run-Up
at the Toronto Boat Show. Squirt
2 (run-up at TIBS)LR.mpg
CITY
TV Morning Show at TIBS Breakfast
Television LR.mpg
Squirt 2 Fly-By
(about 75 mph) Squirt 2 (Fly-By) LR.mpg
Squirt 2 at
Port Credit
Squirt
2 at PC Oct 2001 (short).wmv
Squirt
2 on the Grand Squirt 2 (On the Grand)LR.wmv
Squirt 2
- The Bridge Squirt 2 (Bridge)LR.wmv
Squirt 2
- On-Board Squirt
2 (On-Board)LR.wmv
TNN on NTC The
Nye News on NTC. 
The following companies
helped make this project possible.
American Turbine - SD309 jet pump components.
Insight - Consultation.
Avon Aero Supply - Turbine components.
Precision Jet Drive - Billet steel reverse rotation impeller.
Want to know more?
Section 8 of the NT
Infopack CD is dedicated to this project and contains lots of high-res.
photos and full screen video.
Send your questions or comments to:
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