The "Goolie Burner"

The following is a detailed review of the "Goolie Burner Project".  This project was undertaken to prepare for Mark Nye's appearance as an expert on the TLC show "Junk Yard Wars". See the Junk Yard Wars page to see how the show turned out. Click on the pictures to see larger versions.

 
Pontiac 6000 le "Goolie" donor car. (Thanks to Mark at Cooksville Auto Recycling for loaning us the car free of charge.)

 
We started by removing the wheel center.

 
Bore the hub in our machine shop.

 
The fan is being assembled and welded by our expert Art. (Same guy who polished Squirt2).

 
Yes, he does know what he is doing.

 
Here is the finished fan mounted on the Goolie axle. It blows like mad, but we can't get enough RPM at the spindle even in overdrive.

 
Dog-Beast is laughing because his stupid owner tried to drive Goolie on the fan. At least we got a chance to build a second and much improved fan.

First Direct Drive Test.

 
This shows how we used the half shaft to drive the fan directly from the crank.

 
The drive, fan and all was rapidly assembled to give it a spin for the first time in order to see how it works. And...

 
Shish!!! at 5,300 RPM, IT REALLY BLASTS! But without a stator, the air is spiraling instead of blasting straight out. We used water to help reveal the plume. We were able to measure the exit angle with a cardboard vane mounted on a welding rod through the barrel.

The Stator Test.


This stator piece is designed to straighten the air and improve thrust.

Works like stink as you will see further down!

Ready to ignite!

AND TAKE OFF BABY! Mark Nye is seen here "being ejected" and flying to a new position on the pavement. What a thrill!

Now Building the real thing!


Here is the crew. L to R Art, Steve (Mark's brother) and Mark.

Here is fan #3. We are learning quite a bit here, the hard way I'm afraid! Drive Shaft, Housing, Flame Holder, Stator, Fan and how it will be assembled inside the housing.

The GOOLIE Burner <<And now it all comes together! >>

Burner tests using gasoline.

  
 


Finally, the Goolie Burner in action!

I intend to apply what was learned here to the "Jet Trikes" challenge on Junk Yard Wars.

Special Thanks to Mark at Cooksville Auto Recycling for loaning us the car free of charge.

For more information about the Goolie Project contact
For more information about "Jet Trikes" on Junk Yard Wars click here.

Want to know more?
The NT Infopack CD contains lots of high-res photos and full screen video of many NTC projects.