Plumbing the oil lines

Fortunately, Tom and the rest of the guys over at Bonaco Performance Plumbing were there to help. These guys really know their stuff and were kind enough to sponsor the bike and provide the majority of the plumbing for the various systems. DEI provided most of what we needed for the CO2 system, but what they didn't have, Bonaco got for us. Thanks again Tom and Brett!

Cold air intake plumbed

Since there was no particular order to the plumbing other that just diving in, some pictures will appear in random order. I'll do my best to explain what was going on! This picture shows the cold air intake system with the plumbing running to it. All of the plumbing is the kind used on race cars with the anodized aluminum fittings. It looks really trick, and the performance will stand up to the abuse that a jet bike will put out.

Tight clearance

Another view from the front of the bike, in this case you can see more of the plumbing and see how tight the fit is to get everything in there.

Oil pressure transducer

This view is looking down between the frame and fairing on the left side of the bike. The oil lines are plumbed here with aluminum 3/8 inch hard line and are all bent here in the shop to match every twist and turn on the bike. The blue fittings must be flared on with a special flaring tool. The small sliver device just left of dead center in the picture is the oil pressure transducer. It is what sends a voltage to the computer to let it know how much pressure we have in the oil lines. The higher the pressure, the more voltage it outputs.

Oil pump plumbing

The oil pump was fitted with 90 degree fittings and the oil lines were routed down towards the front of the frame. From there the right side goes down to the oil tank, and the left side goes to the oil filter.

Fuel injectors

This is the right side of the bike where the fuel injectors are located. These rubber looking lines run to the injectors, and are actually braided stainless steel lines with an inner Teflon tube. The rubbery looking outer coating is a special high temperature sleeve designed to repel heat. The sleeve is formed from braided fiberglass in the center, with a coating of high temperature resistant silicone impregnated with aluminum oxide. Very trick stuff, and effective at keeping the hoses cool when that near the combustion chamber.

Fuel rail

The other end of the hoses from the injectors connects to the fuel rail. Again, aluminum fittings are used throughout the system and really add a nice touch to the look of things as well as being extremely durable.

Engine fuel pump

This is the engine fuel pump. In this plumbing example, a variety of different plumbing types had to be used to make everything work together. The top line is aluminum hard line that comes from the gas tank. It connects to a rubber tube that curves down to meet the fuel pump. The rubber tubing was covered with a braided steel covering and attached with special hose clamps that resemble the rest of the fittings. This keeps a uniform appearance across the plumbing systems. The outlet of the pump is adapted with fittings, and travels through a braided steel line covered with heat shielding.

Getting more cramped

With all of the plumbing going in, things are even more cramped now! Maybe next time I'll use a bigger bike!

Top view

The transformation is taking place! Looking over the bike you will see all of the little blue fittings starting to shine. Only half way there, with lots more to go!

Oil filter

Looking in past the front tire, you can see the small oil filter just to the right of the cold air intake. The placement of the filter here lets us clean it out without having to remove the fairings from the bike. It also keeps it much cooler. The filter is an inline filter unit from Bonaco, and it simply unscrews to reveal a small mesh screen inside that filters the oil. Different sized screens can be had for these filters, and we will be using the same type of filters on the fuel system as well, just changing the size of the filter screens.

CO2 lines

The braided stainless CO2 lines run right beside the oil pump in this picture. The CO2 must be plumbed from the rear of the bike, up to a manifold where solenoid valves control the flow. From there it is plumbed to the fire suppression system and cold air intake. Once CO2 flows through the cold air intake is much be expelled from the back of the bike. It makes its journey back through more braided stainless steel line to a purge nozzle which creates a nice plume of CO2 fog for an interesting effect.

Throttle valve

The plumbing for the throttle valve uses both braided line and hard tubing. The fuel from the fuel pump enters the bottom of the valve through a 90 degree fitting. It then exits at two points on the side of the valve. The lower exit is plumbed to the fuel rail, and the upper is plumbed back to the fuel tank as a dump. Two valves are added with gauges to adjust the idle of the bike and to keep back pressure on the fuel injectors for throttle tuning purposes. Without back pressure, we may get too much pressure to the fuel injectors even at idle, so the need for a valve there was important from the beginning so that we wouldn't have to go back and add it later if needed. The valve / gauge combinations are actually devices to regulate the air pressure to air operated tools. They were inexpensive, and had the features we needed, plus the blue anodizing matched the rest of our plumbing parts. Not bad for about $6 each!

Getting crowded

The right side of the bike looks crowded with the lower fairing removed. There is still a bit more plumbing to go in here at this point, as the water injection and combustion chamber pressure sensors go on this side as well.

Oil lines

The oil lines came out fairly nice, and started to make things look more like a real jet engine should. Running oil to all of the different parts can be a nightmare and many hours were spent just staring at things and making a plan before I ever started running a single line.

Oil lines

There is so much plumbing in this picture is is hard to describe what is going on. What you can spot easily is the oil filter, pressure transducer, and if you look carefully, the oil breather line. The breather is the little tube between the top of the oil filter and the pressure transducer. I will be adding a small breather filter to this line to keep it from spattering during engine operation.

Oil filter

Here is a close up of the oil filter unit. The oil lines unscrew quickly and the top half of the filter unscrews from the bottom sort of like a bottle cap. The filter cartridge inside is held in place with a small spring. If the filter clogs up completely, the spring lets the filter move down so that oil flow will continue. Not a bad idea on a turbine engine!

Afterburner pump

The afterburner pump is set up essentially the same as the main fuel pump. You can see here the black rubber tubing coming from the pump outlet. This is the same tubing as what the inlet side has, but the inlet has already received the braided cover as was done on the engine fuel pump. The look is drastically different once the covering is on, and the covering actually helps to shield against heat.

Now we are getting somewhere

At this point, the oil system is fully plumbed. Still to go on the front of the bike is the water injection plumbing, and the rest of the CO2 plumbing.

Cold air intake plumbed

Top back view of the bike

Another angle of the plumbing

Fuel system almost complete

Injector plumbing

The plumbing to the fuel injectors required a lot of elbow fittings to be able to get the hoses situated where they were needed. It looks fairly nice, and gives more clearance on the side of the bike than if we had used regular fittings with the hoses coming straight out the side. I also felt that the additional metal in the elbow fittings would help to dissipate heat from the combustion chamber so that it would not be transferred to the hoses as easily.

Fuel pressure gauges

Another close up of the fuel pressure gauges as the fuel plumbing is just about complete. There may be some fitment issues with the rear fairing from a couple of fuel lines, but if this is the case they can be easily routed to new locations.

More fittings!

Just when you think things are done, this jumps out at you! MORE FITTINGS! All of these have a place on the bike in some system, so they will all have to be squashed in somewhere. Over 200 fittings on the bike and 30 hoses, 30 feet of hard line, and even flexible quick connect line for the water injectors. I told you it was a lot of plumbing.

Fire show valve

The last picture on our tour today is this innocuous looking little valve. This valve will be placed on the back of the bike and routed to the afterburner. Fuel enters the port on the far left side and comes out of two locations going to the afterburner injectors. Nothing special until you activate the valve. Fuel is then passed through the valve to another injector at the rear of the afterburners and this creates a huge fireball behind the bike. Just something to wow the kiddies with on a nice cool summer night at the dragstrip.

Well, that is about it for this time. With things going the way they are, testing will be very soon. Thanks again for stopping by and be sure to come back soon for more info on the jet bike. Please remember to support the site with your donations. We could really use the help on this last leg of the journey.

Russ W. Moore
and
The Bad Brothers Racing Build Team

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