first i want to say that i love this show it rulez it's the first show that touches base with my love of buildin stuff out of junk i have been rackin my brain to think of somehtin that could possibly be god enough to be on the show the idea is for water cannon tanks two seater tanks one drive and the other operates the water cannon the object of the challenge is that (goes along with diagram) there are clear buckets placed in strategic areas and the buckest are given certain point values (shows discretion) the object is for the two teams to manuver their tanks to the buckets and fill the buckets completely with water from the water cannons all the wile they have to ward off attacks from each other (I.E.: the teams try to keep each other from fillin the buckets the buckets to be filled by each team will be across the battlefield from then (I.E: team A *being whichever color that may be* will have to fill buckets that are in front of the team B startin point and visa-versa) in addition there are two bonus buckets in the center of the field which may or may not be used (shows discretion) and on the side of the tanks should be buckets attached and taht will act as close range battle point buckets i have included a simple diaram to help with the understandin in case my descristion is confusin i believe this chalenege could be a lot of fun and i would love to see it on the show thank you for taking the time to read this and congrats on a killer show i can't wait to see some more of the awesome contraptions bein built

Thanks, AaRoN

----------------------- | | O---| TANK |---O | | ---------------------- __________TEAM A__________

O <------(Buckets)------> O Team B Team B

O *BONUS* O Team A Team B

Team A Team A O <------(Buckets)------> O

_________TEAM B____________

----------------------- | | O---| TANK |---O | | -----------------------

-- Aaron Kinkead (RAK@nishanet.com), April 05, 2001

Answers

ya know!.........this actually has a good deal of merit! well thought out and very plausable.....but the "tanks" would probably be a car chassis modified......like alot of stuff gets modified!

-- tim (milehiharley@hotmail.com), April 05, 2001.

Would it make sense to strip down a car, as suggested, mount a water tank on the back and use the car engine's water pump to pressurize the water cannon? If you pulled the car's radiator and ran a pick-up hose back to the water tank, the water would run through the engine- cooling it- before the engine's water pump pushed it out the cannon nozzle. Admittedly, it's a total loss cooling system, but would it work?

-- Chip Haynes (ehaynes@co.pinellas.fl.us), April 06, 2001.

Most people would be very surprised at how much volume a car water pump puts out. They very rarely will put out over 20lbs of pressure though.

JustJay

-- JustJay-captain-Three Rusty Juveniles (justjay@neo.rr.com), April 06, 2001.

Automotive water pumps are VERY sloppy centrifugal pumps. If you attempt to increase the output pressure by reducing the output line diameter, you will increase the back pressure (aka headloss) and, since the pump is sloppy, it will result in seriously decreased water flow. It wouldn't take much to get completely stagnant water and the pump would actually start adding lots of heat to the water instead of helping to remove it. You'ld have an overheated engine pronto. But that could be fun. ;)

-- James R. Weeks--The Lugnuts (jweeks@bayou.com), April 06, 2001.

If you want pressure, use a oil pump.

-- Andrew Walmsley (walms@hotmail.com), April 06, 2001.

I thought I would post this one again.. Use an oil pump from another engine or muliple pumps to increase volume.

-- Andrew Walmsley (walms@hotmail.com), April 06, 2001.

Or use the big engine to drive a smaller engine converted to be the water pump. Seems like a variation on this engine-to-pump conversion was done on JYW already.

-- Chip Haynes (ehaynes@co.pinellas.fl.us), April 06, 2001.

How do you comprss water?

-- Andrew Walmsley (walms@hotmail.com), April 06, 2001.

Ah- A trick question- You don't compress water! You replace the spark plug with an output hose for the pressurized water, disable the exhaust valve (in the closed position)and run the water through your intake manifold and valve. HA! (I think.)

-- Chip Haynes (ehaynes@co.pinellas.fl.us), April 06, 2001.

If you mount the tank high above the pump engine, water will flow into the cylinder via gravity. If you rely on suction to fill the cylinder, when the intake valve opens, you'll pull vacuum on BOTH lines, probably sucking air via the spark plug line, and NOT sucking water into the cylinder. A check valve on the spark plug line would solve this!

By the way, this WILL shoot a respectable stream of water. When I was a teen, a friend rode his dirt bike up a creek & flooded it with water. We pulled the spark plug and kicked it over, spewing water about 15' in the air!

-- Kirby Powell(The Hooligans of Horror) (Kirby@kpsnet.com), April 06, 2001.

**------------------------>>>-------++! ~~~~~~~~~~~****~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -------- Good Idea ---------------------- ****-----000---------------000-----*** (>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<)--------00-----

-- john gap (mindthegap64@hotmail.com), April 06, 2001.

What about a power steering pump? Higher pressures, but I've never checked the flow...

-- Dan Denney (rustrenegades@hotmail.com), April 06, 2001.

Using the 2nd engine for a pump idea...... Get rid of the cam altogether because the intake valve only opens on the intake stroke. Replace the valve springs with light springs just strong enough to close the valve. This will make 2 check valves for the inlet of the water. Put a check valve on the sparkplug hole and Bob's your uncle.

-- Andrew Walmsley (walms@hotmail.com), April 07, 2001.

I MAY BE REPEATING MYSELF,HOPE NOT. ANY HOW,I THINK ONE ENGINE,LESS HASLES. AN AUTO A/C COMPRESSOR WILL RUN ABOUT 150 TO 200 PSI ON THE DISCHARGE SIDE. USE A SEPERATE GAS CAN TO RUN YOUR VEHICEL(MAKE SURE IT HAS A/C) FILL THE ORIGINAL FUEL TANK WITH WATER.HOOK THE OLD FUEL LINES TO THE SUCTION FITTING ON THE A/C COMPRESSOR. USE THE DISTCHARGE HOSE OFF OF YOUR COMPRESSOR AS YOUR GUN. SOUNDS SIMPLE,AND FOR THE MOST PART IT WILL BE(simple wins) any how.its important that you can get elec. power to the feild coil on the a/c comp. this can be done by running a wire to the battery,as well as jumping the low preasure switch on the a/c system. the stream of water wont be thick,but it will have good psi for distence and force

-- casey (the test tank babies) (finishrad@aol.com), April 07, 2001.