lionmaster challenger with upgraded smoke

Great layout. I couldn't watch the first video as it said "private"?  Could you point me in the direction of your post(s) on the smoke upgrade please.

Thanks

MIKE

You've come a long way since the spring. The layout is really looking nice.

make the smoker video public, please.

!st video says "private" Very nice layout & 2nd. video.

not set to private any longer sorry about that first time that happened

J,

Copious smoke. Does that version have the puffer?

yep

Gunrunnerjohn did the conversion. he added the puffer and the 4 chuffs per revolution and led lights he also changed the resistor to a 20 ohm

never mind, I see that it has the fan driven unit. I was just wondering how to get it to puff out of both stacks.

The Challenger was one of my favorites from the LionMaster series. Very nice job on the upgrades.

for some reason it really doesn't have a lot of velocity coming out of the stacks so most of the time the rear stack gets most of the smoke. another issue I see is the smoke hugs the shell and doesn't blow upward both because of no velocity I have been playing around with it trying to get it more velocity but haven't been able to yet. John made the holes bigger in the stack but that doesn't seem to have worked either.

any suggestions on the getting more velocity are welcome

Nice layout, nice smoke upgrade !!!!!!!!!!!!

Alex

is this piece between the stack on the shell and the smoke unit? The parts list calls it a smoke funnel. perhaps losing that bar. The smoke is getting trapped so it's backing out. Cut that bar out in the center. It's obviously not splitting the smoke.

It's still looks great.

what do you think, Alex? You worked on enough smoke units.

mine doesn't have the bar

but looks the same

I believe that I would ask gunrunner about this.

gunrunner is the one that did the upgrade it works great other than the velocity which I believe has to do with not enough air being pushed by the fan blades

Depending how that smoke funnel part mates to the shell, perhaps a thin line of silicone on the edge that mates to the shell under the stacks would seal it.

I also thought of attaching inverted velocity stacks to the bottom of the stacks. I just haven't discovered anything shaped right or small enough. Used for car engines mostly, the simple bell shape increases air velocity. 

hardware stores carry the large size bell chain pull that fits on the ball chain. perhaps a little doctoring on that would work as a velocity stack. Not sure if they would large enough.

If the smoke is just wallowing out like that, something is wrong and needs to be fixed.

At this point, I don't think the word "great" should be in the sentence.

in the video that is one lap around the layout started off bellowing out then it just wallowed out at the end

I concur, something has changed since it ran here, it worked a lot better putting out the smoke!  The one thing that I didn't see a way to change is how the smoke comes out mostly to the rear, but it should have a lot more velocity.  It also wasn't running the motor at idle, that's not right.

John I didn't notice that until you mentioned it HMM I'll look at it tonight after work to see what I see. it has always put out smoke to the rear hole but yesterday it started the smoke hugging the shell at first it was smoking good then one lap and it was hugging the shell.  maybe it needs a divider in the middle like the funnel posted above has. I'll play around with it tonight to see

still happy with it since it was very anemic before you couldn't even see the smoke before the upgrade funny thing a few days ago my son had some friends over they wanted to see the layout and it smoked up the whole room.

I think something is amiss, it should have a lot more velocity.  The thing I saw that is also really is wrong is no smoke at idle.  I did see the headlight dim, so I know the smoke motor should have started running.

I wonder if your smoke motor is on it's way out?

just took it apart the smoke unit board delaminated which stopped the fan just ordered a new smoke unit and extra board. I'm surprised it still worked

WOW!  That would explain why it stopped working!

How about some baffles from sheet hobby brass to direct the smoke out of both stacks?

I think fixing the smoke unit come first.   I know that looks a whole lot better when it left here!

I think just a simple baffle that divides them would improve the flow.

it's really simple to do the funnel. a piece of abs right in the middle of the hole should split the smoke up nicely. anyone know how long it takes to get parts out of lionelhere is what I ordered

 Kinda bummed me out today I went upstairs after this thread was started and the smoke unit wouldn't work at all. that's when I took it apart and found the board delaminated I tried to make it work by resoldering wires where the copper inlay ? had separated but that didn't work tested it with my meter and it's dead .

so it is now on a spur off of the transfer table awaiting parts I did play around with the splitter and made up the splitter didn't attach it yet it's a snug fit so I wanted to wait until the smoke unit is working again to make sure it will work .

It used to be 4-5 business days from Ohio. I haven't ordered from NC yet, but your mail time should be shorter. You should see the parts by the end of the week.

I have yet to see a board actually delaminate, that's a new one.  Hopefully, Lionel will be quick to ship.

I agree, I haven't seen a PCB delaminate.  I have seen them warp from overheat or contact pressure when stack and shell don't mate correctly.  Also see the gasket swell.

One thing I have seen is that opening holes doesn't always increase performance.  Chamber pressure goes down wen the restriction is removed.

Of course having the impeller rotate slower from the friction doesn't help either  G

Watched the 1st. video finally & see what you meant about the smoke just coming out the rear. Hope you get the new motor quickly.

Boxcarbill would also have those parts I would think.

One thing that really restricts the smoke volume in these engines is the tiny smoke passage in the casting, plus it makes an S turn from the SMU outlet to the Y of the funnel. 

You can drill it out a bit, but be careful.

Rod

The S-turn is the killer, that's why the smoke comes out at an angle.  I spent quite a bit of time on one trying to change the angle with only limited success.