My final yr dissertation...?
Turbo Mini Forums

Right guys, I get so car sick (pun on home sick...) while im here at uni, the thing i miss most is the workshop back home.

I decided earlier in the year to try and tackle this, but i have limited options,
1) barrying up my 93 rover 214 (er...no),
2) find a fresh project to work on...namely:

A lad the other day offered me a Mk2 VW golf driver 1.4 auto (in showroom condition, typically granny car) that comes with a complete 40k G60 engine with everything and more to do the conversion (in subframe, even has the nuts and bolts form the golf it came out of, genuine vw golf i/c, gen twin headlight conversion, all wiring/plumbing etc to drop straight in). As his mother in law wants her garage back, he was asking a very very good price for this.

But I have no facilities here in manchester, so my best options are...

1)Start up a manchester uni hillclimb team, and get permission to use the uni's facilities, and possibly get funding from the uni...THEY SAID NO STRAIGHT AWAY.

2) try and incorporate the 'project' into my final year (next years)dissertation...then i have all the facilities that manchester/UMIST can throw at me...

My problem is, what excuse/scientific reason/research can I come up with to somehow include this into my Final yr dis?

Only just managing to keep my head above water with all the coursework at the minute.
I know Im being really unimaginiative at the minute, and cant seem to see the wood for the trees so to speak....

So far ive covered the following topics:

Thermodynamics/Thermofluids/Fluid Dynamics, Materials, Electronics, Mechatronics, Solids and Structures, Manufacturing and Materials, Control, Moddelling and Simulation.

Any help would, as always, be extremely appreciated.

Jo

"Turbo's make torque, and torque makes fun"

"did you know you can toast potato waffles?"

i would not jump into things both feet first!

think about things for a while & incorporate what you want for the future,?? with your last years dissertation

this will get you the job or jobs you want!

the Future! Now thats a long time. (hopefully)

turbo dave, tom fenton, mini1071S peter,
these are the peeps to guid you

What degree are you doing, sounds quite similar to mine.

Mechanical Engineering, no idea why..didnt even do physics at A level which made the 1st year fun.

I might just come clean with my personal tutor and see what he says, hes a pretty sound bloke.

"Turbo's make torque, and torque makes fun"

"did you know you can toast potato waffles?"

would modelling the flow through the supercharger not be a good final year dissertation?

Infact what sort of things do people do for their dissertations?

"Turbo's make torque, and torque makes fun"

"did you know you can toast potato waffles?"

Having been there and done that, your final year will be HECTIC, and once finished something you will never want (or HAVE) to do ever again.

My advice to you would be to FORGET cars completely for 12 months and get your head down and do the graft.

When you have a good graduate job (as I am now lucky to have) you will have plenty of time (and cash) for messing with projects and more.

The best advice I can give you (and what I personally did, in fact) was to sell my Mini and get a more modern reliable road car, that will also chew up miles as you travel round the country for job interviews etc.

What did you do for your dissertation tom?

Re reading it, it does sound a bit unrealistic..


hahaha, its like i need a fix!
i just get stir crazy sat round not being able to go down the garage and tinker, i end up watching hours of american chopper, scrapheap challange, or even worse, coming on here and annoying all you lot.

"Turbo's make torque, and torque makes fun"

"did you know you can toast potato waffles?"

Mine was a redesign of a camshaft and valve train assembly for a 1928 Singer Junior engine.

The original camshaft had a tangential lift ramp, which lead to massive spikes in valve train acceleration, and shocking wear to the cam and follower. The other side of this however was that with the harsh profile used, the mean effective valve area over the duration used was actually pretty high, so it was a challenge to be able to even keep the same net valve open time (or ideally increase it) whilst vastly reducing the acceleration hence forces on the valve train. Another issue to add some head scratching was that the geometry of the valve lifter rocker arrangement meant that the rocker ratio was not truly constant and varied with valve lift. This meant it was neccesary to define the lift characteristic required at the valve, and then translate this back into the true cam profile required to give this characteristic. And then check that this profile was in fact possible to grind.

My redesigned camshaft used 6th order polynomial curves to give a smooth lift curve, a smooth transition into a dwell period, and then the same on the fall curve. It also managed to increase the valve open time by some 20% using the same valve duration.
The cam design was an evolutionary step by step procedure, with each valve characteristic being modelled on a computer program using defined volumes, temperatures and pressures to calculate "ideal" engine output.

After the work I did, my tutor (who set the project to be done to improve his historic hillclimb car) had the cam ground and reported an increase in power/torque and a much quieter running valve system.

Thinking back it was a bloody interesting project with a lot more meat in it than you would expect at first glance.

Joey - Toms advise is 110% accurate and exactly what i'd have typed. Again - I'm advising you from a been there, done that, got the Tee-shirt. Be wary of advise from those who've done a C&G or HNC - they're a walk in the park by comparison...

And stay the f**k away from cars and birds in the final year; it's grief you don't want... whoever told you 'no' to your #1 suggestion did you a big favour.

As regards the project - find something that YOU know about, but the lecturers/assesors won't - or have VERY limited knowledge of. If you can sit down, and be the master of knowledge at your disseration board, then YOU will win. If you choose something on thermodynamics, then a lecturer with a doctorate, will see though any tiny little mistake you make.

Myself - my dissertation was on an oil pump that was housed inside the reverse idler gear in a transmission. So, firstly - I chose something I knew about, and something the lecturers knew little about. Sure - I didn't exactly 'challenge myself' but stuff that! The work needed in the final year is enough of a challenge, let alone the project!
Besides - given that I went 42 hours without sleep before handing in my disseration on the deadline, I'm glad i didn't 'challenge myself' any more. LOL!


Just remember - You're there to get a degree; The fun comes from the cars you drive and the birds you tap, with the money you earn by getting a job, with the degree you sacrifieced a few years of your life for....




Incidentally - I even won the 'best project' award for mine, and this is what pulled me firmly into 2:1 category. If i'd have got just 50% for my project, i'd have probably got a 2:2 - which if you look in the jobs journals, simply isn't good enough for many employers who want (and have a choice of) 2:1 or 1st class degrees.

Edited by turbodave16v on 8th Mar, 2006.

Not what I wanted to hear, but I can imagine its very sound advice.

I think Im just having a mid-course crisis at the minute, hopefully will snap out of it come summer and warmer weather.

BTW interesting stuff, i have absolutley no idea what im gonna do, quote:

"find something that YOU know about, but the lecturers/assesors won't"

Im screwed.
:)

"Turbo's make torque, and torque makes fun"

"did you know you can toast potato waffles?"

Just one persons advice - Peter gave VERY different advice...

peter said 2. No lecturer likes to be outsmarted.

i outsmarted most of them & all my so called peers
it got me in Deepstuff in the past!

would you be believe!

i am alot more easy going now .....LOL

i'm just in the middle of my thesis at the minute and its taking up lots of time, and extra coursework keeps popping up all the time, and you just have to keep giving things up (like tinkering in the garage for one, and turning down social occasions etc), buts its only for 1 academic year

i give you credit for preparing yourself well in advance, something which I wish I had done

as for a subject i'm doing the 'effects of liquid and gaseous fuels on combustor materials'

lots of other people on the course (BEng Mech Eng) are doing analytical stuff which has meant one tutor has got about 12 students!!

i was fortunate to get a tutor all to myself, and he's a sound old school engineer so finds it all interesting

definitely give who you want your tutor to be some thought as they are going to be the ones marking it!

Cheers for the replies.

I can feel my final year looming over me now so much more now!!! Probably a good thing tho.

Tempted to get the VW anyway, even if i just flog the ca ron and put the g60 in stock..

"Turbo's make torque, and torque makes fun"

"did you know you can toast potato waffles?"

yeah, i know exactly what you mean, got my 1380 rally car to finish/spray, and will be fitting a t3 to my old 998 mayfair this summer, so that will do for now :)

"Turbo's make torque, and torque makes fun"

"did you know you can toast potato waffles?"