1350hp t-53 turbine

[502procharger]

anyone have any experiance with turbines in a boat. i have the oportunity to purchase a t-53 turbin with time expired for air travel, but still in good shape with 500 to 1000 hrs before needing rebuild. it is a turboshaft 1350hp motor with gear reduction box with a max 6000 rpm/1350hp. it weighs 1/2 of a same hp bbc. i think it would be a fun project. i would like to find a 26-30' cat hull, in any condition to build this project. if anyone has any info, or input i would love to hear it.

[GasTurbine]

Check out my web site.

[502procharger]

gas turbine
wow, you did a nice job on that boat. you are not selling it are you? i would love to hear anything about what you think i should be looking for when i go to see this t-53. also if you have any conections on other t-53 or t-55 i would like to know. thanks for thew info. you did a beautiful job on that boat.

[502procharger]

no one else knows anything about turbines?

[Horsepowerchik]

Hey 502, whats up brutha? Hey, I hear the trickiest thing about those turbs is getting them to work with a surface drive...ie bravo. THe transom assembly can be tricky too. The Nor-Tech's w/ twin turbines I know if in Florida are runnin stingers, or sting rays, what ever theyre called. But they are SWEEET. The Roost is about 10X as badass as a jet boat w/ place div.
They run by in the Ocean and its just Shhhhhhhhhrrrrrrrzzzzzzzzzzzz. (thats a hi pitched jet sound) wink
YOur other main prob is idleing. you cant idle for crap. the big ballers have a small 30-50 horse outboard that lowers automatically to troll around!! Ill post some images if I can find em!
The other upside to those things is that they are made to run wide open throttle ALL DAY, unlike a BBC. YOu can use Kerosene, diesel Fuel, Gas...pretty kick ass. Read the powerboat mag from 2-3 months ago, it had a great article.
HPCHIK
50' Nortech, look at the exhaust ports!!
http://marineturbine.com/classified/nortech/fun2.jpg
http://marineturbine.com/installations/warlock/warlock.jpg
31 warlock w/ twin turb
http://marineturbine.com/installations/42fountain/fountain2.jpg
2 twin turb fountains
[ September 12, 2002, 04:52 PM: Message edited by: Horsepowerchik ]

[Shmoolie]

These guys have built a couple of turbine powered boats, check out their boat projects (Squirt1 and Squirt2).
http://www.nyethermodynamics.com

[Horsepowerchik]

Heres a Video of the Nortech Cat that MTT built. Check this out!!! Turbine Cat Video (http://marineturbine.com/video/drambuie_384.htm)

[Horsepowerchik]

Heres a Better one... turbine Video (http://marineturbine.com/video/turbinator_384.htm)

[502procharger]

hp chick,
good to here from ya. i would probably do what "gas turbine " has done . go into a v drive and out to an arneson surface drive his setup is so sweet. check it out. he has a link to it on his reply. if you come acrost a 26-30 cat with no motor or drive for a fair price let me know. i love the fact that you can run these things wot all day with no problems. i am building a turbin snowmobile right now with a jfs-100 turbine. it is small but a good learning experiance. any other info from you or anyone else would be great.

[GasTurbine]

502procharger:
gas turbine
wow, you did a nice job on that boat. you are not selling it are you? i would love to hear anything about what you think i should be looking for when i go to see this t-53. also if you have any conections on other t-53 or t-55 i would like to know. thanks for thew info. you did a beautiful job on that boat.Thanks 502...the project was 6 years in the making.
The boat currently is not for sale, but we get (very good) offers monthly.
I may know a guy with some 53s left...Ill look into it, and get back to you.
In retrospect, we should have went with jet pump to drive her. While it idles perfectly (makes about 30hp @ 40%) at 6 mph, its hard for us to "stop" the power shaft to shift into netural or reverse. The power shaft shouldnt be stopped for very long either, as the blades soak all the heat. We could have saved a bunch of money too...The Arneson drive is about 12 times more expensive than a jet, and a straight v-drive is about half of the shifting top-loader that we run.
Upside is running hard. She can run at 100% all day long. In fact, shes right at home there, and runs the coolest at that speed.
Downside is noise and fuel milage. It is VERY loud, but the (turbine) "noise" is pleasing to listen to...its just at a ridiculous volume. It uses 100 gallons of fuel per hour at high speeds. We get on an average, of 2 miles per gallon. Yes...you read that right.
You can get smaller turbines...MTT is a good source.
Let me know if I can answer any other questions.
Take care.

[502procharger]

smaller turbines, hell no. i would think that there is much less involved with a jet drive. please let me know what you find out about the other t-53's. a jet is most likely the way i will go due to the $ factor as well as the other reasons you have stated. as far as noise, well i like it loud, fuel, well that sucks, but i figured as much. my little jfs-100 starter turbin burns a ton of fuel. thank you for your info. let me know what you find out about the t-53.
brian

[572Daytona]

I would think one of the issues that you will have with a jet is that the bottoms of 22' and up cats are not setup properly to feed a jet pump. Before I bought my 21' Daytona I spoke to the a couple of manufacturers about building a bigger jet and got the same answer. I'm sure with the help of a pro the bottom could be modified but by the time you do that you may have reduced any savings that the jet may have provided you in the first place
Gas Turbine...I've always thought that boat was too cool, the ultimate weed wacker if you will :) Do you have any pictures of the boat in the water at speed, I would love to see that.

[GasTurbine]

572Daytona:
I would think one of the issues that you will have with a jet is that the bottoms of 22' and up cats are not setup properly to feed a jet pump. Before I bought my 21' Daytona I spoke to the a couple of manufacturers about building a bigger jet and got the same answer. I'm sure with the help of a pro the bottom could be modified but by the time you do that you may have reduced any savings that the jet may have provided you in the first place
Gas Turbine...I've always thought that boat was too cool, the ultimate weed wacker if you will :) Do you have any pictures of the boat in the water at speed, I would love to see that.Agreed, larger hulls will not support a jet drive (due to cavitation issues), but I was referencing my hull. My Rogers was "designed" for a jet drive, thus would work out very well.
I like screws better than jets...and I love my boat the way it is, I was just commenting on the "transmission" issue.
And thanks for the kind words.
Take care.

[Licketty Split]

that NT site hase a jet that they put together but it looks to me like it needs more Imp. under it it should be a 120-130+ mph boat
http://www.nyethermodynamics.com/squirt_2.htm#videos
HP Chick :o Wow I'm in love a chick that talks Boat :)