Slick Cylinders places fifth in snowmobile competition

by Cori Hilsgen

news@thenewsleaders.com

The Slick Cylinders placed fifth in the March 6-11 competition at Michigan Tech’s Keweenaw Research Center in Houghton, Mich.

Slick Cylinders is a group of St. Cloud State University mechanical and manufacturing engineering students who redesigned a 2015 Polaris Rush 800 Pro-S snowmobile with a Polaris RZR engine.

The Slick Cylinders team of six included Jacob Harper, Sartell; Dan Kezar, Forest Lake; Travis G. Meyer, Lakeville; Gene Studniski, Milaca, Heather VanSlyke, Zimmerman; and Jim Wicklund, Roseville.

The redesign was a senior project for the students to earn their mechanical and manufacturing engineering degrees. The group participated in the “Clean Snowmobile Challenge,” sponsored by the 2017 Society of Automotive Engineers, a professional association and standards-development organization.

The challenge was not an actual race but, rather, challenges that rewarded the most points to the fastest accomplished task.

Their snowmobile competed against other teams in several tasks that included the following:

• An endurance run where each snowmobile must travel 100 miles without needing to refuel. At the end of the miles, fuel consumption is calculated to determine the most fuel-efficient snowmobile.
• An acceleration run where each snowmobile must show what it’s made of in 10 yards. The fastest time earns the most points.
• A cold start where the sleds are stored in a -20 degrees Fahrenheit garage overnight. The sled that starts up, warms up, and travels 10 feet in the fastest time earns the most points.
• A handling course where the team needs to prove their sled is fun, safe and manageable to ride.
• An emissions test where the judge takes each sled for a ride with an emissions sleigh hooked up to the exhaust. The sleigh collects data through sensors, and the data is transferred to a computer to create graphs and generate the overall emissions scores.
• An indoor dyno test to prove the sled is not illegal and is within horsepower limits. The sled also can’t overheat or bog down during the throttle cycles.
• The sled is also judged on appearance. Would someone want to buy it?
• How expensive is the sled? Would someone purchase it for that price?

The team also submitted a formal report proving its modifications with engineering drawings, designs, computer-aided design and the math behind their designs. They also presented their report to prove to people their sled would be worth purchasing.

Project leader VanSlyke shared some of the highlights of their competition:

• Their snowmobile was one of six in its class to qualify for the endurance challenge, with sustained winds at 40 mph and gusts at 60 mph.
• Even though the team had verified their RZR engine taper would hook up fine to the Houghton, Mich. Dynomite dynamometers, they didn’t realize even though their taper dimensions at the end were fine, their taper stayed narrow instead of widening closer toward the engine block. Fortunately, the staff at Michigan Technology and their machinist were able to make a custom taper on a lathe for the team.
• During the dynamometer power sweep, where the engine runs from idle to maximum power and back down, their machine reached 100 horsepower and passed the wide open throttle for a two-minute test.
• For the cold start, acceleration and handling, they fired up their sled within 20 seconds and travelled 100 feet without stalling, after watching many teams fail to get their sleds started. Their sled was the only snowmobile in its class to successfully pass the test. For the acceleration, the sled hit the top speed for the day at 53 mph. Although they had the top speed, a sled that used studs was able to get better acceleration. The handling course was icy, but VanSlyke navigated it well even though several other teams flew off the track.
• They had a successful design/marketing presentation for 50 judges.

In a newsletter, VanSlyke expressed gratitude to all the team’s sponsors, family and friends who helped along the way.

She said it’s hard to express what they shared as a team, what they felt in the moments when their sled first fired up, and how they felt when they received compliments for all of their hard work.

VanSlyke said they learned more in the past six months than they could ever have learned sitting in a classroom.

The final winners of the competition included: University of Wisconsin-Madison and Ecole De Technologie Superieure (Canadian school from Montreal) tied for first place; University of Minnesota-Duluth placed third; University of Idaho placed fourth; and SCSU Slick Cylinders placed fifth.