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Scale model Economy hit & miss engine builders wanted

I need to get my engine running

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Ian S C21/08/2010 09:58:05
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7468 forum posts
230 photos
Yes John , an effective foot valve on the fuel line might just make the difference. I seem to remember having to fiddle round with the valve on some engines, some have enough suck to not need a valve . Ian S C
MichaelR21/08/2010 15:41:35
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528 forum posts
79 photos
John,  With my H&M RLE I have run with a check valve in the fuel line I have also run the engine without a check valve I didn't get any drain back on the fuel line with that set up, but as Ian says some engines can have a bit more suction.
One more thing you only need a very light spring on the inlet valve, it only needs to hold the valve on it's seat with very little loading, you don't want the spring resisting the suction.
MichaelR21/08/2010 15:56:38
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528 forum posts
79 photos
My Hit and Miss
 
John Wood126/08/2010 09:40:51
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116 forum posts
Hi Stick, thanks for the video - great stuff and it certainly runs well. Bit by bit I am getting all the pieces together in my feeble brain and hope to get mine running like yours. I have a Wyvern kit waiting to be done and have just ordered a Redwing kit so I need to know what I'm doing before embarking on those. Seeing yours I could well be looking an the RLE in the future.
 
I have made a new non-return valve but havn't installed it yet, I will also be trying a weaker spring on the intake valve if I still have a problem. I think the drain back would probably stop once the engine is running up to speed but it would certainly help to stop it for starting and adjustment purposes
 
All the best
John
John Wood127/08/2010 16:27:05
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116 forum posts
Whilst waiting for the weather to stop raining so I can get the engine outside to test on petrol ('er indoors has banned petrol in my indoor workshop until the house is sold!) I thought I would just try it on Butane gas. I have tried on occasion before but couldn't really get it to pick up and run properly, anyway, I thought I'd put a lighter inlet valve spring on, just to see. Well, I spun the thing just once and it burst into life, frightened the poor old dog it did. I ran it for about ten minutes doing various adjustments - as you do then shut it down and went for a cuppa.  Half an hour later I tried again, same result. Right, let it go cold, that'l upset it, not likely, off it went again and seems now to want to be reliable - after all this time! I shall of course try it on petrol when I can but maybe the main problems have now been fixed, time will tell.
 
Thanks to all
Regards
 
John
MichaelR27/08/2010 17:40:53
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528 forum posts
79 photos
Hi John, Good to hear you have got the Economy running, all your adjustments have come together, good luck with the trial run on petrol. Stick
Engine Builder27/08/2010 17:44:06
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267 forum posts
John, I told you gas was the way to go !
Glad to hear you have results.
David
Andrew Johnston28/08/2010 11:29:57
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7061 forum posts
719 photos
Interesting information, thanks guys, which I have no doubt will help me when I get my Economy engine finished. Just need to make a few more bits, weld up a stainless steel fuel tank,  finish the design of my own ignition system, and design and build the spark plug.
 
I was planning to try running the engine on Colmans stove fuel. Not that easy to get in the UK, but the bigger camping shops seem to stock it. No idea what the fuel is, but I assume it's a mix of the lighter hydrocarbons. Anybody tried this fuel?
 
Regards,
 
Andrew
 

 
 
 
 

John Wood114/09/2010 11:45:41
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116 forum posts
And finally...... Although the engine started on Butane gas as reported above, trying it out over a period of time did show that it was often difficult to start and even, on occasion, not at all which meant that there was still a problem to be resolved.  The symptom was that the engine would only fire occasionally when turning over and often not enough to enable it to run reliably.
 
It really sounded like ignition so back to the spark.  I had an inline spark tester which I made to Jan Ridder's design and had previously checked that there was a spark available, but now I find it wasn't good enough. With the tester in circuit and most of the workshop lights off (the dog thought I'd gone mad!) I turned the engine over and watched carefully, sure enough, most of the time there was a weedy little spark but on occasion a fat one appeared and the engine fired - problem probably identified. I had a condenser fitted close to the contact breaker which came with the coil however, I wired a 220n capacitor across this and up came the spark as you would wish. The engine started immediately and, having tried it several time a day for over a week it never fails to start, mostly first time. The running is smooth, hit - and - miss is steady and slow running excellent. Still havn't tried it on petrol yet but am now confident.
 
Sorry about the waffle but I thought this might just help someone else
 
End of story?  We'll see!
 
John
Charles 201024/09/2010 19:18:55
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84 forum posts
54 photos

Hi John and all others

I have just found this site and by coincidence have just ordered the "Economy Stationary Engine" for deliver of castings next week.

 I will take on board all that has been said and keep an eye on developments on this thread.

 Has any one pictures of the construction of the Economy Engine ???

Andrew Johnston24/09/2010 22:35:06
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7061 forum posts
719 photos
'Fraid not, but I'm always willing to discuss how I made a given part, which parts of the kit I threw away, and how I've altered the design.
 
In due course (tomorrow) I'll post a picture or two of progess so far.
 
Regards,
 
Andrew
Andrew Johnston25/09/2010 21:44:41
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7061 forum posts
719 photos
Hmmmm, trying to upload photos seems to cause the website to crash out. I'll try again tomorrow morning.
 
Regards,
 
Andrew
Ian S C26/09/2010 09:52:14
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7468 forum posts
230 photos
Hi Andrew, I found I had to reduce the size of my photos, I think the max I can post is 1844 X 1250, but you prob know more about that than I do, I just find this stuff by 'hit and miss'. Ian S C
Andrew Johnston26/09/2010 10:38:45
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7061 forum posts
719 photos
Hi Ian,
 
I did wonder if my photos were too big; I was too tired last night to work it out. I got confused because one of the first photos I uploaded was 3488x2616, but just over 2Mbytes in size. I thought there may have been a problem as the Economy photos are the same number of pixels, but are a bit over 4Mbytes. Lo and behold, this morning the first photo uploaded, no problems; then the system started sulking again. So the other two photos have been resized to be about 2.5Mbytes. Bloody software!
 
The upshot is the photos of my Economy engine are now uploaded.
 
Regards,
 
Andrew
Ian S C26/09/2010 12:23:04
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7468 forum posts
230 photos
Same problem I was having exactly, too big and too late at night, the latest ones on the current hot air modifications is done with a web cam I got at a garage sale for $NZ5, I need to do a bit more study  on my camera. Ian S C
Charles 201026/09/2010 17:50:20
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84 forum posts
54 photos
Very good clear pictures Andrew.
Can you give any details on your crank shaft??
Andrew Johnston26/09/2010 19:40:58
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7061 forum posts
719 photos
Hi Charles,
 
As far as I can recall I made the crankshaft to the drawings, but as separate pieces to be assembled. The parts were then loctited together, and 3/16" silver steel pins were loctited though the webs where the shafts were located.
 
I made the webs from hot rolled EN3. I think the shafts were made from oversize EN8, rough turned and then ground to size.
 
Any other questions feel free to ask!
 
Regards,
 
Andrew
John Olsen27/09/2010 01:11:42
1294 forum posts
108 photos
1 articles
You don't need to post pictures for web viewing at full camera resolution. However if you want to reduce the resolution you are going to have to use an editor, like Photoshop for instance, and I guess not everyone is familiar with this sort of thing. One thing to watch is that you want to save the reduced resolution one with a new name, so that your own copy is not reduced in quality as well.
 
regards
John
Andrew Johnston27/09/2010 08:53:19
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7061 forum posts
719 photos
Been using Paintshop Pro for some years to edit pictures, it does all I need - Andrew
John Olsen28/09/2010 02:11:57
1294 forum posts
108 photos
1 articles
Yes, you don't need the full version of photoshop by any means, and I didn't intend to imply that. Quite often something suitable comes with a camera or scanner as part of the software package.
 
regards
John
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