IC 2 Cylinder Horizontal Engine

[cfellows]

I've started a design for an internal combustion 2 cylinder horizontal engine. 



For as long as I can remember, I've always been drawn to the sound of the old John Deere tractors from the 1930's through the mid 1950's.  Although my engine, with it's air cooling and open crankcase departs from the John Deere tractor engines, it kind of has the right look and hopefully will have the right sound.  A number of other old tractors had 2 cylinder engines of similar operation.  These included the Waterloo Boy, forerunner to the John Deere, the Rumely Oil Pull, Hart Parr and probably others.  These engines all had big bores with the crankshaft journals 180 degrees apart, the idea being that crankshaft and pistons would be balanced, reducing or eliminating vibration, which could be a big problem for someone spending 10 or 12 hours a day plowing fields.  This also resulted in the distinctive, syncopated sound that these tractors shared.

My engine will use aluminum for the cylinder block, probably with cylinder liners.  The frame sides will be 1/4" angle iron with the bottom and front being cold rolled steel.  The plan for the 6" flywheel is a brass rim that I have on hand and the 6-spoked center milled from aluminum.  The camshaft will be mounted in the frame in front of and below the crankshaft with the pushrods passing beneath the cylinder to the rocker arms, mounted vertically.  A drive shaft with helical gears on either end will be mounted outside the engine frame to drive the camshaft.  Bore and stroke are .875" x 1.5", respectively.  The valves will be made from 5/16" drill rod, fuel intake will be from a single carburetor attached to the bottom of the cylinder head and exhaust will be out the top of the head.  I haven't quite figured out the ignition system yet, but hopefully inspiration will come before I get that far.

Chuck

[Art K]

Chuck,
This sounds like a great project!
Art

[Roger B]

Looks like another good one to follow along with     

[fumopuc]

Hi Chuck, very interesting. I will following along.

[ths]

No stopping you. Will a tractor be built around it? Cheers, Hugh. And, PS, hope all is going we'll for you.

[gbritnell]

Hi Chuck,
Another unique design from the desk of Chuck Fellows! I'll be watching.
gbritnell

[Brian Rupnow]

Great stuff chuck. I will be following with interest.---Brian

[b.lindsey]

Another great project to look forward to Chuck!! I will be following along also. 

Bill

[cfellows]

Thanks for the comments and encouragement.  This weekend I ordered an ignition module from Roy Scholl at S/S Machine & Engineering.  Turns out he had several custom ignition modules with twin coils that should work out well.  Both coils fire at the same time which suits my plan for waste fire ignition to avoid the need for a distributor.

Chuck

[Don1966]

Hi Chuck, just catching up on this built and will be checking in to see more progress. I grew up with a John
Deere tractor and hope the sound comes out the same. I have some good memories of those days. Good to see you on another venture bud.

 
Don

[cfellows]

Thanks, Don.

Here is an updated drawing. 



I've modified the head and added some bits.

If you download the PDF file below, open it with Adobe Acrobat and click the picture, you can then click and hold the left mouse button down and swing it around in 3D for different views.

Chuck

[cfellows]

I've been reluctant to start cutting metal until I had the design a little further along.  So, at this point, I feel like it's close enough I can start on some parts.  Here are some drawings of the design at this point...









As you can see, I've added a few parts and simplified the design of the head quite a bit.  I like the new simpler design better.  So, I decided to start machining on the head since it adds more design challenges than perhaps any other part.  Here, I've started with 1/2" thick piece of aluminum, 2.75" x 1.75".



I could have gone with 3/8" thick material but decided to give myself a little extra margin.  The original block and head were going to be 1.5" tall x 2.5" wide, but I decided a little extra depth for cooling fins might be prudent so now it's 1.75" x 2.75.

Tomorrow I'll start drilling and milling the head.

Chuck

[cfellows]

Got most of the drilling and machining done on the head today.  First operation was to mill the recesses for the spark plugs.



And here I have the 1/4-32 spark plug holes drilled and tapped.  They are on a 22.5 degree angle.



Next I drilled the through holes for the valve cages.  These will be made from 5/16" diameter brass and Loctited in place.



Here is the intake manifold port.  The two, 3/16" holes go out at an angle to the two inside valve cage holes.



These are the exhaust ports, drilled to 7/32"



And here we have the 6-32 head bolt holes.  For the moment these are only drilled out to the pilot hole size and will be enlarged later.



From the Bottom...



Chuck

[fumopuc]

Hi Chuck, it looks like a plate only, but I know how tricky it is to get every hole excatly at its proper position. I will following along.

[BronxFigs]

Hello Mr. Fellows-

Good to see the latest designs from the Fellow's workshop posted on the forum.  Good luck.  As always, interesting.

Frank