Weaver Ransom 1cc CI engine

[Streamer]

Good evening everyone,
Welcome to my build log for my next project, the Weaver Ransom 1cc compression ignition engine. This was recommended to me as a nice engine to build by Ramon, I can see why as the engine seems all in proportion and good to look at – whether mine will be is another matter.

Ron Chernish has detailed most of his build of this engine on his site so I will be using his expertise to guide me along. After a little bit of searching I was generously supplied with the MB plans - thanks very much Eric – and so off to start on the crankcase.  I have decided to make two engines this time, part as insurance but also so that I can perhaps try different methods for certain parts or to alter the appearance of the engine slightly. Mainly this will be the cylinder head as there seem to have been a few interpretations of the exact shape over the years.

The case is cut from barstock and to start the main journal is turned at the front of the case to finished dimensions. Next a paper cutout of the case profile is glued on to the front so that the excess can be cut off in the bandsaw (count your fingers after this). It was at this point I really realised just how tiny this engine is – oh well too late to worry now!

Once the excess is cut off, the case is mounted in the lathe chuck and the lower rounded section of the case is formed. I have used a hobby tool mounted on the lathe toolpost with a 3mm endmill, manually winding the saddle back and forth, each time rotating the lathe chuck slightly. This produces a very good finish and is easy to do – I only crashed the end mill into the lathe chuck twice. After that a little work with a needle file and successive grades of wet and dry produces a good finish.

The case build is over two posts as I have too many pics for one.

[Streamer]

crankcase continued

Next the case is mounted on the rotary table on the mill and the underneath of the mounting lugs are milled. As a register  I have scribed a line at centre height whilst previously mounted in the lathe. Rotate 180 degrees and do the top of the lugs. (note the improvised screw jacks) Then on to the angled sides of the case, this is more difficult than it first appears as you need to leave material at the join to produce a radius where the sides meet the top of the lug. (more filing later – must get some ball nosed end mills) One case is dead on, the other I have got one of the angled sides slightly off – it is not obvious so I will not be going back for another go. The top of the case is not completed at this stage but I did remove some of the excess material.

Then back to the lathe and the case is mounted in the collet chuck, the case is then bored out to correct size for threading, and the main bearing is drilled and reamed.
The backplate for this engine is threaded .75 inch 32 tpi, whilst I have cut many threads with taps and dies, and plenty of external threads in the lathe I have not cut mating threads of this type. To avoid any disasters I have previously had a trial run with a couple of pieces of scrap for these exact dimensions. Fortunately the thread cutting went without a hitch.

Almost finished! Lastly the case is mounted in the mill and I chose to flycut the top down to the correct height before finally drilling and boring the top for the cylinder. I picked up a very nice Arrand small boring head on the auction site last year, this was my first chance to use it and it performed very nicely.

I hope the length of this first post doesn’t put anyone off, I think (hope) this is easily the most complex part of the project.

Steve

[b.lindsey]

Looks like you are off to a great start Steve. Looking forward to following your progress.

Bill

[Ramon Wilson]

That's a real good start Steve 

Getting the cases out of the way is always the worst part over. I hope they both turn out to be as great a runner as expected - the 'Weaver' really is a nice little design.

Good luck with the rest of the build

Regards - Ramon

[yogi]

Great start to the project Steve! Well done! 
I love your screw jacks. I filed that for future use. Thanks for sharing. 

[Dave Otto]

Very nice work Steve,

I will be following along with you on this one.

Dave

[Admiral_dk]

Yippee - another diesel (CI) engine 

Looking forward to this one 

[Roger B]

A good start to a nice looking engine (or pair of engines).  I like your solution to rounding the base of the crankcase using a Proxxon. 

[zeeprogrammer]

Those crankcases came out great. Well...better than great.

I'll be watching too. 

[Streamer]

Hi all,
Thanks very much everyone, Roger, the idea of using the Proxxon like this was from someone on here. My useless memory means I can't remember who it was that posted the idea, it was why I bought a Proxxon when my old no name tool died, this one has a collar specifically designed for holding like this.

I have completed the crankcase covers but completely forgot to take any pictures of the process it was fairly straightforward turning anyway. The only unexpected part was forming the threaded section. I had previously made a test male and female thread which I mentioned in the crankcase section. What I did not do was faithfully replicate the male component and when I tried to use my normal external threading tool it would have run in to the shoulder that meets the back of the crankcase. There is only 1mm of clearance so I had to grind a very thin 60 degree cutting tool specially for the job. Anyway at least I have some pics of the completed parts.

Steve

[Streamer]

Good evening everyone,
Next up are the conrods so that I have something to fit the crankpins to when I do the crankshafts next.
The plans call for these to be made from gauge plate ( they need to be hardened and tempered) but I don't have any so I have made them from silver steel. The method I have used is one that I have used before for aluminium conrods, I have not seen it described before but it works for me.
First the silver steel is chucked up with plenty of spare, and supported by the tailstock centre. The centre round section is then roughed out by plunge cutting with a tcmt tip (60 degree) with a ropy looking home made tool! This tool I made ages ago when first starting but works really well. Roughed out is the correct phrase as well - silver steel doesn't cut very well like this. This part of the conrod needs to be tapered so the last finishing cut is made with the compound slide at about 1.5 degrees and turned out to be just right.
This is then cut off and transferred to the milling vice, a small flat is machined on one side, then turned over and the same done again. This makes it easy to hold in the vice so that it can be machined down to correct thickness.
Then it is an easy job to locate the position of the required holes using the machine dials and drill and ream the two holes. Having said that, I have had to remake one of the conrods as the big end hole I somehow managed to drill and ream at an angle of about 15 degrees off vertical, don't know how I did it but these little drill bits must bend easily.
Transfer to the small rotary table and form the circular ends and a bit of work with needle files and they are done. On the point of filing, this is surprisingly difficult on small components, even with small files they obscure the work.
Then the bit I was dreading - hardening and tempering is something I have done a few times but not on something so small and I was worried they might crack in the quench. They both survived however. I have tempered to straw although there is no mention in the plans of what temper is required.
In the last picture the finish looks awful but in fact is very smooth. I think the colour from tempering is just making them look worse than they are.

Steve

[Streamer]

Hi everyone,
Seems like ages since I posted but been unavoidably busy with other things, hopefully will be in the workshop more in the coming weeks.
I have completed the crankshafts, the front end is straightforward with a tapped hole for the stud. The end of the crankshaft is tapered to accept the prop washer which has an identical taper. I have machined this by putting the lathe in reverse and making the cut on the back of the component using the compound slide, all so that I can use the same setting to bore out the taper in the prop washer.
The crankshaft has been honed to fit the main bearing using an external hone, the same one I used for the Cicada. From then on the process is again the same, part off and then make a crankpin turning jig to form the pin.
The stud is made from stainless threaded rod and will be epoxied in after I have hardened the crankpin.
The picture of boring the propwasher shows what looks like a randomly ground piece of round hss. This tool was ground freehand when I first started a few years ago and is about 5mm wide. Somehow or other it is able to bore quite deep holes with hardly any spring. I have thought about regrinding it now I have a grinding rest but I would probably ruin it!
Anyway it is good to get back in the workshop and will be doing the cylinders next.
Steve

[b.lindsey]

Nice to see an update Steve. The crankshafts came out very well...nicely done!!

Bill

[Streamer]

Hi everyone,
Pleased to say I have had some more time in the shop and started on the cylinders.
These are from ms and the basic profile of the top of the cylinder is machined first, then drilled through 9mm for now (cylinder bore is 10.36mm). The cylinder is then threaded 32 tpi for the cylinder head. I have then reversed the piece in the chuck and turned the mounting flange as well as turning down below the mounting flange for a chucking piece.

Then over to the mill and after very careful measuring I have milled the intake port right through the cylinder wall. Whilst in this position I have also milled a flat on the flange as a register. Later on in the process I will use this to correctly position the exhaust ports but won't be doing those until the cylinder has been fully bored.

Now off to silver solder on the venturi boss.

Steve

[Streamer]

 Hi everyone,

Yes I am still here! - more apologies for my absence over the last couple of months. I have spent this getting the house ready to sell, and also away on holiday for a couple of weeks. The advantage of this is that the new house (if we sell) will have a larger workshop than the telephone box I am in at the moment. (7 foot by 5 foot 6 inches)

Anyway I have been able to do some bits but have not got around to reporting progress.

The cylinder was next to be brazed. This is the boss for the venturi that needs to be silver soldered to the cylinder. I have done similar on larger engines before, but this is so small and the gap between the flange and the boss is so small I decided to make a small ring of .75mm solder to put in position beforehand (having fluxed first) and just add heat until the ring melted into the joint. This worked fine except I have overestimated the amount of solder and so the fillet was very thick all the way round. Nothing I couldn't sort out with hours of painstaking metal removal!

Back soon with more.
Steve

[Streamer]

Next for the cylinder is to bore out to just less than the final internal diameter ready for honing. Then over to the rotary table on the mill, using the register machined earlier and measuring up from the flange, the exhaust ports are milled. There are three – equidistant around the diameter and for this I have used a 1.5mm end mill. Whilst in the rotary table the other three sides of the flange are milled to size. Then back to the lathe to remove the chucking piece.
The next job is to cut the internal transfer ports. This engine has a transfer belt – as it sounds it is a belt around the internal diameter of the cylinder with a triangular cross section. To get this right I have made a dummy bore. Then ground up a form tool to cut the right shape and once the trial cut was made I have milled away half the dummy bore to check on the profile, and also to check that I have measured up from the base of the cylinder correctly. The picture will probably explain it better than I have!
There is also a picture of the transfer belt cut, you can see the three exhaust ports and the intake hole in this pic as well.
Next job is to drill the transfer ports, these are five channels cut from the base of the cylinder to meet the transfer belt, evenly spaced around one side of the cylinder. These were drilled on the rotary table with an aluminium plug in the cylinder bore to stop the drill from wandering, this has worked better than I expected with the holes not wandering at all.
The next picture shows the channels connecting with the transfer belt, and the last pic is the cylinder ready for honing.
I have honed the cylinders using the same method as for the BJ Cicada so no need to repeat in this thread.
Next up will be the piston and contra piston.
Steve

[Admiral_dk]

Interesting transfer port arrangement - certainly a new one to me.

Nice work - looking forward to see it run 

[b.lindsey]

Welcome back Steve. Looking forward to seeing this come together 

Bill

[Roger B]

Some good solutions for machining those ports    Still following along 

[Ramon Wilson]

That's some real nice work there Steve   Those are going to be a really nice pair of engines

Good luck with the lapping - I'm sure it will go well looking at everything else you've done so far

Looking forwards to seeing the finished result

Regards - Ramon

[Streamer]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for all the nice comments, and for keeping interested after I was away for so long.
The piston for this engine uses an internal fork arrangement retained with a spring to hold the gudgeon pin, I was going to say this is unusual but as I have only made two ic engines before it might not be!

The main body of the piston is mainly straightforward with the only unusual thing being the semicircular groove needed for the spring clip to sit in. For this I have hand ground a small tool - a bit fiddly as the wire diameter of the spring is 0.8mm. There are a couple of pics where I have tried to show the groove. The pistons were then carefully honed to fit the cylinders - I have used the same method as for previous engined so no need to repeat. I said carefully because the piston is only 12.7mm long, significantly shorter than the india stone in my external hone so did not want to make a barrel shape on the piston.

The pin is a piece of silver steel with domed ends, hardened and tempered. The fork is aluminium and straightforward turning and then onto the mill to remove the central slot. The little spring clip was interesting for me to make as I haven't done much with springs before. I did wind this on a mandrel in the lathe but was interested by how much spring back there was after winding, it took me a few goes to get just the right size. The conrod I have made already.

Last thing to do is to cut out two small slots in the base of the piston to enable removal of the spring.

Right, next up is the cylinder heads and this is the bit I have been waiting for  this could be a potential disaster so wish me luck!

Steve

[10KPete]

I've never seen a piston built like that. I like it!!

Pete

[Streamer]

Hi Pete,
Thanks very much, I like it too - seems right that the surface is unbroken.

Ok I have now got to the cylinder heads, I must own up to having made them a few weeks ago but since then I have been amassing all the necessary bits and bobs to try my hand at anodising and dyeing. I had decided to do this as soon as I decided on this engine and have been looking forward to it.

I made three cylinder heads, the first was to try out tools for the fins, check the internal thread worked etc. but mainly as I needed one to be the guinea pig for anodising.

I have not taken any pics of the stups nor even of any before the anodising. The process is relatively straightforward - the internal thread bored and cut then reversed onto a mandrel to cut the fins and form the profile. On this point I always intended to try two different shapes which you can see below. The only thing I would do differently is that I would form the profile first (I used my homemade ball turning tool) then cut the fins. I did it the other way round and had the devil of a job deburring the fin spaces.

Anyway to the anodising, first I would like to say  thanks to all those people on here and elsewhere who have reported on their experiences - I read everything I could find and then distilled it down to a process that I thought would work for me.

The first pic is the trial head (light blue) - this genuinely is the first thing I tried and it has come out very well - good enough to use if the fin spacing wasn't all over the place.

The second head (red) is the first of those that will go on an engine. This has come out a lovely deep red, I used commercial anodising dyes and these first few items have been dyed at full strength as I wasn't sure how they would look and didn't want wishy washy colours.

For the third attempt I tried to anodise two things at the same time so they would come out the same colour. For this I made a small fixture to attach them to out of aluminium and they stayed attached for the whole process. I had decided to make these the same colour as the trial head and the process was proceeding as for the trial until I came to dip the items in the dye. The distilled water bath had become contaminated and so I had to heat up a new pan of water. No problem I thought, I will just leave the parts anodising until the new pan of water (and dye bath) were up to temperature. This took another half an hour and then I dipped and sealed as before. These items have come out a much deeper richer colour (which I prefer fortunately) than the trial but must reflect the effect of deeper anodising, which is interesting.

Anyway, when I get time I am going to try and make a spinner nut to match the red head, I kept a careful note of all timing for these items so I hope I will get it close enough to use.

Next up is the fuel tanks and venturi - I wish I had bought plastic test tubes and not glass!

Steve

[b.lindsey]

That anodizing turned out amazing Steve. Truly professional looking. Love the colors too.

Bill

[Ramon Wilson]

That's a very nice outcome you have there Steve 

I've found getting two parts to be absolutely identical in colour to be rather difficult when I've done it but I don't have larger volumes of dye. Both of your colours are very good - nice, strong and vibrant.

Good result all round 

regards - Ramon

[Bertie_Bassett]

wow that annodizing came out very nice indeed!

i keep meaning to give it a go again but never had much luck with the colour. ill try proper dyes next time

[Streamer]

Hi ,
Thanks very much everyone, I definitely think the commercial dyes help.

Hi Ramon, I am not sure it will help getting two pieces the same colour but I have recreated the setup I used for the blue parts in the picture, as well as one of the little fixture. These were suspended on titanium wire forced by hand through a same diameter hole in the fixture. These fitted in my dye bath easily even though it is only a 1.5 litre tupperware type container.

I used titanium wire as apparently it doesn't anodise at 12v and can be reused. This piece did all the anodising I have done so far.

Back later with the venturi and tanks for the Weaver.

Steve

[Ramon Wilson]

Hi Steve - yes I use titanium wire - it makes a huge difference and like you I usually taper the wire to tightly fit a hole.

I like your idea of the fixture - was this just to dye them or did you anodise them together like this?

I did my two parts (heads) at the same time but on separate hangars and also used writing inks which are far more intense and quicker to uptake - could have been just a subtle difference in the anodising that caused the very slight variation with such a rapid uptake of colour.

That blue does look good though - what dyes did you use and would you know if they do a bright green?

Regards - Ramon

[Streamer]

Hi Ramon,
I had read in my research that people had difficulty anodising two things at once to get them the same, usually the one with the worst electrical connection doesn't anodise as well. I thought if I connected them to the same fixture there may be a better chance of them anodising equally and it seems to have worked. I set the two parts on the fixture and wire before I started any of the process to try and ensure they both got exactly the same treatment (Wash, etch,desmut,anodise,dye,seal)

I got my dyes from Gateros plating - they do a green although whether it is bright green I don't know. The blue colour I achieved is nothing like the example on their website but it must be very difficult to give a good representation. If you compare their blue to that I achieved there is no comparison. Not to be promoting on this forum but their prices are pretty reasonable for what you get. The dyes also come with technical info on dilution rates and the correct temperature for the dyebath and the duration for sealing etc.

Steve

[Ramon Wilson]

Thanks Steve - that seems to confirm my findings.

I have seen the Gateros dyes but decided against them because of the largish minimum quantity to purchase. I have had very good success using writing inks but the greens come out a very deep turquoise blue. I did buy some commercial green dye which gave me the bright 'apple' green colour I wanted on the test piece. I noticed when going for the part however that there were some crystals remaining in the bottle. I shook these up to get complete saturation only to find the green then went to a distinct blue-ish hue 
It's a very enjoyable process to undertake and the results can be most satisfying but I fear at home level it would be quite difficult to get a regular consistency - but then with what we do that's not really too much of a problem I guess.

Looking forwards to seeing it run

Regards - Ramon

PS - Just had a look on Ebay and see Gateros do a green at a very reasonable £12 - that's a big improvement on when I first set out on mine - thanks for the jog!

[Streamer]

 Hi Ramon,
If you get it from their own website you may do even better!

This is the last part to be completed for the engine, the venturi and fuel tanks.
The venturi is as I have made before, the only pics I have included are of drilling the main intake hole and of the home made tapered reamer I made from silver steel. This reamer is double ended as the intake taper is different to the taper from the needle to the engine. This worked alright on aluminium but I wouldn’t like to try it on steel – maybe it would work better if the hole was step drilled.

The interesting part was the fuel tanks – I didn’t want these to be too big for the engine but needed to be big enough to be useful. I couldn’t find any plastic containers suitable so bought some glass test tubes on ebay thinking that I could cut them down to size.

This is more difficult than I expected – I had seen that my hobby tool came with diamond coated disks - amongst the uses it said were for glass. Great I thought, that should be straightforward – they do cut glass but as soon as I broke through in one place the test tube would disintegrate. I expect this released internal stresses or something.  Anyway I eventually managed to find a way to reduce the length, using a very fine diamond file (triangular) I etched very lightly all the way round the circumference slowly etching deeper and deeper until almost all the way through – then pulled the two parts away from each other. Once this is done filing the glass to achieve a flat edge is straightforward.

The first design really is over complicated but does work. The aluminium lid has a groove machined on the internal diameter at the top (I used the same tool as for the groove in the piston). There is a matching lip on the aluminium rim which is epoxied to the glass. I have filed away three equal sections of the lip, and machined away three matching sections of the internal diameter of the lid. So slot the base into the lid and turn one third and the two parts stay together – told you it was over complicated!
The second one is much simpler and easier – I had loads of time to think about it as I was making the first one. The lid internal diameter is machined with a small taper, wider at the top. The diameter at the top matches the diameter of the glass tube. File away four equal sections all the way round and the small amount of spring in the remaining thin  ‘leaves’ very firmly hold the glass. It is very easy to pull out if needed but will not come out on it’s own. This one works very well and will use it again if I need a similar tank in future.

That is all the components complete, I will report soon on whether these run or not.

Steve

PS. Usually by this time in a project I know what I am going to be doing next, but I don’t this time. I would like to try something larger (machining through a magnifying glass is a bit trying) before my next small diesel, maybe a Mills. If anyone has any suggestions for something larger, maybe a two stroke glow engine that I can get plans for I would be grateful.

Steve

[Streamer]

Hi,
Here is a pic of the completed engines, hopefully will be back soon with some video.
Steve

[Ramon Wilson]

Those have come out really well Steve  If they run as well as they look you should be well pleased indeed.

Now, how about scaling one up to 5cc  (you could even convert it to Glow too )

Regards - Ramon

[Admiral_dk]

They look fantastic 

Plastic tank is possible - Jason got some ideas if I remember correctly .... 

[Streamer]

Hi all,

Very pleased to say that below should be a couple of videos of the two engines running

As much as the fact that they are running I am pleased that now I have sorted out the settings for each they are easy starters. The engines I have made before have run but have been very unpredictable to start. Another interesting thing, now that I have written down the starting and running instructions for each they both start and run with the same prime, compression etc and both run best with very similar settings.

The performance is about the same as well - at the moment running at about 8,000 to 8,500 rpm with 7 x 3 props. Maximum 8,900 with the red one having the edge at the moment.

Ramon, I genuinely don't think I would be confident scaling anything up. I have thought about it a bit, would I start by scaling the bore and stroke (keeping them in proportion) and work all other dimensions back from there? For a glow conversion would I need to know the ideal compression ratio for a glow and adjust the free space at the top of the cylinder? The other options from my own research at the moment are a Jones .605 or possibly (less likely) a Vega Twin four stroke.

Anyway, I have to finish running these in and give my workshop (telephone box) an end of project spring clean so I have got some time to decide.

Steve

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF3vIklcTPo" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF3vIklcTPo</a>   

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pavdvDBux5k" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pavdvDBux5k</a>

[Ramon Wilson]

Well Steve, you've certainly produced two excellent little engines there - Have you tried opening both videos at once (on the page) - Ahhh - harmony 

Scaling up is relatively straightforward - I do just as you say and find the ratio required to take the bore and stroke from the original to the desired cc. Once I have that then all measurements - either from the drawing or as in the case of the Etas etc from an original engine - are scaled by that ratio. Due to scaling 'the volume' the engines can come out a tad heavier than what would be expected for it's given size but not overly so so I have kept to all scaled dimensions rather than thin things to save weight. This does have a greater effect if the original is smaller - the Super Tigres for instance, scaled from the 1cc original to 5cc are quite beefy compared to the Racers and Etas.

Converting to glow should be relatively straight forward too - you may have to bring the cylinder head down into the liner (rather than shorten the liner if you want to keep the overall appearance)as a lower compression ratio of around 12 to 1 is required rather than the higher ratio for diesel.

The Jones is a nice engine - if I recall correctly the crankcase was designed to be made from a casting but you should be able to create that from block without too much trouble. I stick with 5cc for two reasons - the first is that I've always 'liked' 5cc engines above other capacities but from a making point of view the components make for much easier work holding but without the need for largish blocks of material. that said you will find the blocks involved for a '5' rather large to begin with after your Weaver's

All this talk of engines is having an effect - it's been nearly a year since mine saw light of day but Forncett looms so they'll soon be brought out for their annual run.


Congratulations on a fine result Steve,

Regards Ramon

[Admiral_dk]

  They are great runners Steve 

You can be proud of your achievement 

[Streamer]

Hi Ramon,
What a great idea, I never would have thought of opening both at the same time, they do sound good together.

Thanks for confirming about the scaling up, I had worked it out to be a factor of about 1.73. Shows how daft I am and how I am enamoured of small engines, only an hour later I was working out how to scale one down to 0.5cc!

The Jones casting is available from Hemmingway, although with plans etc it is in the region of £120 so may have to go on the back burner. I don't know what Forncett is, sorry.

Thanks very much Admiral, and thanks to everyone who has followed along this build.
Steve

[GailinNM]

Steve,
I have been following along on your  Weaver Ransom double build.  You have made some real works of  art.  Congratulations. 

Be careful. Small engines can become addictive.  Over the last dozen years I have built 30 successful engines of less than 1cc displacement. Actually 4 of them were greater than 1cc displacement, but they were twins with individual cylinder displacements of less than 1cc so I count them. Built a few others which, although they ran, I did not consider successful. These were compression ignition in the 0.2 cc range.

Breakdown of the under 1 cc engines is:
7    2 stroke singles (3 glow, 4 Compression ignition)
19  4 stroke hit & miss, all spark ignition
2    2 stroke compression ignition twins
2   4 stroke spark ignition opposed piston twins

Of these, 10 of the h&M engines are working for a living in Gauge 1 model locomotives.

So they can be addictive.  If you start scaling things down from existing model engines you will have lots of fun.  If you start designing your own you will have even more fun, of course assuming that you consider troubleshooting to be fun also.

Gail in NM

[Streamer]

Hi Gail,
Nice to hear from you, thanks very much.

I fear it may be far too late for warnings although I have more or less decided that the next project will be a vega twin 9cc four stroke. I am fairly new to model engineering so I like to have projects that teach me new things. I have never cut any gears, made valves, I have only made plain bearings, never cut a cam etc so this project should teach me quite a lot.

Having said that I don't think it will be long before I am back to small diesels, the Mills, Owens Mate, scaled down Weaver, scaled up Weaver, I quite fancy having a go at a Topsy .375 and there is also the small matter of a metric Lobo Pup that has been winking at me from the pages of MEB for a while. I don't know what it is about these little diesels, maybe the fact that they are independent and work 'stand alone' without the need for electric for spark or glow plugs. Anyway, I think the bug has bitten.

Cheers
Steve

[Ramon Wilson]

Anyway, I think the bug has bitten.

That's good to hear Steve - 'go forit' 

Ramon