My old friend, the Kerzel

[Brian Rupnow]

I'm not building anything much these days. I went out to my main garage today to dismount the Rupnow Vertical Engine and clean it up and store it on a shelf. Just for the heck of it, I grabbed my Kerzel hit and miss engine (which was the second i.c. engine I ever built) off a shelf to see if it would run, after setting for 6 years. A bit of fuel, some water in the cooling tank, and this is the result!!
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLkF2nAjOJ8" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLkF2nAjOJ8</a>

[Bertie_Bassett]

looks like a nice little runner there

what did yi do to it when you put it away 6 years ago? anything of mine would most likly have rusted up and certainly not ran as well as that one!

[Brian Rupnow]

Bertie--I just set it up on the shelf in my office with the other 25 engines. There isn`t a lot on any of these engines to rust. They are mostly aluminum, brass, bronze, and a little bit of cold rolled steel for the shafts. I had a piece of 316 stainless to make the cylinder liner from, and the piston was aluminum. These engines burn a mix of Naptha gas and some 2 cycle oil mixed in it, so they always have some residual oil on the inside. The outside of the engine gets a few squirts of lube oil at the bearings, gears, and con rod journal, so they always have a certain amount of oil on the outside too. I use Viton rings on the pistons, which are some type of heat resistant polymer that doesn`t rust. Some of my air cooled engines with cast iron cylinders get a bit of rust on the cooling fins near the top of the cylinder where they get hot.

[b.lindsey]

Thanks for putting that video up Brian. You know you did good when you can set it aside for 6 years and it starts right up and runs that well now!!

Bill

[Brian Rupnow]

Thanks Bill--There really isn`t that much that can go wrong with these little engines while they `set on a shelf`. There aren`t a lot of intricate passages nor float bowls in the carb to seize up from gasoline residue. (Actually, there may not be any residue left from evaporating Naptha)  I`ve never been able to get a lot of `misses`as opposed to `hits` on any of my hit and miss engines, but I put that down to the fact that there must be more `drag`on the cylinder walls when using a Viton ring than there would be with a cast iron ring or a lapped piston-cylinder and no rings at all.

[RayW]

What a sweet little engine Brian and a real nice runner. It's a definite sign of a well built engine when it starts up that easily after sitting for so long.