Hello guys,
Maybe some of you can recall Jef Lemmens posting his build log on here about his home designed 14cc petrol engine based on the old vintage Alco engine. After some excellent images of the varying stages Jef kindly posted the drawings at the end of the build for any of us to use. I contacted my friend John (Murray) who had started all this engine building interest of mine off by encouraging me to build that Nova diesel. We had both built one at the same time so the suggestion was made we do it again but this time with Jefs engine.
You may remember this from the ED Hunter thread ......
..... well that's been the situation until recently when all the parts have finally been made
It's been a great project to undertake for a 'first' sparkie - the drawings have proved excellent to work to for both of us, accurate and detailed. John finished his a few weeks ago and assembly of mine took place over yesterday and today - the only 'tweaking' required being a skim out of the baffle cut out in the cylinder head and a slight opening of the con-rod clearance in the crankcase. The backplate thread did require milling away on both engines in order to allow the con - rod to slip over the crank pin.
It's a tall and majestic looking beast compared to the diesels made so far - the transfer covers, neatly engraved by John, gives a tad of 'vintageness'
John's engine fired up and ran from the off so I'm hoping for the same though his home developed ignition system hit a few snags burning out the hall sensors. A switch (oops) to using a reed switch instead led to an instant improvement and it has run well since on Coleman fuel or petrol. He has kindly supplied me with a ready made 'board of tricks' to make my own ignition box set up. I made the plugs based on the Lew Blackmore design in the Bentley book which worked well though the first insulator, made from Corian, went into orbit as the minimal shoulder gave way. A change to a ceramic tube insert set into a bulkier Corian insulator has improved matters considerably and showed a distinct (albeit audible) increase in revs from a commercial KLG.
Though I had found a couple of Super Tigre R/C carbs for both engines to use I began to think about making this one look a little more traditional and make a conventional venturi and needle valve assembly but after hearing John's fire up prudence decided the means to throttle it was definitely the right way to go
The props on both engines are 'Airflow' 16 x 6 with John's so far reaching around 4700 rpm.
Hopefully, once the spark producing bits are done we'll have a run and take the requisite vid but until then I can thoroughly recommend Jef's design - it's a real cracker
I'll be back on those Olly's before too long
Regards - Tug