Mery Explosive Engine

[PaulR]

Fantastic Andy, lots going on and what a great sound! 

[Chipmaster]

Hi Roger, yes indeed, uninsulated spark plugs - old school but very painfull - we're 'suffering for our art'. 

Cheers Paul 

It's too hot to work in my garage at the moment.

Andy

[Chipmaster]

How long can the Mery Explosive run on a single dose of cylinder oil? Assuming my cooling system will be adequate I will need to consider timing runs between stops for refilling the oiler. The home made brass oiler is located half way along the cylinder with a 1/16" hole through the cylinder wall. It holds 1.7cc of oil and its lid is sealed by an O ring to resist cylinder / combustion pressures. I place the piston at mid stroke when I add oil to ensure some oil will coat the piston and rings.
Incidentally I'm using SAE 30 oil.

Prototype cylinder oiler and big end oiler with ventilation hole.

IMG_1770 by Andy, on Flickr

IMG_1773 by Andy, on Flickr

The current larger 1.7cc oiler in the middle of the cylinder. That's the water outlet near the cylinder head.

Cylinder Oiler by Andy, on Flickr

I have seen the YouTube of a model Mery running that was posted by Dave Otto in which his friend Max's excellent engine was running continuously and perfectly for 2 minutes 39 seconds - the longest I have seen on YouTube.

I have run mine for about 4 1/2 minutes so far and that was without cooling, the engine was running well. I only stopped it because I didn't want to risk the piston seizing.

Should I restrict the diameter of the oiler down to a size that provides a periodic drip of oil, will a drip feed work in these high pressure conditions? 

Please advise me of how long the model Mery Explosives are known to run for and whether I should reduce the oil supply to periodic drip. 

Andy

[Dave Otto]

Hi Andy

My friend Max passed away the seventh of last month at 90 years. After the service his daughters and son in law had a nice catered gathering in his back yard. I was asked to run a few of his engines in his shop where they had ALL been put out on display. The Mery is always a good runner and I started it first, I ran it around two to three hours only stopping it once to add oil. I did notice near the end of the day that the gasket for the rear exhaust valve cage had started to leak, so that will need to be sorted out.
I would think that the engine would let you know if it was needing oil buy sounding different and/or slowing down. I did not notice either in the time that I had it running.

Max was a great friend and I sure do miss him.
Dave

[terryzilla]

Sad to hear about Max.  He was a great guy.   I was able to call him a few months ago a had a nice talk.
Having all of his engines on display must have been nice.

Terry

[Chipmaster]

Hi Dave, thank you for your reply and regret hearing that your friend Max passed away.
It's impressive that Max's engine will run for so long yet with so little cylinder lubrication. I'll gradually increase the length of my Mery's runs and keep an eye on its performance and listen to its sounds. 

Andy

[C Roemmich]

Over a period of years I built 12 Mery engines. To run for long periods, I use Coleman stove fuel and about 5-7 percent WD-40 for fuel. Using this mixture the cylinder is lubricated continuously as the engine is running. Also  I made sure I had a cooling water system that did a good job circulating through the cylinder water jacket. I sold one of the engines to a gentleman who went to many shows each year. He would run his Mery  for most of the each show. I seen the engine about 5 years after I sold it and it was still starting and running as would be expected.

[Alyn Foundry]

Hello Andy.

Been unable to log in for several days now, thanks to Ade we’re back in business….
Pleased to read that those 30+ year old keys did the trick. 

An old engineer said to me many years ago that once an engine with cast Iron piston and bore were bedded in you could literally use a little spit for lubrication!! I’m not suggesting this to be the norm but I personally feel we tend to over do the lubricants with our models. Food for thought??

   Graham

[Chipmaster]

Thanks for your replies Clif and Graham. To have built twelve Mery Explosives is fantastic. Via a posting on Smokstak I have watched one of Reddryders YouTube videos in which he runs a beautiful Mery Explosive. The opening sentence states "This fine model was very nicely built by Clif Roemmich in 2009"

https://www.smokstak.com/forum/threads/1895-mery-explosive-engine.149354/. 

It hadnt occured to me to run the Mery on liquid fuel plus some added lubricant and I take Graham's point that we tend to over lubricate our models. I confess it's a habit for me being cautious but at least none of my engines have seized up. However, I haven't heard of anbody else's model engine seizing, just wearing.

Andy