Jonboy
15-07-2014, 20:37
http://i419.photobucket.com/albums/pp272/jonboy_01/IMG_2322a_zpsd67c0260.jpg
A pic from last weekend of my 105 year old Blackstone oil engine, it runs on Paraffin (lamp Oil hence the name) and requires a blow lamp to pre-heat the "hot bulb" to start, once hot and started it requires no further heat once running with enough heat generated from compression to maintain the heat, it is a 4 stroke with hit and miss governing, this means it idles with no fuel until the speed drops down where the centrifugal governor cuts in and allows the fuel valve to open, suck in fuel thus letting it "fire" and and continue running, the size of the flywheels also give it quite a bit of inertia.
To give you some idea of size the Flywheels are 4ft in diameter and weigh around 1 ton complete with crankshaft, the single piston is 9 inch in diameter, the whole thing weights in at 2.3 tons
Starting procedure....pre-heating takes about 10 mins, it is set on half compression via a cam on the side shaft..the choke flap is set closed... fuel primed into the carb.. i then turn the flywheels backwards until it comes up on to the compression stroke.. hopefully it bounces back the right way followed by me giving it all my might to pull the flywheels over to help encourage it where by if i have got the pre-heating right it fires first time .. i then quickly turn the choke flap to open and engage the full compression cam... then the governors take over and i retire to take on liquid refreshment.
It was rescued from its original place of work on a National trust estate farm in Devon back in the late 90's, i bought it in 1999, towed it up over Dartmoor on the way home which made the old 4x4 grunt a bit. we reassembled it with the help of a JCB as the flywheels and crank had been removed in order to get it out of its old engine house, we made a skid unit for it out of RSJ and metal plate with a set of removable axles added to move it around along with a shunt bar. the original exhaust pipe was cut and welded and connected to the original exhaust silencer which weights in at around 2 hundred weight on it own
Finally We got it running for the first time in many years over Christmas of that year, it required very little in actual fact .. just a valve spring.. the freeing up of some parts and a fuel tank clean which is a testament to good old fashioned British engineering.
My "thing" if you like are things to be as original and unmolested as they can be... i don't do shiny paint, bullshit and polish.. all its history is there to be seen and told...but each to there own
So there you go one of my other hobbys is hanging around with other like minded people at various shows all over the place including France and Holland.
you can just see the front of my series 1 land rover lurking behind it.. another passion of mine :D
A pic from last weekend of my 105 year old Blackstone oil engine, it runs on Paraffin (lamp Oil hence the name) and requires a blow lamp to pre-heat the "hot bulb" to start, once hot and started it requires no further heat once running with enough heat generated from compression to maintain the heat, it is a 4 stroke with hit and miss governing, this means it idles with no fuel until the speed drops down where the centrifugal governor cuts in and allows the fuel valve to open, suck in fuel thus letting it "fire" and and continue running, the size of the flywheels also give it quite a bit of inertia.
To give you some idea of size the Flywheels are 4ft in diameter and weigh around 1 ton complete with crankshaft, the single piston is 9 inch in diameter, the whole thing weights in at 2.3 tons
Starting procedure....pre-heating takes about 10 mins, it is set on half compression via a cam on the side shaft..the choke flap is set closed... fuel primed into the carb.. i then turn the flywheels backwards until it comes up on to the compression stroke.. hopefully it bounces back the right way followed by me giving it all my might to pull the flywheels over to help encourage it where by if i have got the pre-heating right it fires first time .. i then quickly turn the choke flap to open and engage the full compression cam... then the governors take over and i retire to take on liquid refreshment.
It was rescued from its original place of work on a National trust estate farm in Devon back in the late 90's, i bought it in 1999, towed it up over Dartmoor on the way home which made the old 4x4 grunt a bit. we reassembled it with the help of a JCB as the flywheels and crank had been removed in order to get it out of its old engine house, we made a skid unit for it out of RSJ and metal plate with a set of removable axles added to move it around along with a shunt bar. the original exhaust pipe was cut and welded and connected to the original exhaust silencer which weights in at around 2 hundred weight on it own
Finally We got it running for the first time in many years over Christmas of that year, it required very little in actual fact .. just a valve spring.. the freeing up of some parts and a fuel tank clean which is a testament to good old fashioned British engineering.
My "thing" if you like are things to be as original and unmolested as they can be... i don't do shiny paint, bullshit and polish.. all its history is there to be seen and told...but each to there own
So there you go one of my other hobbys is hanging around with other like minded people at various shows all over the place including France and Holland.
you can just see the front of my series 1 land rover lurking behind it.. another passion of mine :D