here is my little stirling i made. runs, although it is more of a high temp differential engine. for some reason it likes to run hot. if i have it really cold on one side, and hot on the other, it will try to run, but wont keep going. if it is hot one one side, and really hot on the other, it runs good. maybe my piston clearance is too small? i have aluminum cylinder with cast iron piston.
the crankshaft runs between centers so maybe that is another issue. although it seems from experiments that when the centers have the correct adjustment to give the crank clearance, it has less drag than ball bearings. i also need to buy some brand new bearings for the connecting rods, and balance the crank.
here is a video of it with a makeshift heat sink (a bunch of hunks of aluminum) to keep it running for longer. my displacer is made of balsa wood and it has about 1mm clearance to the cylinder walls. is this too much gap? not enough gap? it gets within a few 10's of thousandths from the hot and cold plates.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33kOJtcjqPU
the crankshaft runs between centers so maybe that is another issue. although it seems from experiments that when the centers have the correct adjustment to give the crank clearance, it has less drag than ball bearings. i also need to buy some brand new bearings for the connecting rods, and balance the crank.
here is a video of it with a makeshift heat sink (a bunch of hunks of aluminum) to keep it running for longer. my displacer is made of balsa wood and it has about 1mm clearance to the cylinder walls. is this too much gap? not enough gap? it gets within a few 10's of thousandths from the hot and cold plates.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33kOJtcjqPU
