vascon2196
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That is one hell of an engine...nice job!
My first IC engine project
- Thread starter mayhugh1
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putputman
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Terry, are you running on gasoline or methanol?
George, the float bowl has two 1/8" brass tubes sticking up in it. One is higher than the other. The lower one feeds the carbs and the upper is an overflow to a reserve tank or a pump that recycles the fuel. It is a real "bear cat" trying to keep the level right so there is enough to run the engine but not so much as to flow it back to the tank. It seems Terry found the right combination.
George, the float bowl has two 1/8" brass tubes sticking up in it. One is higher than the other. The lower one feeds the carbs and the upper is an overflow to a reserve tank or a pump that recycles the fuel. It is a real "bear cat" trying to keep the level right so there is enough to run the engine but not so much as to flow it back to the tank. It seems Terry found the right combination.
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Awesome Job!!
Looks and sounds great.
When I first saw Jerry's design I didnt think 90 deg would look very "cool"
Boy was I wrong. That thing is outstanding.
Could you tell us a little more about your ignition set-up?
kustomkb said:
There is a pair of ignitions, one for each cylinder. There is a magnet on an aluminum disk located on the oil pump shaft in the back of the engine. There are two Hall-effect devices mounted on a delrin cover which covers this disk. The ignition circuitry boosts the low level signals from the Hall-effect devices so that they can drive power transistors which switch up to 3 amps through the ignition coils. Jerry sells the completed modules from his website as TIM-6's for those who want to order them as a kit. The time that the magnet is over the Hall-Effect device sets the dwell for the coils. This is the time the Hall-effect device is on and current is flowing through the coil. In my case that is about 45 degrees. When the magnet passes through the end of this dwell time the current through the coil is interrupted and the plug fires. I purchased the ignition coils from Jerry. He calls the "exciter coils.' He may have been building these himself because I was told that after he died they are being offered only to those who purchased the plan set since they have only a limited number. The coils are rather large since corona and isulation issues don't scale very well and that is why I hid them under the transmission housing. The answer to the other question about the fuel is that I'm running the engine on methanol.- Terry
Wow Terry
What a fantastic job you have done there. I've noticed that on your
model there are no fans as on the original plans. Are the fans on the original plans
just for show, what i mean to say is are they really needed and does they engine run quite well without them.
Love the belt drive it really makes it look good, and what a sound from it, what can
i say, fantastic. :bow: :bow: :bow:
Do you have any build pictures if so we would love to see them, can't wait to see
your next project.
Ken
What a fantastic job you have done there. I've noticed that on your
model there are no fans as on the original plans. Are the fans on the original plans
just for show, what i mean to say is are they really needed and does they engine run quite well without them.
Love the belt drive it really makes it look good, and what a sound from it, what can
i say, fantastic. :bow: :bow: :bow:
Do you have any build pictures if so we would love to see them, can't wait to see
your next project.
Ken
Ken,
I left off the cooling fans because I thought the engine looked better without them. I didn't plan to run the engine for extended periods of time as, evidently, Jerry Howell did at shows. My fuel tank will hold about 1 to 1-1/2 minutes of fuel and I generally only make a couple runs at a time while playing with it and then let it cool down. When I started the project I didn't expect I would run it very much but I've been having fun with it, changing things, making adjustments and in general learning about these small engines. The big flaw, though, in not having the cooling fans is this. I'm running the engine off methanol which is what Jerry recommended and what he did. He said the 53 octane of Coleman camp fuels, etc wasn't high enough for this engine and he had heard detonation when he tried it. One big pro about methanol is that it has alot of hydrogen and little carbon. This makes it clean burning but the high hydrogen content means more water produced during the combustion process. This means more water vapor condensing in the crankcase from blow-by. Without the fans to let me run for extended periods of time in order to heat up the oil in the crankcase sufficiently to drive off the condensation I've been maming frequent oil changes- like evry 10-15 minutes of running time. There are alot of fine oil passages in the block that I don't want to clog with sludge and I'm also concerned about corrosion in the bearings and other steel/cast iron parts. Another issue with pure methanol that I stumbled upon while trying to start the engine in my cold garage one evening to show my daughter, is that methanol has low volatility at cooler temperatures. And below about 60-65F the engine is very difficult to start. After it warms up there is no problem. And so I found that I could blend 20% of either Coleman camp fuel or Naptha with the methanol and the cold start problem went away and the engine appears to burn as cleanly as it did with pure methanol. Then I noticed the silicone fuel lines that I was running swelled about 30% over night with this mix in them and so I switched to Tygon and that problem went away. I was really fortunate that the engine started up the first time, and then these other issues happened later when I could work on them one at a time. I also replaced the o-rings in the carburetors with viton as they had also swelled some even with the pure methanol. I thought I had Nitrile o-rings in there but now I thing they were just rubber. That greatly improved the high end throttle response. I'm trying to learn as much as I can with this project so I can go into my next project (Howell V-4) much better informed. That one will be liquid cooled and I'll plan to run that one for extended periods of time. - Terry
I left off the cooling fans because I thought the engine looked better without them. I didn't plan to run the engine for extended periods of time as, evidently, Jerry Howell did at shows. My fuel tank will hold about 1 to 1-1/2 minutes of fuel and I generally only make a couple runs at a time while playing with it and then let it cool down. When I started the project I didn't expect I would run it very much but I've been having fun with it, changing things, making adjustments and in general learning about these small engines. The big flaw, though, in not having the cooling fans is this. I'm running the engine off methanol which is what Jerry recommended and what he did. He said the 53 octane of Coleman camp fuels, etc wasn't high enough for this engine and he had heard detonation when he tried it. One big pro about methanol is that it has alot of hydrogen and little carbon. This makes it clean burning but the high hydrogen content means more water produced during the combustion process. This means more water vapor condensing in the crankcase from blow-by. Without the fans to let me run for extended periods of time in order to heat up the oil in the crankcase sufficiently to drive off the condensation I've been maming frequent oil changes- like evry 10-15 minutes of running time. There are alot of fine oil passages in the block that I don't want to clog with sludge and I'm also concerned about corrosion in the bearings and other steel/cast iron parts. Another issue with pure methanol that I stumbled upon while trying to start the engine in my cold garage one evening to show my daughter, is that methanol has low volatility at cooler temperatures. And below about 60-65F the engine is very difficult to start. After it warms up there is no problem. And so I found that I could blend 20% of either Coleman camp fuel or Naptha with the methanol and the cold start problem went away and the engine appears to burn as cleanly as it did with pure methanol. Then I noticed the silicone fuel lines that I was running swelled about 30% over night with this mix in them and so I switched to Tygon and that problem went away. I was really fortunate that the engine started up the first time, and then these other issues happened later when I could work on them one at a time. I also replaced the o-rings in the carburetors with viton as they had also swelled some even with the pure methanol. I thought I had Nitrile o-rings in there but now I thing they were just rubber. That greatly improved the high end throttle response. I'm trying to learn as much as I can with this project so I can go into my next project (Howell V-4) much better informed. That one will be liquid cooled and I'll plan to run that one for extended periods of time. - Terry
Terry,
Beautiful work. Thank You for sharing it with us.
CMS,
Here is a link to the plans.
http://www.jerry-howell.com/V-Twin.html
Beautiful work. Thank You for sharing it with us.
CMS said:
CMS,
Here is a link to the plans.
http://www.jerry-howell.com/V-Twin.html
Out of interest might I ask what lathe you used for this build?
I looked at the plans for this v twin as a possible future project. Jerry states you need a 7 inch or larger lathe. Only having a 3 1/2 I was a little dissapointed. I wonder why he states that and what Part/parts in particular would need a 7" swing?
Peter
I looked at the plans for this v twin as a possible future project. Jerry states you need a 7 inch or larger lathe. Only having a 3 1/2 I was a little dissapointed. I wonder why he states that and what Part/parts in particular would need a 7" swing?
Peter
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