Opinions please!

[tel]

Having been it this game for a lot of years, with some 20+ steam engines under my belt, I have suddenly aquired the urge to do something different, in short, an IC engine.

Now I have a good range of bits and pieces on hand, and a restored Sundial engine for measuring and scaling purposes, but I am really at a bit of a loss, is bronze a suitable material for a cylinder or should I be looking at CI or steel???

 

[jack404]

Tel

I'm am only a newbie at model engines but phosphor bronze with a cast iron bore liner makes very good engines

the waratah ( australia's first IC motor made to a motorcycle ) was made this way i had one until 1999 and it still ran well

older villiers motors likewise,

bronze is soft and wears when hot, but CI2 cast is a simple and elegant solution to this and can be machined to suit.

i say go for it but do use a bore of something better than just bronze eh would hate to see it seized or worse after its been running 10 or 20 minutes

jacks 2 bobs worth

cheers

 

[cfellows]

Tel,

I've heard say that CI is better than bronze or brass, partly because CI has natural lubricating properties and will "hold" oil better. If it were me, I would at least use a CI liner, especially for an ambitious project like an IC engine. It's pretty inexpensive if you buy it from http://www.metal.express or http://www.speedymetals.com.

If you decide on a hit n miss engine, consider using a standard o-ring instead of a CI piston ring. My 1" bore hit n miss engine uses a plain old o-ring from the local hardware store and it works great. I do have a cast iron cylinder and the internal surface has a mirror-like finish.

Chuck