Robert (Bob) Eaton engine

[BenGonna]

I recently won an auction and I am trying to ID the engine that I purchased.
I believe it to be created by Bob Eaton
It's an inline 4 cylinder and I dont have a clue what it needs to start. I assume a coil, battery, igniter? Any help is greatly appreciated, pics below
Thanks in advance for any help

 

[stevehuckss396]

Hard to say from the pictures but it appears that the ignition system is intact? You might just need a battery. Maybe someone on the forum lives near you and could stop by take a in person look at it to see if everything is there. Also give it a once over to make sure it is safe to start. By that I mean make sure there is oil in it, spark plugs are clean, Ect.

 

[BenGonna]

Hard to say from the pictures but it appears that the ignition system is intact? You might just need a battery. Maybe someone on the forum lives near you and could stop by take a in person look at it to see if everything is there. Also give it a once over to make sure it is safe to start. By that I mean make sure there is oil in it, spark plugs are clean, Ect.

What do these small engines run for fuel generrally ?

 

[stevehuckss396]

I run regular gasoline with a little wd40 mixed. If I'm indoors at a show I run 110 octane race fuel because it smells good. Some guys use Coleman lantern fuel. It's expensive but has a long shelf life.

 

[Harglo]

What do these small engines run for fuel generrally ?

I run all my engines on propane. But its somewhat problematic esp the carbs air intake is supper sensitive that's likely due to my carbs build. Plus you need a regulator an a demand valve. Like this fuel as no storage issues an engines run very clean spark plug an firing areas reman clean. Consider all the propane powered forklifts used in side so exhaust fumes maybe less risky than gas or Colemens. The one pound throw away's last for many hours.

 

[Harglo]

I run all my engines on propane. But its somewhat problematic esp the carbs air intake is supper sensitive that's likely due to my carbs build. Plus you need a regulator an a demand valve. Like this fuel as no storage issues an engines run very clean spark plug an firing areas reman clean. Consider all the propane powered forklifts used in side so exhaust fumes maybe less risky than gas or Colemens. The one pound throw away's last for many hours.
Harvey

 

[Steamchick]

I recently won an auction and I am trying to ID the engine that I purchased.
I believe it to be created by Bob Eaton
It's an inline 4 cylinder and I dont have a clue what it needs to start. I assume a coil, battery, igniter? Any help is greatly appreciated, pics below
Thanks in advance for any help

Wish I could help! If you want to post some more pictures of where all the wires go (all I can really see are HT leads from a distributor?)... but there is a pink HT lead from somewhere beneath the engine looks like it goes into the distributor? Please show more pics - especially the under-side? And what are the odd wires and black-box shown to the right of pic no 3?
K2

 

[BenGonna]

Thank you all for your input, basically there are only two wires coming from the distributor and they run underneath and are dead headed . The other wires are spark plug wires. The other wires (Steamchick) are connected to a motorcycle coil and not part of this engine (see pics) . Would this need a coil ? Or would it only need a 12 v battery? Again thank you for your considerations.
Tim

 

[Steamchick]

I think the distributor must have a separate coil if there are only "input and output HT cables". But there may be 2 wires for internal contact breakers - which need a coil to generate the voltage applied to the "input" HT lead. If there is no "input" HT lead, then there must be some internal coil (e.g. a magneto has internal coils) so the low voltage wires power whatever is inside the "black-box" of the distributor to generate the HT that comes out of the HT cables. (Coincidentally, I patented - through my company - a configuration for a distributor with "internal coil" when I worked in Engine Design. But modern cars don't use distributors with modern electronics and coil-on-plug systems.).
I think you need to examine the distributor internally, to see what it contains? How would you know which wire is which polarity to connect a 12V battery - so DON'T - until you figure it out. You don't want to fry expensive electronics - if there are any? Without any "input HT cables" there needs to be something clever inside to make spark-voltages for the distributed HT outputs to plugs. and there needs to be some sort of device to trigger the timing of sparks - I guess inside the distributor?
K2