T head engine by Brian

[Brian Rupnow]

Party doesn't start till later in the day. I decided to perform the old, tried and true, "Blow yer Guts Out" test on the engine. This is a simple diagnostic test. You have to sacrifice a spark plug, by chipping out all of the porcelain and soldering a small tube to the sparkplug to which a piece of flexible gas line is attached. This lets you put the other end of the tube in your mouth and "Blow yer Guts Out". In a perfect world, when the engine is at top dead center on the compression stroke and both valves are fully closed (as verified by seeing daylight between the valve stem and the valve lifter), then you shouldn't be able to blow at all. If you can blow, and the air comes out of the exhaust system, then your exhaust valve is leaking. If you cover the end of the exhaust with a finger and you can still blow, then probably your intake valve is leaking. If you cover the intake and the exhaust with your fingers and can still blow, then your rings are leaking. (you have to remove the oil filler plug for the ring test). From what I see today, the exhaust valve and the intake valve are leaking a little bit. The rings don't seem to be leaking at all. This doesn't surprise me at all, and it is a simple operation to pop off the cylinder head and the top part of the cylinder assembly which has the valve cages in it. A little more dressing with 600 grit aluminum oxide paste will probably fix any current valve leaks.

 

[Steamchick]

I have done the same on motorcycle engines and car engines (before fitting manifolds). I now use an old fridge compressor as it is easier on my lungs (I need the air for my body).
I also use the modified 14mm spark plug body as a connection for a compression test... With a tyre valve screwed in as a non-return valve.
Brian would need a smaller non-return valve for his plug body!
But before fitting cylinder heads I always check valves are tight by pouring an egg-cup of pertrol, paraffin or turps substitute into the intake and exhaust ports to see if the valves are tight - or not. You can often see the witness marks of the fuel seeping through to know where the seat needs a tad more lapping.
K2

 

[skyline1]

I like your temporary flywheel it looks like an old washing machine pulley

 

[Brian Rupnow]

Actually, that is a purpose bought 8" v-pulley. I have bored the hub out to 3/4" and have a variety of split bushings ranging from 5/16" i.d. to 1/2" i.d. to use in it. This lets me rotate the crankshaft and get things set up properly before I finish the flywheels.---Brian Rupnow

 

[skyline1]

Great idea, you can fit it to more or less any size shaft

 

[Brian Rupnow]

After a bit of redressing the valves with 600 grit, everything seems to be sealing okay. Today is going to be an "at the beach" day with one of my grandsons, but I had time this morning to redress the valves. Now it's simply a matter of waiting for flywheels. They were shipped to me on the 8th of August. 16 days and counting---

 

[Gordon]

Have you received a tracking number? I have found that frequently suppliers submit a tracking number but do not actually deliver the package to the actual shipper for several days. This happens frequently with third party shippers. Your package may also be held up at the border.

 

[Steamchick]

Aha! - To cross the border the flywheels will probably need 10 days in Quarantine....
I'm not sure about tracking numbers... all too often they say the goods are shipped when the orders are just raised, then don't complete shipping until days after I have the goods.... Pony Express was more predictable!
Excellent work as usual Brian. Keep on keeping on!
K2

 

[Brian Rupnow]

We took our second oldest grandson and went to the beach yesterday. My God it was beautiful. A lovely lake, bright sunshine, hot temperatures around 80F. Beach wasn't crowded, water was clear. I sat back in my beach chair between swims and thought----My God, if I had to do this every day, I'd go stone crazy. I wish it wasn't so. If I could be happy doing that, I'd sell my house in Barrie and buy a house on a beautiful fresh water lake in the Muskokas, about 30 miles north of where I am. My wife thinks she would like that, but I'm sure that after a couple of months she would be as crazy as I am. I know!! Thirty years ago I bought a cottage on one of those beautiful lakes. It was in pretty rough shape. I worked every day for a year on it, with help from our two boys, and we made it a lovely cottage. The week after we finished it I was going nuts trying to find something to do.---So we sold it. Been down that path before---

 

[Steamchick]

Good thoughts Brian....
We all need 3 basics: health, shelter, sustenance.
But we all need 3 things for our instinctive needs: occupation ( for mind and body), companionship (from humans or "surrogates"), and reward (e.g. money, "like" comments on these posts, or other interest in what we are doing, money, satisfaction with our achievements, money, etc.).
The lake-side had plenty of "occupation" for your needs while you were fixing it up, until you "occupied" it....when you had the reward of completion when you achieved the occupation of the space... Without any further "occupation" to use your mind and body, the boredom drove you away. Maybe you should have built a workshop on the side? Or taken up fishing? Or knitting?
Cheers my friend.
K2

 

[skyline1]

I have found that frequently suppliers submit a tracking number but do not actually deliver the package to the actual shipper for several days. This happens frequently with third party shippers.

Yes, EBay suppliers are notorious for it, very shoddy practice but increasingly common.

Hurry up flywheels Brian is getting engine withdrawal symptoms (We all are I think)

 

[Brian Rupnow]

This morning, for something to do, I hooked up the battery to my coil and sparkplug tester to verify that the timing was right where I wanted it to be----it was. I started checking around for Traxxas 4033 carburetors and concluded that I didn't have any, so I ordered three new ones from Ebay. I can and have built my own carburetors in the past, but the 4033 Traxxas carb works so well on these 1" bore engines that it isn't worth the bother to build my own carbs.

 

[Brian Rupnow]

Moving on up---Thirteen years ago, when I first started building model engines, I needed a bandsaw. Metal cutting bandsaws were simply beyond my price range, so I bought a 16" vertical wood cutting bandsaw for $200 and added a second jackshaft and pulleys to slow it down to metal cutting speed, and it has served me faithfully.--It does the job, and does it very well but it's slow. I recently had an old customer come forward and ask me to design a couple of welding fixtures for one of the big three auto companies, and this will leave me with a few thousand dollars that weren't earmarked for anything. I've spent the morning on the telephone calling used machinery dealers, and I may have found a good used metal cutting bandsaw that was designed to cut metal, not wood. This is rather exciting for me, and I'm waiting for a call back from someone in Toronto right now. So----If it works out right, I may have a real, honest to God metal cutting bandsaw in my garage.

 

[Brian Rupnow]

My flywheel showed up in the mail today, and it's a beautiful thing. Only problem is, I bought and paid for two flywheels, not one. I have let Gary at Martin Model know that I've only received one, and I'm sure he will make it right.

 

[CFLBob]

Gee, I happen to be building a model that needs a 4-1/2" flywheel and I've been thinking about getting a cast flywheel instead of the shop built approach. Do you have the company and contact information handy?

Here, private message, email, whatever.

 

[Brian Rupnow]

Martin Models---Gary--Reasonably priced and based in Oregon

 

[Brian Rupnow]

Well Sir!!!--That looks nice. The keyway is going to be problematic. My keyseating set has an insertion tool for hubs that are 1" long, while this actual hub is 1 1/4" long. If I try to put a keyway into this hub with my current set up, it will break the broach, to the tune of $100 per. Tomorrow I will machine a longer insertion tool. The proportions of this flywheel are about perfect. Somebody asked if this engine really needs two flywheels. Perhaps not, from a purely mechanical standpoint, but for the sake of art, it needs two. I have never envisioned this engine with only one flywheel.

 

[Brian Rupnow]

Every day we get a little closer. Keyway and grub screws are in flywheel, and a starter hub has been turned and installed. Jeez, I wish I had the other flywheel!!!

 

[Gordon]

Will it run with only one flywheel?

 

[Brian Rupnow]

Probably.---I'm waiting for a few carburetors that I ordered out of USA