3 engines built now on to my 4th

[edholly]

Hi, I am new to this forum, been involved with Historic Racing cars for a long time and wanted a change of pace as between projects now. HMEM has twice now asked that I post what I am up to - so here goes !

Flew control line as a kid - always diesels as couldn't afford the "accumulator" battery Glo's needed. Had a Taipan maybe a Mk5 red head plain bearing, dug it out of the dirt a few times, but it never let me down and sold it to buy a model train. Dumb I know but was only about 12, that was 1960.

Have used my Mill and Lathe thousands of times for machining things around racing cars in rebuilding and racing them, but wanted to do something to hone those skills so what better than something that might work when finished. These cars are the Brabhams, Lotuses and Elfins single seaters of the 1960s. I am self taught on this machinery. I sat in an Airline's ops chair for 30 years, no place for the feint hearted, as you are the first to know of a problem as you are the one responsible for getting around that problem and keeping the passengers happy, but working shift work it does allow another life outside of work - hence the racing car thing from early 1980s.

So my first project was the BollAero 18 - what a great project to start with - not too difficult and individual pieces that bolt together. Really surprised myself as this engine turned out really nicely and it ran well on very old ether, Castrol M and Digger's kero.

Next was David Owen's Owen Mate. My first attempt at carving a crankcase from solid - and it turned out ok, but about 30 hours to achieve. Then everything else was pretty straight forward and it ran well but only a few minutes as the gudgeon pin came loose and scored the bore. Then 2 more piston and cylinders later I couldn't get it to run, so called in to see David and he showed me the lap from his plans of the Owen Mate and when I made and used that - success. It runs beautifully now with a lot of power.

Third was a copy of the Mills from plans bought from Ron Chernich. What a joy to build and it runs from no more than 3 flicks !

My 4th engine is something I am developing from the Owen Mate. I intend to use a ball bearing either end of the crankshaft, increase the stroke and bore by 1 mm each to give 2.46cc and have the crankcase cast by a local company here in the Sutherland Shire (Sydney Australia) called Camcast who looking at the pattern yesterday with as far as it is developed, say it will be no problem and about $30 including heat treatment.

My next project car wise is about 2 months away - so hopefully the Holly modified Owen Mate might be close to finished by then. If you are interested in old racing cars I do a newsletter and the latest is a day or two away from being on the www.hsrca.com website but if you want to see the last one from 3 months ago - go to http://www.hsrca.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/MO-Newsletter-22.pdf

Pictures attached below of the 3 engines and the pattern as done so far.

Ed

 

[Herbiev]

Looking great and welcome to the forum.

 

[edholly]

Thanks Herbie

Don't know if a .pdf file will post here - but will try.

This is my building of the Owen Mate.

Ed

View attachment Owen Mate - Ed Holly.pdf

 

[gus]

Hi Ed,
Your PDF post is very useful and will help me finish up "Bolero" which I chickened out w/o completing the build.
Lacking the knowhow and determination to finish up. Bolero for now is an empty shell engine on my P.C.Desk book shelf waiting to see daylight.
Just completed and successfully start and run Webster IC Engine. See my post. Was my very first engine that could start and run with the HMEM Gurus help and expert advice.
I have Bolero and Firefly to redo and run.

 

[edholly]

Hi Gus, glad the .pdf helps ... the BolAero is a great little engine. One thing I would recommend it to make the laps for both piston and cylinder bore as shown on the Owen Mate plans. Using this process makes it a far less hit and miss affair with piston the bore fit. I even go to the trouble of making little discs a 1/10th thou bigger each one to see how the internal bore shape is going as you want a ever so small taper from bottom to the top with the piston actually pinching at its tdc point. I simply attach the discs to a threaded screw with a couple of nuts, doesn't take long but gives you an understanding what is going on inside which otherwise you have no idea about,.

Have spent about 15 hours to get the casting machined to the point here in the photos, about half the time it took to carve out from solid. Was initially a bit disppointed with the roughnes of the casting as I could have had it done in a finer grade sand - but now it is progressed this far, I think it gives it a real early period look !

You will see the pattern and therefor the casting has a slug both front and rear - this was done this way so that the raw casting could be held whilst machining, the rear part done forst holding by the front then once that was done the centre found for the front and that machined and that was then used as the datum for all other machining work. The ball bearing in the front is exactly in the centre, which of course is the aim but not that easy as it is drilled from the rear to get there.

Using the front as the datum I really squeezed the 3 jaw to indent the alloy a bit and then using the master chuck key hole I could remove it and put it back and it went back into the indents and ran completely true with no runnout at all.

So happy with the results so far.

Ed

Photo showing the casting machined

Partially assembled with pattern and another raw casting.

as above front view, note the ball bearing not yet pressed home.

 

[gus]

Hi Ed,
Thanks for the fotos. You have just woked up Gus. Been doing C.I. Aluminium Castings years back. Built our own Gas Fired
Aluminium Furnace with CI crucible to cast Auto Condensate Traps. Been dreaming of making a mini gas fired furnace to cast small Aluminium Castings. Will look around for Castable Refractories to make a gallon size housing. Living in a flat
is kind of restrictive. My machineshop is the three open sided balcony. Weather here summer through out the year.

Just dug out the prints for Bolero. Will make the honing tools for the cylinder and piston etc. Keep you posted.

Gus ,faraway Singapore.

 

[edholly]

Just finished the Holly modified 2cc Owen Mate.

It is an Owen Mate with these modifications to get to 2.46cc:-

1, bore increased by 1mm
2. stroke increased by 1mm
3. exhaust port raised by 0.5mm
4. crankshaft supported by a ball bearing either end
5. crankcase made from a casting rather than from solid.

On initial assembly using singer sewing machine oil, I put about 3 drops of what was left (about .5cc) of the last batch of fuel (72cc) I made - and gave it a couple of flicks, and it burst into life in my hand for about 2 seconds !! I can tell you this really did bring a smile to the dial.

So apart it came for final cleaning (although it was scrupulously clean anyway, but just love using that ultrasonic cleanser) a tiny smear of locktite on the rear bearing housing land and back together again.

Onto the test bench and it fired within a half dozen flicks and ran within a few more. Left it very undercompressed and very rich for a tankful, and when the bubbles arrived at the end of the tank, it leaned and and really revved up nicely.

Now to catch up on some other work - rather be building another one !!

Speaking of which, might try a design from scratch next .... Ed

 

[Swifty]

Hi Ed, great job, you mentioned the last batch of fuel that you made, what do you use to make it?

Paul.

 

[Lawijt]

Hi,

Did you make that casting piece also?? I know somebody that make the crankcase out of a block of aluminium. Do you have a movie from that running engine?
I love those diesels a lot. I have more than 100 in my collection of modelengines.

Barry

 

[edholly]

Swifty,
Had a look at your Lobo Pub and Rupnow threads, very impressive work. Re fuel, I was lucky that I had some 20 year old ether and David Owen kindly gave me about 300cc more of which I have about 250cc left. I make the fuel a small quantity at a time 24cc diggers kero, 24cc Castrol M from about 25 years ago and 28cc of ether - this seems to work best for me just mixing 76cc at a time. I have tried commercial model diesel fuel, but found it didn't seem anywhere near as good as what you mix yourself. Also tried DII diesel igintion improver but found it made no difference for what we do, maybe a bit more power at the top end which is not where I am at. Ether is a problem, I'm working on trying to get some through a chemist mate.

Lawjit,
I made the pattern and gave it to a non-ferrous foundry, local to where I live, and they cast it for me and did a great job. I took a small movie of it running, and will have to learn how to load it on Utube, if I do will post the link here. Yes the Owen Mate crankcase was machined out of solid and it took about 32 hours to do, the casting achieved the same result in less than half that.

Thought I add a couple of photos of the Owen Mate along with the Holly modified one for comparison. I weighed the 2 engines and Owen Mate weighs 205grams, and the modified one 215grams. Considering it has 2 ball bearings, a bigger drive spinner and an extra 2mm diameter in the cylinder muff, plus another .5cc capacity, I think an extra 10grams is pretty good.

Thanks to all those that have looked at this thread.

Ed

 

[Lawijt]

The cast one looks great. So you have that nice old look.

Barry

 

[edholly]

Well, now that the 4th engine is completed, guess this thread is close to drawing to a close. Thanks to all those how have replied along the way.

The weight of the engines in a previous post included the propellor and spinners on the engines, so I thought I'd list the weights without these and they are 173grams for the Owen Mate and 186grams for the Owen Holly 2.5 TBR as I have called it with approval from David Owen. An Oliver Tiger 2.5 Mk3 weighs 158grams as a comparison. I remember as a kid seeing a new Oliver Tiger in a box and thinking it was just the best thing I had ever laid me eyes on. (I was only 11)

As mentioned in my previous post, I think the time has come to design my own engine, and I have been working on that now for quite a few hours. I will start a new thread in the PLANS Forum. Having never done anything like this before I have already scrapped the first drawings as I realised after about 3 hours work there was a design flaw ... and being told that goes with the territory, and is called the Engineer's Waltz - from one of the best race-car engine builder and designers in Australia. In fact he is a current speed record holder on a bike (in recent times) with an engine he designed himself - and still builds and has built race engines the equal of anyone here in Australia since the 1960s, he is the one who told me about the waltz and it starts something like one step forward and three steps back!

The new thread under PLANS will be called the Holly Sideport 1.5, and my aim with the engine is to try to make it very simple, and an engine that can hopefully be built in under 40 hours, using some 25 x 25mm square bar, and some 60mm round bar and I want to make provision for an optional single ball bearing at the crankpin end of the crankshaft. The engine will be 1.5cc and I am working along the lines of 12mm bore and 13mm stroke. I hope to post my progress along the way, starting with the ill-fated plans of the design flaw.

Once again thanks for everyone who has looked at this thread. Back around Easter I could hardly read a drawing, or had never built an engine - so I guess I have learnt quite a bit and I thank David Owen for his help and advice and in the case of the Holly Sideport 1.5 just maintaining a watching brief, allowing me to learn for myself as great teachers do.

Ed