Flame gulper

jedi · Sep 15, 2013

Hi from NZ. This is my flame gulper with internal valve kinda based on a Jan Ridders design but I went in my own direction.
I made enough parts to make about 6 engines but wanted to quickly get this one done for a gift.
Construction is about %95 stainlees steel and using graphite piston and valve.
I'm an engineer by trade so have acess to everything I need including things like wire edm and spark eroding etc.
I did learn a lot from putting this first one together about how important and fussy it is to get it running very freely or it won't work.
My only real issue I have here with this one is that I now know that my piston needs to be very slightly bigger but I can soon fix that and will take what I learnt into getting the others finished without drama.

Cogsy · Sep 15, 2013

Welcome to the forum Jedi. That is a very nice looking engine. I know just how finicky they can be to get running, the one shown in my avatar took almost as long to get running as it did to build.

I look forward to seeing a video of it in action.

jedi · Sep 15, 2013

Cogsy said:
Welcome to the forum Jedi. That is a very nice looking engine. I know just how finicky they can be to get running, the one shown in my avatar took almost as long to get running as it did to build.

I look forward to seeing a video of it in action.

Cheers,

I have a short clip of it going here [ame]http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6dMAppijdZY[/ame]

I have it now running quite well since then.

Cogsy · Sep 15, 2013

I see yours is just as touchy about it's flame position as mine is. There's just something so cool about flamelickers. I think I'll build another one after my current projects are completed. Thanks for the inspiration.

jwcnc1911 · Sep 16, 2013

Man, that's a great looking engine. Welcome to the flame licker club! I love Jan's engines.

I also found flame position to be critical. In fact, more so than timing. I found about 70 degrees of cam position where the engine would still run but it seems a couple mm on the flame placement and it's dead. I also found that they like to be very hot prior to flipping them over - it keeps the hot air from cooling before the valve can shut. I found one guy on YouTube who heats everything with boiling water. I may build one with a water cavity so I can do the same.

Can't wait to see video of all the engines running together!

AussieJimG · Sep 17, 2013

That's a beautiful engine Jedi, the flywheel design is fabulous; who else would have thought of making one side convex.

Sounds like there are several lucky people who are destined to have a real engine in their collection.

Jim