Upshur's opposed twin engine

[Gordon]

I usually check for leaks by screwing an adaptor with spark plug threads on one end and air fitting on the other end. I then put pressure in the cylinder with the air compressor and put soap around the potential leak areas. That obviously does nothing for things like valve timing.

 

[Brian Rupnow]

I just spent Friday and Saturday making an adaptor plate to put a 3 jaw chuck on my friends metal lathe. Nice to do some full size work for a change.

 

[Brian Rupnow]

I've been very busy with other things, but did manage to make a new intake manifold which accepts a Traxxas carburetor. Tomorrow I will install that on my engine and take another stab at setting the valve timing.

 

[karolh]

Here is a bit of an odd question. I am using a 1/4"-32 sparkplug in this engine. The end which the wire attaches to is 0.160" diameter x +/-0.075" long. Does anyone know of a sparkplug boot that fits over this size of sparkplug or is it a flat/split wire terminator that snaps over the reduced area in the center of the sparkplug terminal?

ON our RC model plane engines that size plug is quite common, and we use the RCEXL ignition systems to fire them. A replacement spark plug boot can be had from any reputable RC hobby shop such as Valley View or just Google a search for 1/4" -32 spark plug replacement boot and you should be good to go..

 

[Brian Rupnow]

I haven't posted much for the last week or two, as I have been feeling under the weather. However, the new intake manifold with Traxxas carburetor has been installed on the engine. There is one very notable difference---When I crank the engine over and hold my finger over the carburetor air intake, I can see the fuel rushing up thru the transparent gas line to the carburetor. This is something that didn't happen with the home made carburetor in place. I haven't messed around with the valve timing yet, but I think this is very promising.---Brian

 

[Allan Ostling]

I hope the new carburetor points to a solution.

 

[Brian Rupnow]

I haven't worked on the engine for a couple of weeks. I go into the hospital tomorrow for my second total knee replacement. Hope it goes as well as the first knee went 5 1/2 months ago.----Brian

 

[scottyp]

Best of luck to ya.

 

[marksavoca]

Wishing you a speedy recovery Brian!

 

[werowance]

good luck on the new knee.

 

[olf20]

Good luck, hoping for a speedy recovery.

 

[Sparky_SC]

Good luck, speedy recovery, look forward to your build posts continuing.

 

[Jojo]

Good luck Brian !

 

[Richard Hed]

I haven't worked on the engine for a couple of weeks. I go into the hospital tomorrow for my second total knee replacement. Hope it goes as well as the first knee went 5 1/2 months ago.----Brian

I don't know you well enough to know yhour habits, but as we are all "getting up there" we should take as much precaution as we can for our health. My wife was on concrete floors for 25 years--she got arthritis in both knees. So my advice is, if you can, always have a stool in your shop on which to sit for any operations that you are doing, that you can. I use a stool even when machining, as so many operations are semi-automated, that is, you have to watch in order to stop the machine when it's operation is over but till then you can sit and watch.

I really recommend that all of us coach youngsters to sit when they can especially when working long hours standing on concrete. We are not made of steel, we are not super men (and here I might add, I am reading Nietsche, and he is not talking about supermen as if they are superMAN, he's talking about something else). When I was younger, I did a lot of tree planting which was very hard work, and a couple of my fellow workers were like this: you are my body and you will work as hard as I tell you--I mean this was their attitude toward their body, and they litterally destroyed their backs, knees, elbows just because they thot they were supermen or they had the will to force their body to do things it can't and wasn't meant to do.

Anyway, good luck on the new knee.

 

[cheepo45]

I hope your knee replacement goes well
Best wishes.
Scott