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| building a new flame sucker |
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| madjackghengis:
Hi Nick, Olli, John and all, I expect this will close out this project, it is complete, it runs, and while it may get a bit of "fettling up" as you Brits say, I don't see major changes. Here's a picture of the finished burner, Nick it does get quite warm after a long run, and I have lifted the lid and had a flame pop up, but it went out when I dropped the top plate. Not enough wick sticking out will keep the flame close to the tube, but most of the heat is probably reflected from the engine. Here's a picture of the engine running, close up on the valve gear another shot of the valve gear and the engine running and another video of the engine running at speed. I guess you have to click on the picture to see it run, it's running about 370 rpm, it's normal regular speed, I've replaced the brass reed with a six thousandths steel reed, and in testing the cam timing, gotten it up to about 760 rpm, with the reed flapping like a flag in the breeze, catching the wick and pulling the burner into the engine, and ultimately pulling a dent in the reed valve from vacuum, while running with the reed in the full heat of the flame and soft. Ultimately, I want to put a butane burner for this, so it is easily adjustable for speed, and maybe a small generator to put a load on it, so I can run it hard without getting the mad velocity which lets the parts get out of control and self destruct. This has been a very interesting and profitable learning project, and I hope all of you enjoyed watching as much as I enjoyed doing. Much thanks for the constant input of ideas and suggestions, there is always more to learn, and the wide variety from where we all arrive makes for many different ideas. :mmr: :nrocks: :beer: :lol: thanks for all this forum offers, mad jack |
| ieezitin:
Jack the mad one! I have been following your thread from start to finish, a very good job well done sir!. I enjoy your threads as you have a very unique way of solving problems and I have learned a lot from you. I wish you well on the next adventure and be sure I will be an ardent follower. All the best. Anthony. |
| madjackghengis:
Thanks much, Anthony, I can't say how much I learn reading through everyone else's logs. No truth to the idea you can't teach old dogs new tricks, I learn something new every day, or else I just cancel that day and pretend it didn't happen. Nick, with regard to your poppin, I suspect if you look, you will find the vacuum of your engine has pulled a dimple in the valve, I've pulled a brass .006 in valve to where it won't go flat, pulled a dimple in each of a .005, a .006 steel feeler gauge valve, and am finding I've only begun to tap the speed and power this design is capable of, having pulled apart the soldered together valve linkage, stripped the threads for the valve rod, out of the rocker arm, and am finding an .008 piece of gauge is going above seven hundred before it has time to even get warm. This engine has been a test bed far more than I intended, and is not gone away as a present as it was supposed to because of lessons both positive and negative, learned. I expect I will be posting on new valve train soon, as soldered together brass doesn't seem up to the high speed load of inertia. I'm trying to get a 51 harley out of the shop while getting this settled out, and both are challenging my attempts to be finished. I highly recomend anyone interested in flame suckers to go at it with a passion, and try anything that comes to mind and seems to make sense, after you've got the first one running, as they have far more potential than first appears. They are the direct predecessors of internal combustion engines, but there is much more to them than the simplest designs suggest. :ddb: :nrocks: mad jack |
| NickG:
Madjack, Thanks for the analysis on the valves - I will have to take mine off (think it's 0.005") to have a look and see if there's a dimple- I have noticed that it seems sort of softer and a different noise to when I first assembled it. I still need to increase my spring pressure I think as if I put the flame in the position for most power it revs too high and gets valve bounce- it's not nice displaying it running like that anyway though! I might take that valve off over the weekend and maybe try some 0.008 then. I did wonder when I saw the drawings why they wanted the valve to be so thin - I can understand it seals better but it wouldn't last long at 0.002". Love the motion pics - very nice. Nick |
| madjackghengis:
Thanks Nick, by the way, I'm using a piece of .008 right now and the engine easily goes into over-drive once warmed up and will reach a point where the vacuum holds the valve shut, and the engine will reverse and run four or five cycles backwards, till the valve pulls loose, and then start running forwards again until it does the same thing. I've got my cam down to about 95 degrees so vacuum holds the valve shut for the last eight or ten degrees of running, during normal speeds, and the flame I'm using is not much larger than that on the Duclos flamesucker, but it is enough to run the engine to its limit. I found if I spray it all over with WD-40 and spray some in the cylinder, flipping the flywheel to work it through the cylinder, it cleans out residue very well, cools off the very hot cylinder fins and head, and the next day the left over vapors make it start right up, as they eliminate the water vapor being condensed right off the bat. I think my head being almost a quarter inch thick makes it a cold starter, and thinning it would make it much easier to start. It should be the sixteenth the poppin' calls for probably. Having the stroke twice the bore makes for lots of vacuum, when its warmed up, but reduces the speed it naturally runs at I expect. It's .750 bore and inch and a half stroke, I think the next flame sucker I build will be much closer to "square", but I make such decisions in my sleep, going to bed with an idea, and waking up with a completely different take on it. :nrocks: :beer: cheers, mad jack |
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