I’m 71 yrs old and back in the 50’s and 60’s when I was a kid my great grandfather lived in an oil and gas company house on Oil Ridge Tyler County WV. His job was to keep the massive meaning HUGE hit and miss engine running he also oiled the belts that ran several pumping stations off of the flywheel of the hit and miss engine. The main belt ran a pulley that ran other belts that went to the pumps. It was a pretty amazing thing to see for a little kid, the engine could be heard for miles. In the late 60’s the operation was converted to electric motors for the field pumps and my great Gran Pap had to move into town and lived with my grandmother. He had some amazing stories about the old hit and Miss engine. Those days in the USA were amazing.
I would be willing to bet, that people who first saw these were in awe! I also think it will not be long till modern society, not having been exposed to these machines, will be just as in awe!!!
Great story. In the 1980's I lived in a village on the lower Yukon River in Alaska where I ran the power utility. A guy, who lived at a fish camp about 30 miles downriver had a failed Lister diesel generator and asked me for help. He took me by boat to the camp and I determined that the voltage regulator had failed. Sitting next to the Lister, in the generator shack, was an early 1930's horizontal, single cylinder, 15 kW Whitte diesel generator. I asked him about the unit and he said he never saw it run in his 35 years, but his dad, who was deceased at that time, had told him that there was nothing wrong with it. I filled up lubricating oil cups, bled the fuel line and filled the fuel priming cup with diesel, I found and opened the compression release and started spinning one of the flywheels, closed the compression release and off it went without hesitation. I initially couldn't get it to generate, so I stopped the machine, and arced the field with a car battery. Upon restarting, it generated, and I easily adjusted governor and voltage regulator to 60 Hz, 120/240 volts. It had a 50-pole alternator and turned at 144 rpm. He used it for a few months, until he got the Lister repaired, and said it ran flawlessly the entire time.
@@rossk4864really interesting story about those generators! History will repeat itself if Crooked Joe stays in office. Keep those diesel generators on standby.
I'm not an engineer, nor a mechanic, but I found this fascinating. The way you have explained everything and the detail you went into was absolutely brilliant! Thank you so much. 😃
That's an excellent comment you made - in my case I had been around those engines and the large 500 HP power house engines growing up - Also up till the 1980s some were still in service and I worked on them - I still found this video interesting - much of that stuff can be a pain to get running - Sense those engines ran slow they had time to burn most of the fuel and could be 4 to 5 times more fuel efficient than modern high speed engines -
Look I’m just happy to see somebody younger. That actually has learned how to do all this correctly. It’s very impressive to an old man. It makes me smile. !! keep doing what you’re doing because you have knowledge very few people in the planet will have??!!!
My grandfather grew up near Sheffield Pa, and had a hunting lodge there. This is the heart of the Allegheny National Forest. Near his camp there were 2 stationary steam engines that ran push rods through the woods to run oil well pumps. Some of the rods are still strung through the Allegheny National Forest as of 2007. This engine was used to replace those steam engines. The Bessemer plant is still in Grove City, sadly boarded up. I went to college there. Fascinating stuff.
The longer the hot tube, the more advanced the timing. That tube seems to be too long and ignition is starting well before TDC. It also makes it very unforgiving to start. I'd go back to that 6" now that you have it running and see how it behaves.
I'd love to see a followup video about how to tune these things, per this suggestion. @rsmith2786 is it possible to advance the timing, if the tube is too short, by heating the tube to a higher temp? or would that just screw things up even more?
Also, the burn characteristics of Propane and Natural Gas are *very* different which is almost certainly why that old magneto ignition system was fitted.
As an old ships engineer I must say your explanations are excellent. I did not had any knowledge of this kind of two stroke gas engines, how to time them or hot pipes. In an other video I learned about hit and mis engines, magnetos and how to re-magnetize them. You do this better than every teacher I had. One remark, the rod between crosshead and the piston we called the piston rod. You probably already knew this (sorry).
The part that got the tears from laughing flowing for me was when he said "if you've got one of these at home.......it is possible to blow one of these up by doing an air start" Priceless.
In 1991 when I was a young man right out of grad school, I was the HR Rep for the Cooper-Bessemer plant in Grove City, PA. Fascinating place. It had three sections - the Foundry, with three 35-ton electric furnaces; the Machine Shop, with gigantic machine tools, and the Assembly Shop, where the reciprocating engines were assembled, tested, and prepared for shipment.
That was the first time I had heard a good explanation of a hot tube and timing. Nice instruction! Loved the CAD (Cardboard Aided Design) visual aids. It was cool (hot?) to see how the length makes a difference. It was almost like a diesel pre-chamber. Thanks.
The spring doesn't control the amount of gas. When that plate lifts, it allows both gas and air into the engine. The gas regulator controls the ratio of gas to air. The spring keeps the plate closed, so it only gets gas when it draws in air.
You BET the spring does..... It controls how far the valve opens, AND when. The more the spring tension, the less the valve will travel, and the later in the cycle it will open. No, it does not control the A/F ratio, but it DOES control how MUCH of the mixture ends up in the combustion chamber per cycle.
Great video! I find that oilfield engines flood easily. They start easier and run better with needle valves so I install needle valves instead of diamond valves. I don't use an accumulator tank. Accumulator tanks can make starting harder because the stale air in the system takes time to flush out and throws the fuel air mixture off until it is out of the system. I also install a gate valve on the intake and only crack it a 1/4". The gate valve lets you fine tune the fuel/air mixture.
I stumbled across one of these in a shed in western PA, Butler area about 40 years ago as a kid riding horses. the whole setup was there, even the belt from the engine to the main beam of the pump jack. It will had plenty of compression, it would hold me standing on the flywheel of about the same size as this one. Only difference is where this has a crosshead guide, the one I saw was directly connected to the piston that you could see the back of. Most of the valve gear and governor control was missing. I'd love to wander back into the woods some day and see if it's still in there. It's obviously big enough that someone would have to make concerted effort to get it out because it was way up a valley with minimal access. Thanks for the explanation of the hot tube ignition, I never understood how those worked... basically a diesel engine with a glow plug. I do wonder however if the type of gas would also have an effect on timing as it should be easier to light natural gas than propane since it's lighter. Now whether that means it needs more or less ignition, I don't know... theoretically running propane, you should only need 1/3 the fuel you'd use on natural gas to get the same thermal energy per ignition... So depending on where that engine came from, and what it was being fed, that may have played a role and explained its odd timing. Cool video!
Great tutorial/instructional video on the explanation of how those engines work. Taking the head off, Taking the valve off and showing the intake and exhaust ports. Gives one a much better understanding of the engine internals. Thank you for this video.
Spotted that straight away too.🤠 And the big tool on the con rod eating it.... Though I'm sure it had plenty of marks already... The wobbly input valve.. That didn't look right, the empty oilers.... Flippin eck, I'd be a nightmare in there....
@@aussiebloke609I'm sure he just oil can lubed the surfaces. The oil drippers are vital for long runs, and I'd fix them, but for starting and running for ten minutes, not needed.
Surely there is a better method of turning rod without chewing up the rid with a monkey wrench??? WTH, damn, even a piece of thick cloth would be better than nothing??? Regards from South Africa
Remove the head and then turn the piston. You don’t want to damage the rod. A damaged rod will ruin the packing. A horse cock which is like a sleeve protects the packing when the rod is pushed through the packing. I have done this to dozens of reciprocating compressors which are similar.
You have done a great job again, I am sure your friend will appreciate the work you put into getting the engine running, it would be nice to see her again after you finish the fine tuning, to see how easy a start you can achieve, and if you give your buddy a crash course in air starting.
EXCELLENT! THANK YOU for the detailed explanation of the parts of this engine and how it (engine) and they function. MOST RUclips engine channels omit this 👎 Your very detailed explanation is VERY helpful to those of us who are not experts. PLEASE do more videos in this manner. 👍👍👍
Amazing to think that Richard Trevithick born in 1771 was the inventor of high pressure steam engines. I know that everyone thinks that Stephenson was the inventor of railways but Richard Trevithick got there first. In the U.K. you can see and hear single cylinder boat engines and see beautiful old engines pumping water from underground to maintain water level on a canal.that are really huge still work, 17:44 operated by volunteers.
I have loved old steam and hit and miss engines since my childhood. Thanks for clarifying with detail on how they work. Fascinating how they produced power from this in 1899. Thanks for sharing.
LOL....I was waiting for a misfire and it sending you flying through the garage when you were trying to kick start it.....wise choice using that air bump start.....great job getting it running
one thing I noticed, is that the way the propane is introduced into the intake valve via the multiple ring of holes directly under the sealing flange of the valve........the pressure of the supplied propane is actually helping to lift the valve open. The hot tube concept is eerily similar to the pre-combustion chambers that were common on diesels for some decades.
Great job getting this old machine running, shows lots of patience, grit and determination on your part, well done. Greetings from SunnyCoast Australia 🇦🇺 😊
What an elegantly simple engine. Little but a piston port engine and a hot tube ignition. Thanks for explaining the ignition timing. Turning a screw adjustable hot tube would be more work but allow precise timing.
That’s a lot of crap in the water jacket, obviously gravity keeps most at the bottom. Thanks for the knowledge! Super cool! I live in Oklahoma and have three of these that are visible from my house 💪
I'm 62 years old and lived on a farm as a kid but, never delt with such machinery as this. We did have an old tractor,( brand escapes me), with steel spiked wheels that a wide belt ran from the side of the engine area to a large cutting wheel/table combo behind it that we used to clear our land of trees and cut them into logs. So, I never experienced these combustion engines like this but I sure as hell am amused and love watching these videos! You got a new viewer for as long as you do your work on them. Thanks for letting me learn about how things work from the past.
The small one I was Building was a 6 stroke - fired on both ends the piston has 2 plugs or ignition sites. Runs on Propane and air. has a large wheel and a smaller wide wheel. Somewhat like this but different. Complex timing. Nice explanation. Called a "Merry"
Love that these old bits of kit are still around. Also love the fact people still have the 'know how' on how to get them going and to fettle them!. Nice one, Nuff said!.
Great vid !!! I'm an old 2 stroke motorcycle enthusiast so 2 strokes hold no terrors for me.......however that hot tube ignition system is something else again. Imagine timing the engine by varying the length of the hot tube !!! I'll be remembering that tip, for sure. Thanks for such an informative vid.
Great video! Thank you for posting! I worked for Cooper-Bessemer (Cooper Energy Services) in the 70's - 80's. Never saw anything about the Bessemer engines, even though I spent time in the Grove City 'Bessemer' plant.
You persevered and eventually got it going when many others would have given up just like the owner did. Although a simple engine it takes knowledge as to how they actually work. Watching you work on this stationary engine made a nice change
Nice looking piece of machinery. I remember my grandma telling how when she was little, they and their neighbors got a brand new threshing machine and had some guy bring his steam engine to run it after harvest.
Well, I'm 62, and my first tractor was a model H "Poppin John" which was ancient when I was 20. It could be used to back into a 6 or 8" drive belt and become a stationary engine to drive a cane mill. Even though it was tiny tractor, it had incredible torque.
When you were on top with the engine running, it's sounds like that slide block is dragging pretty bad (i.e. insufficient lubrication) and I noticed some of your oilers are empty. Would probably be a plan to get some water in it to keep from making hot spots, which will also affect your ignition timing, and pull the torch off of it after it starts, so you can get a more accurate fuel mix. It seemed like it was awfully hard to turn by hand (also related to the slider). Pretty nice old engine though. Good catch on the port timing.😉
The noise your hearing are the outriggers on the trailer scraping the floor. I was hand oiling everything. The engine was pretty dry when I got it, so I was applying liberal amounts of oil to free it up, instead of relying on the oilers.
Looks like the trailer movement is making the engine run uneven. Anyway, it was good to learn about the timing issue with the hot tube. I guess it is not just the length but also the temperature that affects the ignition point. There are many variables to get right as you demonstrated, the gas pressure and the strength of the inlet valve spring. I assume that each engine needed to be adjusted to suit the conditions at each oil well, back in the day. I wonder if any of the old boys that kept them running are still around? I imagine the magneto was added to take some of the timing guesswork out of the equation. I suppose the hot bulb ignition needed a constantly running blowlamp? The air start was pretty dicey but better than seeing you run the risk of getting mangled in the flywheel. Good interesting video.
This is one of the best RUclips videos I've seen! I love that a guy knows how to work on these. I have one of those tool and die lifts they're super handy.
I was 40 years a mechanic and have to say you are a hell of a man. I really hate to see you wrestling with something that was a piece of junk even when it was “new”, but I understand why you can’t walk away from it too, you just have to show it who’s boss.
Looks like the exhaust release ramp on the piston clears the exhaust port first allowing the expanded exhaust gases to start exiting and scavenge the cylinder before the inlet port opens for the transfer port. To have to remove the spring from the inlet valve, either air is being drawn into the induction chamber past the piston rod or exhaust gases drawn past the rings. Probably
15:00 A lot of small family fortunes were made with simple pumping setups like that. Half a dozen or more boreholes, with pumps driven by jerk-lines from a central power house, all off of a single-cylinder15 or 20hp engine. A good bit of money in the outlay, but after a couple of years it's paid for and then you start banking profits for as long as you can keep the oil flowing. Good times.
In 1974 in Oklahoma staying with my grandpa, I was riding my dirt bike around on and thru a hilly trail in town. In the trail loop there was a large oil pump jack (oil well) that was belt powered with one of these, had the weight governor throttling it when it loaded up on the pump jack`s up stroke and it was running on the natural gas piped to it as a byproduct from the oil well. The muffler was just a pipe running 15ft away. I would stop and just to watch it run for long periods now and then. At night 1/4 away I would go to sleep listening to it and others around the town. It the engine ran as long as I was there for yrs. The old days music.
Thanks for the once over on that giant 2 stroke. I understood much of what you explained only because im somewhat familiar with 2 stroke engines. The hot tube is something like a glow plug on a diesel engine I'm guessing but you lost me a bit on the sizing of it, I'm going to go back and watch again to see if i missed something. I love old engines and appreciate the time you took explaining this one. Pretty cool how you timed this engine and i would really like to see that governor in action and see exactly how that comes into play. Thanks again
Awesome! We have the 3-day show at Jacktown where I'm from, everything from shoebox size to steam tractors. I grew up around this stuff, antique farming and all.
Great video. I recently started learning about engines. My Cummins had a problem with the camshaft, and I realized I didn't know what that was. So I've been learning a lot. I'm going to go up and talk to those guys at the county fair this year!
Thanks for the video, fun stuff! It looks to me like the counter rocking of the trailer was one of the reasons it was so hard to get it going. It was losing a LOT of momentum moving that trailer which would have gone into piston movement otherwise. Just an engineer's quick observation. Great video!
We had two, similar to that one, on each Light Ship back in the 1950's, I admire your knowledge on something so old, well done. They gave us all the power we needed for the huge light and all our domestic usage we needed. You cant give it too much oil, so oil, oil, oil and in case I forgfot more oil. We had a platform on the top of the flywheel so we could run it round by foot. and the fly wheel mwas much wider than yours to make it easy to run it round. And ours were parafin. I wish I fcould be with you.
God I’d Love to get me one of them old hit & miss engines. They have a hit & miss engine shows in Portland, Indiana every year. There’s a bunch of them there. And it’s less than 30 miles from me. Thanks for sharing Bud. You have a nice one there.
If anyone cares, this engine makes roughly 415ft lbs of torque. How you find this the K.I.S.S. way is guess what torque it makes and plug it into the hp=tq×rpm÷5252 equation, and 415×190÷5252 is about 15hp. There you go
@@rollastudent it was more of an educated guess, and I mostly said "guess" because if I said it someone would come in and math it and be like "erm actually it's blah blah whatever"
I am a mechanic also on modern diesel engines but you can change your ignition timing by how much heat you put on the tube less heat the slower the timing the hotter the tube is the faster the timing on the engine , I also noticed preignition some occasions when the pistion was only 1/2 up on it stroke when you was trying to manually crank it so back the glow plug heat off some to help ! This is gas not a diesel so you do not need as much heat for gas ignition as you do diesel ignition so back the heat off on your glow plug .
i gathered the hot tube controls detonation timing the longer the tube the lower the cr, kinda diesel like,constant speed motor,i guess,had working people back then,very nice vid tks.
11:20 Somebody's been there before... Paint witness mark is about the same distance the assembly needs to be shortened up. So I learned some stuff... but what I didn't see covered is the magneto. The engine seems to be a two stroke compression ignition with a permanent glow plug (hot pipe). So what is the magneto doing?
The magneto isn’t currently hooked up. It’s original to the engine but the linkage was missing and had to be fabricated. The hot tube ignition was simpler to build at the time.
So many clever things. It looks like the "intake valve" is not just a valve but also a carburettor. It seems to be where the gas and air are mixed as they are pulled into the engine. Those old boys were pretty smart. I doubt any modern engine mechanic would ever figure out how to start that thing, let alone why it might not start. Interesting stuff.
Hi, Thanks for ALL the details of a gas engine. Ive had a lot to do with large 2 stroke marine diesel engines but no experience with gas engines. Oh don't forget to put oil in those drip feed oilers !
That small propane tank contained within the engine, regardless what the maker called it, is an accumulator. It is nothing more than a space for the liquid propane to expand and create pressure. Very cool to see one in use like this. They only way I have seen them used is for flame effects setups.
Question: This engine is over 100 years old. How's that Harbor Fright Predator engine going to be running in 2124? Who knows? We'll all be long dead [just like your Harbor Fright engine. eh?]
@@schizy Sure, but most of these engines got scrapped too. But also the harbor freight engines cheap and simple affair-it’s not something you care about, but even then I’m sure there will be plenty 100 years from now in sheds and whatnot. These big engines are really just a curiosity nowadays, they’re fascinating, but nobody really intended they last this long, they just happened to make it last many decades of newer better designs being implemented.
The harbor freight may have more HP than this engine but i wouldn't say it can do "more work". A cheap harbor freight could not come close to this level of torque and this engine was capable of powering numerous belts and pullys.
@@erich6150 Horsepower is horsepower- it’s the literal measure of work. A 22hp v-twin can do more work than this 15hp motor. Torque is fairly irrelevant, sure this engine makes more torque at the crankshaft, but if you geared down a lawnmower motor from 3600 to 300 RPM it would be making more, because it’s producing more horsepower.
@@AfterDark33 This old engine served for decades, your harbor freight engine will be worn out in a couple of weeks of 24/7 'work' that this engine survived. There is simply no comparing the two.
I’m 71 yrs old and back in the 50’s and 60’s when I was a kid my great grandfather lived in an oil and gas company house on Oil Ridge Tyler County WV. His job was to keep the massive meaning HUGE hit and miss engine running he also oiled the belts that ran several pumping stations off of the flywheel of the hit and miss engine. The main belt ran a pulley that ran other belts that went to the pumps. It was a pretty amazing thing to see for a little kid, the engine could be heard for miles. In the late 60’s the operation was converted to electric motors for the field pumps and my great Gran Pap had to move into town and lived with my grandmother.
He had some amazing stories about the old hit and Miss engine. Those days in the USA were amazing.
I’m in Kanawha county. Used to hear old well pumps out in the woods from miles away. Haven’t heard one run since the 80’s.
I can't add to that I have seen them in old county fairs they're excellent.
I would be willing to bet, that people who first saw these were in awe! I also think it will not be long till modern society, not having been exposed to these machines, will be just as in awe!!!
Great story. In the 1980's I lived in a village on the lower Yukon River in Alaska where I ran the power utility. A guy, who lived at a fish camp about 30 miles downriver had a failed Lister diesel generator and asked me for help. He took me by boat to the camp and I determined that the voltage regulator had failed. Sitting next to the Lister, in the generator shack, was an early 1930's horizontal, single cylinder, 15 kW Whitte diesel generator. I asked him about the unit and he said he never saw it run in his 35 years, but his dad, who was deceased at that time, had told him that there was nothing wrong with it. I filled up lubricating oil cups, bled the fuel line and filled the fuel priming cup with diesel, I found and opened the compression release and started spinning one of the flywheels, closed the compression release and off it went without hesitation. I initially couldn't get it to generate, so I stopped the machine, and arced the field with a car battery. Upon restarting, it generated, and I easily adjusted governor and voltage regulator to 60 Hz, 120/240 volts. It had a 50-pole alternator and turned at 144 rpm. He used it for a few months, until he got the Lister repaired, and said it ran flawlessly the entire time.
@@rossk4864really interesting story about those generators! History will repeat itself if Crooked Joe stays in office. Keep those diesel generators on standby.
I'm not an engineer, nor a mechanic, but I found this fascinating. The way you have explained everything and the detail you went into was absolutely brilliant! Thank you so much. 😃
way better than an animation explaining things.
That's an excellent comment you made - in my case I had been around those engines and the large 500 HP power house engines growing up -
Also up till the 1980s some were still in service and I worked on them -
I still found this video interesting - much of that stuff can be a pain to get running -
Sense those engines ran slow they had time to burn most of the fuel and could be 4 to 5 times more fuel efficient than modern high speed engines -
Look I’m just happy to see somebody younger. That actually has learned how to do all this correctly. It’s very impressive to an old man. It makes me smile. !! keep doing what you’re doing because you have knowledge very few people in the planet will have??!!!
Chewing the piston rod with a pipe grip don't seem very 'correct' to me............... 12:13
Gonna need these skills, Mad Max is just around the corner.
MG on a trailer too small in my Isuzu trooper was madness.
Lucky I built some up then @@kippie80
@@raymondo162 dont worry it aint nowhere near any glands or moving parts regards lawrence
Old Engineer here from Ireland. Beautiful engine and wonderful to hear. Heavenly to watch and it's kicking my memory cells alive. Well Done young Sir.
Great description of a two stroke . Like the mock up, it explains a lot.
Glad you liked it! Thank you!
Just had our gardner ,1.5hp hot tube engine running last night. Glad to see our hobby is alive in 2024
My grandfather grew up near Sheffield Pa, and had a hunting lodge there. This is the heart of the Allegheny National Forest. Near his camp there were 2 stationary steam engines that ran push rods through the woods to run oil well pumps. Some of the rods are still strung through the Allegheny National Forest as of 2007. This engine was used to replace those steam engines. The Bessemer plant is still in Grove City, sadly boarded up. I went to college there. Fascinating stuff.
The longer the hot tube, the more advanced the timing. That tube seems to be too long and ignition is starting well before TDC. It also makes it very unforgiving to start. I'd go back to that 6" now that you have it running and see how it behaves.
I'd love to see a followup video about how to tune these things, per this suggestion.
@rsmith2786 is it possible to advance the timing, if the tube is too short, by heating the tube to a higher temp?
or would that just screw things up even more?
thats what i was thinking too as he was trying to kick start it and after when it was running
I think it's the other way around. Short tube lights early, (advanced), long tube lights later (retarded). No?
No, the longer the tube, the more retarded the ignition is.
Also, the burn characteristics of Propane and Natural Gas are *very* different which is almost certainly why that old magneto ignition system was fitted.
As an old ships engineer I must say your explanations are excellent. I did not had any knowledge of this kind of two stroke gas engines, how to time them or hot pipes. In an other video I learned about hit and mis engines, magnetos and how to re-magnetize them. You do this better than every teacher I had. One remark, the rod between crosshead and the piston we called the piston rod. You probably already knew this (sorry).
5 minutes in, the display and description adds tremendous value to the learning curve ! Thanks mate ! 😊 Cheers from New Zealand
The part that got the tears from laughing flowing for me was when he said "if you've got one of these at home.......it is possible to blow one of these up by doing an air start" Priceless.
In 1991 when I was a young man right out of grad school, I was the HR Rep for the Cooper-Bessemer plant in Grove City, PA. Fascinating place. It had three sections - the Foundry, with three 35-ton electric furnaces; the Machine Shop, with gigantic machine tools, and the Assembly Shop, where the reciprocating engines were assembled, tested, and prepared for shipment.
Arc furnaces are an AWESOME piece of equipment... 👍
That was the first time I had heard a good explanation of a hot tube and timing. Nice instruction! Loved the CAD (Cardboard Aided Design) visual aids. It was cool (hot?) to see how the length makes a difference. It was almost like a diesel pre-chamber. Thanks.
The length of the tube also affects the final compression ratio, which is a big part of when it will fire.
Thanks for the long detailed closeup of the engine running. And thanks for explaining all the components. Very educational.
The spring doesn't control the amount of gas. When that plate lifts, it allows both gas and air into the engine. The gas regulator controls the ratio of gas to air. The spring keeps the plate closed, so it only gets gas when it draws in air.
You BET the spring does.....
It controls how far the valve opens, AND when.
The more the spring tension, the less the valve will travel, and the later in the cycle it will open.
No, it does not control the A/F ratio, but it DOES control how MUCH of the mixture ends up in the combustion chamber per cycle.
Towing 5k+ with a jacked up Suzuki. That's some balls.
I don't know if I'd consider backing it into the garage as towing lol. I'd definitely not take it on the street!
LOL! That one lunger probably weighs more than the Suzuki.
@@Cast_Iron_Curiosities LOL.
FIRST THING I THOUGHT........
That is just asking to wag the dog....
Simple engines can still be a pain to get going, good job overcoming the problems.
Great video! I find that oilfield engines flood easily. They start easier and run better with needle valves so I install needle valves instead of diamond valves. I don't use an accumulator tank. Accumulator tanks can make starting harder because the stale air in the system takes time to flush out and throws the fuel air mixture off until it is out of the system. I also install a gate valve on the intake and only crack it a 1/4". The gate valve lets you fine tune the fuel/air mixture.
I stumbled across one of these in a shed in western PA, Butler area about 40 years ago as a kid riding horses. the whole setup was there, even the belt from the engine to the main beam of the pump jack. It will had plenty of compression, it would hold me standing on the flywheel of about the same size as this one. Only difference is where this has a crosshead guide, the one I saw was directly connected to the piston that you could see the back of. Most of the valve gear and governor control was missing. I'd love to wander back into the woods some day and see if it's still in there. It's obviously big enough that someone would have to make concerted effort to get it out because it was way up a valley with minimal access.
Thanks for the explanation of the hot tube ignition, I never understood how those worked... basically a diesel engine with a glow plug. I do wonder however if the type of gas would also have an effect on timing as it should be easier to light natural gas than propane since it's lighter. Now whether that means it needs more or less ignition, I don't know... theoretically running propane, you should only need 1/3 the fuel you'd use on natural gas to get the same thermal energy per ignition... So depending on where that engine came from, and what it was being fed, that may have played a role and explained its odd timing.
Cool video!
Great tutorial/instructional video on the explanation of how those engines work. Taking the head off, Taking the valve off and showing the intake and exhaust ports. Gives one a much better understanding of the engine internals. Thank you for this video.
Your engine, and obviously you know your engineering, but I cringed everytime you hit the rod and nut with that pipewrench.
@@NotchFox I was thinking the same thing.
Loves the diagram
Looking at the connecting rod someone did not look at the original paint and adjusted it. I always look for clues like that
Spotted that straight away too.🤠 And the big tool on the con rod eating it.... Though I'm sure it had plenty of marks already... The wobbly input valve.. That didn't look right, the empty oilers.... Flippin eck, I'd be a nightmare in there....
@@martinda7446 it is detective work, realistically the engine gives you clues
@@martinda7446 Especially those oilers...all but one were bone dry (and I'd bet that's because that one was blocked.) Gave me the chills seeing that.
@@aussiebloke609I'm sure he just oil can lubed the surfaces. The oil drippers are vital for long runs, and I'd fix them, but for starting and running for ten minutes, not needed.
As an older man with a steam boiler background, this was 38 minutes well spent!!!
Thanks- great explanation with simple but accurate pieces. I wish all the specialists doung stuff on you tube were as clear as you.
Surely there is a better method of turning rod without chewing up the rid with a monkey wrench??? WTH, damn, even a piece of thick cloth would be better than nothing???
Regards from South Africa
I was quite shocked he took that approach.
Use a strap wrench.
Remove the head and then turn the piston. You don’t want to damage the rod. A damaged rod will ruin the packing. A horse cock which is like a sleeve protects the packing when the rod is pushed through the packing. I have done this to dozens of reciprocating compressors which are similar.
exactly what I thought!
Horrors..... A Pipe Wrench?????????
You have done a great job again, I am sure your friend will appreciate the work you put into getting the engine running, it would be nice to see her again after you finish the fine tuning, to see how easy a start you can achieve, and if you give your buddy a crash course in air starting.
EXCELLENT! THANK YOU for the detailed explanation of the parts of this engine and how it (engine) and they function. MOST RUclips engine channels omit this 👎 Your very detailed explanation is VERY helpful to those of us who are not experts. PLEASE do more videos in this manner. 👍👍👍
God those big old two strokes sound sooooo lovely. Thanks for sharing her with us
Amazing to think that Richard Trevithick born in 1771 was the inventor of high pressure steam engines. I know that everyone thinks that Stephenson was the inventor of railways but Richard Trevithick got there first. In the U.K. you can see and hear single cylinder boat engines and see beautiful old engines pumping water from underground to maintain water level on a canal.that are really huge still work, 17:44 operated by volunteers.
Careful, my grandma first husband got his coveralls caught in wheel. Died 3 days later. Widow with 3 children at 19years age.
He was in better place.
I have loved old steam and hit and miss engines since my childhood. Thanks for clarifying with detail on how they work. Fascinating how they produced power from this in 1899. Thanks for sharing.
LOL....I was waiting for a misfire and it sending you flying through the garage when you were trying to kick start it.....wise choice using that air bump start.....great job getting it running
I'm here in England and loving your video. I think it's important to keep the old technology running. Thank you from Graham aged 70 and a bit. XXX
All the oil sight glasses seem to be short of oil, especially the one adding oil to the intake port.
one thing I noticed, is that the way the propane is introduced into the intake valve via the multiple ring of holes directly under the sealing flange of the valve........the pressure of the supplied propane is actually helping to lift the valve open. The hot tube concept is eerily similar to the pre-combustion chambers that were common on diesels for some decades.
Love the cardboard and tape explanation of two-stroke operation!!! Subscribed!
Great job getting this old machine running, shows lots of patience, grit and determination on your part, well done. Greetings from SunnyCoast Australia 🇦🇺 😊
Lot of skill and knowledge you have on these old engines. Very interesting vid and great to watch.
What an elegantly simple engine. Little but a piston port engine and a hot tube ignition. Thanks for explaining the ignition timing. Turning a screw adjustable hot tube would be more work but allow precise timing.
Love the Suzuki, those things were awesome, bare bones, light and small but great 4wd and a lot of fun.
That’s a lot of crap in the water jacket, obviously gravity keeps most at the bottom. Thanks for the knowledge! Super cool! I live in Oklahoma and have three of these that are visible from my house 💪
Excellent job getting that beast running. Great explanation on how it all works was awesome too. Thanks for the video!😀👍
BEEN GOING TO TRACTOR SHOWS FOR 60 YRS AND NEVER KNEW HOW ONE OF THESE THINGS WORK,,,,,UNTILL NOW,,,,THANKYOU !!!!!
I can see parallels with later car engines but the primitive technology is amazing.
I'm 62 years old and lived on a farm as a kid but, never delt with such machinery as this. We did have an old tractor,( brand escapes me), with steel spiked wheels that a wide belt ran from the side of the engine area to a large cutting wheel/table combo behind it that we used to clear our land of trees and cut them into logs. So, I never experienced these combustion engines like this but I sure as hell am amused and love watching these videos! You got a new viewer for as long as you do your work on them. Thanks for letting me learn about how things work from the past.
Thanks, a beautiful machine and the noise when running is very satisfying, I must be turning into one of those guys at the country fairs.
The small one I was Building was a 6 stroke - fired on both ends the piston has 2 plugs or ignition sites. Runs on Propane and air. has a large wheel and a smaller wide wheel. Somewhat like this but different. Complex timing. Nice explanation. Called a "Merry"
I wonder if part of the issue might be that propane is less easy to ignite than natural gas which has a lot of methane in it.
Love that these old bits of kit are still around. Also love the fact people still have the 'know how' on how to get them going and to fettle them!. Nice one, Nuff said!.
i appreciate the effort put into the diagram, felt like watching Watch Wes Work for a second there
That was fun to see how this big engine works and to see it up and running. I did notice though that the fly ball governor was not hooked up.
Your one 🧑🔧
" hell of a mechanic "
Ole buddy 😁👍
Great vid !!! I'm an old 2 stroke motorcycle enthusiast so 2 strokes hold no terrors for me.......however that hot tube ignition system is something else again. Imagine timing the engine by varying the length of the hot tube !!! I'll be remembering that tip, for sure. Thanks for such an informative vid.
Great video! Thank you for posting! I worked for Cooper-Bessemer (Cooper Energy Services) in the 70's - 80's. Never saw anything about the Bessemer engines, even though I spent time in the Grove City 'Bessemer' plant.
You persevered and eventually got it going when many others would have given up just like the owner did. Although a simple engine it takes knowledge as to how they actually work. Watching you work on this stationary engine made a nice change
Always great to see you getting these going!!
Nice looking piece of machinery.
I remember my grandma telling how when she was little, they and their neighbors got a brand new threshing machine and had some guy bring his steam engine to run it after harvest.
you did a great job explaining how this works. I like visuals
Well, I'm 62, and my first tractor was a model H "Poppin John" which was ancient when I was 20. It could be used to back into a 6 or 8" drive belt and become a stationary engine to drive a cane mill. Even though it was tiny tractor, it had incredible torque.
i did have some idea how a 2 stroke gas/petrol engine worked, but you cleared some details right up. great job. sub +1
So is this not a hit or miss engine
@@thehourglasswithaman nope
Really liked your explanation/illustration of the workings of this. Learned a lot. Thank you for posting this!
When you were on top with the engine running, it's sounds like that slide block is dragging pretty bad (i.e. insufficient lubrication) and I noticed some of your oilers are empty. Would probably be a plan to get some water in it to keep from making hot spots, which will also affect your ignition timing, and pull the torch off of it after it starts, so you can get a more accurate fuel mix. It seemed like it was awfully hard to turn by hand (also related to the slider). Pretty nice old engine though. Good catch on the port timing.😉
The noise your hearing are the outriggers on the trailer scraping the floor. I was hand oiling everything. The engine was pretty dry when I got it, so I was applying liberal amounts of oil to free it up, instead of relying on the oilers.
@@Cast_Iron_Curiosities Ahhh OK!😉👍
Great hands on explainer, thanks. Makes sense that it could run on raw welhead gas. Love the sound.
Looks like the trailer movement is making the engine run uneven. Anyway, it was good to learn about the timing issue with the hot tube. I guess it is not just the length but also the temperature that affects the ignition point. There are many variables to get right as you demonstrated, the gas pressure and the strength of the inlet valve spring. I assume that each engine needed to be adjusted to suit the conditions at each oil well, back in the day. I wonder if any of the old boys that kept them running are still around? I imagine the magneto was added to take some of the timing guesswork out of the equation. I suppose the hot bulb ignition needed a constantly running blowlamp? The air start was pretty dicey but better than seeing you run the risk of getting mangled in the flywheel. Good interesting video.
This is one of the best RUclips videos I've seen!
I love that a guy knows how to work on these.
I have one of those tool and die lifts they're super handy.
I was 40 years a mechanic and have to say you are a hell of a man. I really hate to see you wrestling with something that was a piece of junk even when it was “new”, but I understand why you can’t walk away from it too, you just have to show it who’s boss.
Piece of junk? WTH? Are you 12 YO?
Looks like the exhaust release ramp on the piston clears the exhaust port first allowing the expanded exhaust gases to start exiting and scavenge the cylinder before the inlet port opens for the transfer port. To have to remove the spring from the inlet valve, either air is being drawn into the induction chamber past the piston rod or exhaust gases drawn past the rings. Probably
I learned stuff I couldn't have imagined I needed to know. 🙂 Thanks and keep on chuggin'.
15:00 A lot of small family fortunes were made with simple pumping setups like that. Half a dozen or more boreholes, with pumps driven by jerk-lines from a central power house, all off of a single-cylinder15 or 20hp engine.
A good bit of money in the outlay, but after a couple of years it's paid for and then you start banking profits for as long as you can keep the oil flowing. Good times.
Amazing, truly a thing of beauty...thank you for sharing this great machine ❤❤❤
In 1974 in Oklahoma staying with my grandpa, I was riding my dirt bike around on and thru a hilly trail in town. In the trail loop there was a large oil pump jack (oil well) that was belt powered with one of these, had the weight governor throttling it when it loaded up on the pump jack`s up stroke and it was running on the natural gas piped to it as a byproduct from the oil well. The muffler was just a pipe running 15ft away. I would stop and just to watch it run for long periods now and then. At night 1/4 away I would go to sleep listening to it and others around the town. It the engine ran as long as I was there for yrs. The old days music.
Thanks for the once over on that giant 2 stroke. I understood much of what you explained only because im somewhat familiar with 2 stroke engines. The hot tube is something like a glow plug on a diesel engine I'm guessing but you lost me a bit on the sizing of it, I'm going to go back and watch again to see if i missed something. I love old engines and appreciate the time you took explaining this one. Pretty cool how you timed this engine and i would really like to see that governor in action and see exactly how that comes into play. Thanks again
Awesome! We have the 3-day show at Jacktown where I'm from, everything from shoebox size to steam tractors. I grew up around this stuff, antique farming and all.
This is absolutely fascinating - really informative.
Great video. I recently started learning about engines. My Cummins had a problem with the camshaft, and I realized I didn't know what that was. So I've been learning a lot.
I'm going to go up and talk to those guys at the county fair this year!
I love these engines! Thanks for a great tutorial…
Thanks for the video, fun stuff! It looks to me like the counter rocking of the trailer was one of the reasons it was so hard to get it going. It was losing a LOT of momentum moving that trailer which would have gone into piston movement otherwise. Just an engineer's quick observation. Great video!
I'm just glad I don't have to start one of these every morning.
Generally these rarely stopped
We had two, similar to that one, on each Light Ship back in the 1950's, I admire your knowledge on something so old, well done. They gave us all the power we needed for the huge light and all our domestic usage we needed. You cant give it too much oil, so oil, oil, oil and in case I forgfot more oil. We had a platform on the top of the flywheel so we could run it round by foot. and the fly wheel mwas much wider than yours to make it easy to run it round. And ours were parafin. I wish I fcould be with you.
It's work mentioning that the exhaust port has to open first or the flame will burn backwards and cause major problems!
God I’d Love to get me one of them old hit & miss engines. They have a hit & miss engine shows in Portland, Indiana every year. There’s a bunch of them there. And it’s less than 30 miles from me. Thanks for sharing Bud. You have a nice one there.
If anyone cares, this engine makes roughly 415ft lbs of torque. How you find this the K.I.S.S. way is guess what torque it makes and plug it into the hp=tq×rpm÷5252 equation, and 415×190÷5252 is about 15hp. There you go
Thanks tbh lookin at the stats of an engine tell u a lot on how the whole thing is engendered to be optimized
Why guess when you could divide HP by rpm and multiply by 5252?
@@rollastudent because that's what I did???
@@UnreasonablyIrrelevant-gv8xx your directions said “guess”
@@rollastudent it was more of an educated guess, and I mostly said "guess" because if I said it someone would come in and math it and be like "erm actually it's blah blah whatever"
I am a mechanic also on modern diesel engines but you can change your ignition timing by how much heat you put on the tube less heat the slower the timing the hotter the tube is the faster the timing on the engine , I also noticed preignition some occasions when the pistion was only 1/2 up on it stroke when you was trying to manually crank it so back the glow plug heat off some to help ! This is gas not a diesel so you do not need as much heat for gas ignition as you do diesel ignition so back the heat off on your glow plug .
i like how you warn us. then proceed to do what you told us not to do. 😅 luckily no harm done.
i gathered the hot tube controls detonation timing the longer the tube the lower the cr, kinda diesel like,constant speed motor,i guess,had working people back then,very nice vid tks.
11:20 Somebody's been there before... Paint witness mark is about the same distance the assembly needs to be shortened up.
So I learned some stuff... but what I didn't see covered is the magneto. The engine seems to be a two stroke compression ignition with a permanent glow plug (hot pipe). So what is the magneto doing?
The magneto isn’t currently hooked up. It’s original to the engine but the linkage was missing and had to be fabricated. The hot tube ignition was simpler to build at the time.
@@jessephillips3441 Gotcha. Thanks for the clarification.
So many clever things. It looks like the "intake valve" is not just a valve but also a carburettor. It seems to be where the gas and air are mixed as they are pulled into the engine. Those old boys were pretty smart. I doubt any modern engine mechanic would ever figure out how to start that thing, let alone why it might not start. Interesting stuff.
Great job and thank you for the education, greatly appreciated !!!
Hi, Thanks for ALL the details of a gas engine. Ive had a lot to do with large 2 stroke marine diesel engines but no experience with gas engines. Oh don't forget to put oil in those drip feed oilers !
I love how you use a pipe wrench on the piston rod and jam nut, i should bring my stuff into you to get worked on and destroyed.
Not so bad on the nut, but using it on that rod was sacrilege 😢
You should
That small propane tank contained within the engine, regardless what the maker called it, is an accumulator. It is nothing more than a space for the liquid propane to expand and create pressure. Very cool to see one in use like this. They only way I have seen them used is for flame effects setups.
"that's another reason your piston timing is important, because if your cylinder is too far forward it's gonna slap your cylinder head"
what
Yea, the cylinder head as in the thing he just took off. Where he mispoke is that he meant piston too far forward, not cylinder.
@@YuriGoofov how is a piston ever going to his the head? it might hit valves in an interference engine but that's it, right?
@@amicloud_yt
Because the piston is moved forward or back to set the timing. If it's set to far forward it will hit the cylinder head
Such a neat old 1899 2 stroke Engine
It’s pretty absurd that a 100lb engine you can get at harbor freight can do more work than this monstrosity- we really have come a long long way.
Question: This engine is over 100 years old. How's that Harbor Fright Predator engine going to be running in 2124? Who knows? We'll all be long dead [just like your Harbor Fright engine. eh?]
@@schizy Sure, but most of these engines got scrapped too. But also the harbor freight engines cheap and simple affair-it’s not something you care about, but even then I’m sure there will be plenty 100 years from now in sheds and whatnot. These big engines are really just a curiosity nowadays, they’re fascinating, but nobody really intended they last this long, they just happened to make it last many decades of newer better designs being implemented.
The harbor freight may have more HP than this engine but i wouldn't say it can do "more work". A cheap harbor freight could not come close to this level of torque and this engine was capable of powering numerous belts and pullys.
@@erich6150 Horsepower is horsepower- it’s the literal measure of work. A 22hp v-twin can do more work than this 15hp motor. Torque is fairly irrelevant, sure this engine makes more torque at the crankshaft, but if you geared down a lawnmower motor from 3600 to 300 RPM it would be making more, because it’s producing more horsepower.
@@AfterDark33 This old engine served for decades, your harbor freight engine will be worn out in a couple of weeks of 24/7 'work' that this engine survived. There is simply no comparing the two.
Thanks so much for this video. Terrific explanation of how this thing works. A bit of pucker factor starting the old girl!
A pipe wrench? Really?
If it hadn't already had one on it prior to me I would have taken a different approach.
2 wrongs don't make a right....correct
Why not clean the water jackets, atleast the head?
I am impressed, You have a lot of patients.
Casting the cylinder would have been tricky big ports and intricate lines what a beautiful engine ❤
I now know exactly how a two stroke engine works. Very good explanation.
Makes one wonder how long they tried to get the first one functioning.😊 Needs some counter weights to steady it on the ground.
thanks for the patience in explaining the working on the pieces you are dealing with australian fan