[SEL] Flywheel dangers

[John Culp]

Oh, I run mine on kerosene, and even replumbed the water line as it 
originally was. It's not worthwhile for the reasons you stated, but 
it's great fun to do it the old way.

Any knocking beyond a slight rattle reduces engine power and efficiency 
considerably, and the kerosene burns more slowly because it's only 
partially vaporized in the M at ignition. It runs hotter, the exhaust 
"barks" more loudly, and it blows more fire out the exhaust. When you 
have to run the water injection to stop knocking, it further slows fuel 
evaporation and combustion and absorbs heat as it vaporizes. 
Compensating for these effects is doubtless why IHC set the ignitor M 
up with a fixed ignition timing 45° BTDC, which is certainly an 
inefficient setting for normal running under load on gasoline at 600 
RPM.

John

On Dec 29, 2005, at 10:31 PM, Rob Skinner wrote:

>> Now it's a good bit more expensive to run on
>> kerosene, and not worth the trouble and reduced
> performance.
>
> Not worth the trouble, John?  Oh my!  Some might say that
> running old engines isn't worth the trouble when you can get
> a brand new Honda motor that has five times the horsepower
> at 1/20 the weight.  In my opinion, running an engine on her
> intended fuel is a glorious thing.  Yep.  Downright
> wonderful.
>
> Now what's all this about "reduced performance?"  Just
> curious.


John Culp
Bristol, Tennessee, USA