[SEL] Hot tube material

[Steve Gray]

Hi George -

   Dwight Vivas just beat me to the response on this. Dwight nailed it 
on the head as this hot tube is only used to start the engine, being 
heated by a blow torch only until the engine is running. The tube 
(pipe), Dwight, is 1/2". Mine is much shorter than it's supposed to be, 
nothing more than a close nipple with a pipe cap. The previous owner 
used to have occasional trouble getting the Y running, and I suspect 
with such a short pipe that he couldn't get it hot enough being that 
short and close to the head. Anyway, George, though not having a nice 
true hot tube ignition engine  :-(  , I'm sure the true hot tubes are 
longer than what I should have on this engine. My Y is also a 25 HP, 
Dwight. Serial number has it at 1919.

- Steve

-- 
Steve Gray
Member EDGE & TA, Br. 13, 27 & 49
Sonora, California USA
e-mail:   segray at mlode.com
Home page:   http://www.oldengineshed.com



George & Norma Armstrong wrote:

>Steve,
>  Oddly the tube does not act like a glow plug but rather acts as a small
>ignition chamber as the gas/air mixture is driven into it by the piston.
>The length of the hot tube determines the timeing  of the engine so you may
>not want to use a "short stub" of a tube.  The tubes we use on a Pattin, a
>Reid and a Bessemer vary from 5" to 6" in length and some of them we use are
>stainless tubing with a screwed on stainless cap; items that should be
>easily purchased.  Ours are from a local steel mill which uses these items
>in their coke batteries and continuous casters.  They work very well.
>George
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Steve Gray <segray at mlode.com>
>To: The SEL email discussion list <sel at lists.stationary-engine.com>
>Date: Monday, May 02, 2005 3:07 PM
>Subject: Re: [SEL] Hot tube material
>
>
>  
>