[SEL] RE: Castings/now hot bulb engines

[Russell Gilbert]

>One little danger with these engines is the fuel valve. As
>the engine governs on the non-opening of this valve prolonged exposure of
>the valve spring to heat can lead to the excitement of the engine taking
>off. I have seen this happen with both Australs and Blackstones and it is
>heart-stopping.

Heart stopping is putting it mildly Patrick. This has happened to me with 
the very first time of starting my 6.5hp Blacky. There was no warning of 
this happening as all the fuel valve assembly looked fine. It had even been 
pulled apart, cleaned up and re-assembled. The first few tries my engine 
didn't start. I made a new coil for the bottom section of the hot bulb out 
of thin sheet metal. once this was done gave it another go. It made the 
difference for the engine as it soon fired up. When it first made a few 
puffs I had the usual smiles one get when bring one of these old girls back 
to life. However the smile soon left as the revs moved up and with no 
apparent way to shut the engine down; my smiles quickly went as one was 
wondering do I just run; or stay and try to and calm the old girl down. 
After shitting myself for a few seconds it was obvious I had to save the 
engine. It was my pride and joy old motor etc etc. I had a friend with me; 
(btw; this thing was really starting to pick the revs up big time!) we 
pulled the fuel line out of the tank thinking that it will run out quick 
enough, Wrong, they don't need much to fire. Fuel bowl was to hot to remove 
as was other parts. We grabbed some pliers to try hold the valve shut. No 
good, the small-ish pliers were to hard to get a decent hold onto the part. 
Went for a bigger pair of pliers and luck was on our side as we managed to 
get a good grip. The spring on the valve started to crush a little allowing 
the pliers to bite in on the valve better and it slowed down nicely to a 
holt. One then went and wiped away the stained undies. Got a few shots of 
bourbon into the system and left the engine alone for a little while. I 
think all this happened about the time on the SEL we were chatting about 
exploding flywheels etc about 4 years ago. Well I can smile about it now 
and talk about my 1000rpm blacky. From all this I guess could come a 
question for any oil engine gurus as to how would they (if there is an easy 
way) shut down a hot bulb engine like the Ronnies and blacky's if they ran 
away like that.

Russell



Russell Gilbert
Sunny Sunraysia
russell at ncable.com.au
http://community.webshots.com/user/russellsrelics