[SEL] Campbelltown Steam Museum Rally

Patrick Livingstone patrick.livingstone at gmail.com
Mon May 21 15:59:31 PDT 2012


It is most likely individual engine dependant rather then a specific problem
to all engines. One of our club members has a Blackstone that will run slow,
all day no matter what the air temp while other Blackstones are very touchy
on temperature. My 3.5hp Austral will keep running through anything
providing I have managed to get some temperature in it early.
Funnily enough I have run the 3.5hp on a 48c day and it was fantastic. I
slowed it down until the flywheels pretty much stopped before the engine
fired. It is the only time I have ever managed to run it so slow.
One of the great sights in Austral land was the R-T centenary rally where
there were around 300 sideshaft Australs. It was a sunny day and everyone
had slowed down their engines but mid-afternoon a cool breeze sprang up and
almost all the lamp Australs stopped almost simultaneously.
I will do some experimenting and hopefully get the 5.5hp running a lot
longer without cooling off.
Patrick



On 22/5/12 2:44 AM, "Rob Skinner" <rob at rustyiron.com> wrote:

> 
> On May 21, 2012, at 8:29 AM, Arnie Fero wrote:
> 
>> G'day Patrick,
>> 
>> Any chance these engines were really continuous lamp (despite
>> what the adverts said)?  8-)
> 
> 
> 
> I think the problem is that Australs are hit and miss governed, and we run
> them with no load. Under no load, there are so many revolutions between
> firing, that the vaporizer does not maintain proper temperature. Ronaldson &
> Tippett must have realized there were issues, as they utilized an ³ignitor
> coil² to aid ignition. My experiments with different materials and
> configurations of the ignitor coil concluded that it doesn¹t do a whole lot.
> 
> I¹ve seen other vaporizing oil engines exhibit the same behavior on cold,
> windy days. Australs just do it on warmer days, as well. Perhaps the Australs
> were designed to run under typical Australian conditions, but I¹ve never had
> the opportunity to run an engine at 45 degrees Celsius.
> 
> --
> Rob Skinner
> www.rustyiron.com
> 
> 
> 
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Patrick M Livingstone
0418 692013
Earlwood NSW
http://www.oldengine.org/members/pml/Index.html







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