The engine ran last week on the 30th of January for the first time! After more than a few calls to Willem at Old Style Listers, everything was sorted out and we got the motor up and running. Overall, we put about 6.5 hours on the engine and everything seems to be bedding in ok. Willem reminded me that he had just put new piston rings in the motor so we loaded it with the generator and left it to run in. At first there was a bit more smoke than we expected but about the 4 hour mark the smoke output decreased which I can only assume is due to the rings bedding in. We are dealing with some cold starting issues and have a new injector on the way from Willem in Washington State. The generator set is putting out 240 volts as it should and we plan to test the voltages at all the outlet boxes and the panel this week.
A real crucial lesson was learned in engine dynamics this week. We had constructed the mounting platform for the motor out of 4x4 steel I-beam and topped it with ½ inch or 3/8 inch mild steel plate. All of the plates were stitch welded every 8-10 inches and we thought that this would be plenty. We were wrong. If you consider copying anything from this concept please take heed the following advice: fully weld all steel parts together as much as possible. Consider braces for any elevated pieces such as our grist mill and seed press.
The reason for the bracing and extra welding is the engine vibrates A LOT. Not any more than it is designed to but you have to consider that this is still 90% technology that predates WWII. So, long story short after removing the upper rubber washers from the engine bolts and fully welding the steel plates to the I-beam frame, the vibration calmed down by about 80%.
The other breakthrough is the cooling system. I was very concerned that we would get little to no convective cooling with the radiator almost horizontal to the mounting surface. The pleasant surprise that we found it the motor not only is circulating coolant as we hoped, it is putting out enough heat to certainly provide radiant heat or bathing water to any platform users. Where we still need some work is in sorting out the temperature switch for the cooling fan. We could not get an appropriate switch to work with the “hot-rod” car style electric fan we sourced. Attempt #2 is going to use a surface mount contact switch that commonly is used on a pellet stove.
The coming days will be spent vetting the electrical system, getting the additional tensioner pulleys sorted out and lining up some seeds to crush. Hopefully we will be able to attempt running the seed press with some cotton seed sometime next week.
