Fairbanks Morse - First smoke

[EBI-WPO]

Looks like a candidate for a wood gas project.

Terry

[cschuerm]

Glad y'all are enjoying the pictures.  I made a good bit of progress on the teardown today.  My back is killing me though.  Some of those bolts were REALLY on there and even with a 3 foot breakover, it took some serious pulling and heat with a torch to get the head nuts off.
Bottom end looks fantastic other than a few decades of accumulated sludge.  The valves and guides are shot.  Well over an eighth of an inch of slop.  Amazing that these old engines will run when they get like that.  Low stresses and low thermal loads are always good.  An aircraft engine would have burned those valves up long long before they got that worn.  The butterfly shaft in the carb was almost funny it was so worn out.  Nothing a little work on the mill and lathe won't fix though.  Cylinder bore looks exceptionally good.  That piston is huge!  About the size of a gallon paint can :-)
More pix to follow.  I realized after posting the last ones that I'd used high resolution on the camera.  Should I drop to 640x480 or do you all enjoy the higher rez images?

Chris

[cschuerm]

I hadn't really considered wood gas.  That's an interesting idea and I do have a lot of wood.  (heat my house entirely with wood).  Oh great... another project... like I really needed that! 
chris

[rcavictim]

That hi-res is fine for me.  With no intake air filter I'm not surprised at the valve guide wear.  I see what looks like bolt holes to put some sort of air filter box over the intake valve springs and all on the head photo.

Is the piston cast aluminum or iron?

[billswan]

The resolution is fine here, but for our members stuck with dial up, well..............

Billswan

[BioHazard]

I'm very jelous of your machine. I'm shocked it doesn't have an air filter? Do you know when your engine was built? Keep the pics coming.....

[mbryner]

Don't do 640x480.  At least 800x600.  Great machine!

[cschuerm]

The large round can in the carb photo is the air cleaner.  It's an oil bath style similar to what you'd find on an older tractor.  Exposed valve stems were common on all old engines.  The parts manual doesn't show that they had a cover over them.  Piston appears to be cast iron.  I believe this engine was built in the 1950's.  Hoping to find someone with a serial number list so I can confirm exact date.
I'll try to get a few pix of the internals this evening.

Chris

[rcavictim]

Chris,

I don't know how I had the mistaken notion that somehow the intake air would be passing through the intake valve springs.  I guess it was because without a rocker arm actuator this assembly works exactly like a reed valve and THAT is where the air would travel in such a case. 

An engine of this large displacement would gulp a prodigious slug of air every intake stroke and that amount of air needs as unimpeded path as possible since it is only atmospheric pressure moving it.  You wouldn't get that kind of flow impeded by partially closed valve springs.  The space between the spring coils closes in fact when the air is required to flow in this case.

Some days I truly am so broke I can't even pay attention! 

[cschuerm]

350 cubic inches....one hole....

[cschuerm]

Definitely a beefy bottom end.  Notice the interesting little collars on the gears with the oil hole in top to feed lube to them.  There is a tray in the bottom of the case where the whole rod hits the oil to splash lube everything.  I also just figured out that the cylinder assembly is removable.  There are giant nuts inside the case which hold the cylinder on.

[cschuerm]

A few random pix of some of the other engines inhabiting my shop...
The second pic is a 6HP IHC "M" that I rescued.  It was sunk in the mud in the back of a barn and was a total rust ball.  Took 6 months to get the piston out.  Certainly a labor intensive restoration as *everything* had to be re-worked.
The center engine in the third pic (green one) is a Fairbanks type Z hopper cooled with a Fairbanks "Typhoon" water pump.  Fun to watch - lots of fascinating monkey motion.
Last pic is my prize.  It's a very rare 10HP McCormick Deering "M".  It ran the nitroglycerin plant in Pawhuska Oklahoma from the 20's till after WWII.


Chris

[billswan]

Chris

Love all the old iron, I have a relative that also collects those critters he would really love to see your collection.

Back on the pix of the head. What lubes the exhaust rocker and the roller on the tip? If the engine is pumping crude all by itself is a once a week shot of oil enough? I suppose at about 150 movements per minute may be that would be enough??

Billswan

[cschuerm]

Billswan,
The manual recommends that the rocker components lubricated with an oil can once per day if the engine is in continuous operation.  I suspect very few get that level of attention.  The parts are so massive and slow moving that I guess it doesn't matter much.  Manual specified .030" clearance on the rocker arm.  Mine was running with over a 1/4 inch of slop.  That was one of the reasons I wanted to run it briefly before rebuilding - just to see if I could really tell any difference.  Wish I'd have had some way of putting a calibrated load on the engine to see if power output was actually down by an appreciable amount. 
Chris

[BioHazard]

350 cubic inches....one hole....

I think I'm going to wait for the 2100ci inline six.