General control line discussion > Open Forum

Is it time to bring out the Diesels?

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John Park:

--- Quote from: Dennis Toth on May 08, 2021, 10:01:45 AM ---John,
Interesting information. What part of the engine was bored out - shaft or piston bore? I like the idea of adding say 5% castor with the mineral oil. You indicated home heating paraffin, is this what we in the US would call No. 2 heating oil? For comparison No.2 oil (diesel fuel in the US) has an auto ignition temperature of 510F (265C), kero's AIT is 428F (220C). With that base fuel you need significantly higher compression which bets up on the bearings. If you run higher ether content you could use less compression and save the bearings.

Attached is a simple Excel spreadsheet that lists various starter fluids and their ether content (from MSD sheets) plus a sheet on different chemicals used in our fuels with as much info as I could dig up.

Best,    DennisT

--- End quote ---
Dennis:
In the 1950s and '60s, Progress Aero Works (PAW) offered an invaluable service whereby engines with a worn bore would have an oversize piston fitted and the bore honed to a proper fit.  The service was cheap and fast, and many people found what I did: when the rebored engine was properly run-in, it started better and had more power than ever before.  They rebored two engines for me, both of which still start and run very well despite a lot of use back in the old days.
I recall that the ether you could buy over the counter in the 1960s was called 'technical ether' or 'ether solvent', to the British specification BS579.  It was supplied as a chemical reagent for laboratory use, and wasn't refined to the same degree as anaesthetic ether, which made it cheaper.  Paraffin was freely and cheaply available - every gas station had a pump that dispensed it - and was commonly used in domestic heaters: it burned very cleanly and was practically odourless, and I imagine it would have been equivalent to your No. 2 heating oil.
I've just remembered - the first diesel I ever owned was a second-hand ED 'Bee' (1 cc.), which turned out to be worn and hard to start: I understood why when its late owner told me he'd been running it on a mixture of half-and-half anaesthetic ether and 'Redex' upper cylinder lubricant!

Regards, John

FLOYD CARTER:
Howard.  In spite of my extensive engineering background, I sometimes go far afield and dabble in model airplanes and stuff like that.  I hope the engine experts (and all others) on these forums will bear with me as I explore arcane subjects like model airplane motors.  (I would never venture into the Wing Turbulator issue).

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