Hey all! I had a large 2 stroke engine dropped off at the shop the other day. Feller said he couldn't get it going. So I'm going to give it a shot! I tear into this old girl and see what makes her tick, or doesn't I suppose lol.
I’m 71 yrs old and back in the 50’s and 60’s when I was a kid my great grandfather lived in an oil and gas company house on Oil Ridge Tyler County WV. His job was to keep the massive meaning HUGE hit and miss engine running he also oiled the belts that ran several pumping stations off of the flywheel of the hit and miss engine. The main belt ran a pulley that ran other belts that went to the pumps. It was a pretty amazing thing to see for a little kid, the engine could be heard for miles. In the late 60’s the operation was converted to electric motors for the field pumps and my great Gran Pap had to move into town and lived with my grandmother. He had some amazing stories about the old hit and Miss engine. Those days in the USA were amazing.
I would be willing to bet, that people who first saw these were in awe! I also think it will not be long till modern society, not having been exposed to these machines, will be just as in awe!!!
Great story. In the 1980's I lived in a village on the lower Yukon River in Alaska where I ran the power utility. A guy, who lived at a fish camp about 30 miles downriver had a failed Lister diesel generator and asked me for help. He took me by boat to the camp and I determined that the voltage regulator had failed. Sitting next to the Lister, in the generator shack, was an early 1930's horizontal, single cylinder, 15 kW Whitte diesel generator. I asked him about the unit and he said he never saw it run in his 35 years, but his dad, who was deceased at that time, had told him that there was nothing wrong with it. I filled up lubricating oil cups, bled the fuel line and filled the fuel priming cup with diesel, I found and opened the compression release and started spinning one of the flywheels, closed the compression release and off it went without hesitation. I initially couldn't get it to generate, so I stopped the machine, and arced the field with a car battery. Upon restarting, it generated, and I easily adjusted governor and voltage regulator to 60 Hz, 120/240 volts. It had a 50-pole alternator and turned at 144 rpm. He used it for a few months, until he got the Lister repaired, and said it ran flawlessly the entire time.
I'm not an engineer, nor a mechanic, but I found this fascinating. The way you have explained everything and the detail you went into was absolutely brilliant! Thank you so much. 😃
The part that got the tears from laughing flowing for me was when he said "if you've got one of these at home.......it is possible to blow one of these up by doing an air start" Priceless.
Surely there is a better method of turning rod without chewing up the rid with a monkey wrench??? WTH, damn, even a piece of thick cloth would be better than nothing??? Regards from South Africa
Remove the head and then turn the piston. You don’t want to damage the rod. A damaged rod will ruin the packing. A horse cock which is like a sleeve protects the packing when the rod is pushed through the packing. I have done this to dozens of reciprocating compressors which are similar.
As an old ships engineer I must say your explanations are excellent. I did not had any knowledge of this kind of two stroke gas engines, how to time them or hot pipes. In an other video I learned about hit and mis engines, magnetos and how to re-magnetize them. You do this better than every teacher I had. One remark, the rod between crosshead and the piston we called the piston rod. You probably already knew this (sorry).
That was the first time I had heard a good explanation of a hot tube and timing. Nice instruction! Loved the CAD (Cardboard Aided Design) visual aids. It was cool (hot?) to see how the length makes a difference. It was almost like a diesel pre-chamber. Thanks.
Thanks for the once over on that giant 2 stroke. I understood much of what you explained only because im somewhat familiar with 2 stroke engines. The hot tube is something like a glow plug on a diesel engine I'm guessing but you lost me a bit on the sizing of it, I'm going to go back and watch again to see if i missed something. I love old engines and appreciate the time you took explaining this one. Pretty cool how you timed this engine and i would really like to see that governor in action and see exactly how that comes into play. Thanks again
Spotted that straight away too.🤠 And the big tool on the con rod eating it.... Though I'm sure it had plenty of marks already... The wobbly input valve.. That didn't look right, the empty oilers.... Flippin eck, I'd be a nightmare in there....
LOL....I was waiting for a misfire and it sending you flying through the garage when you were trying to kick start it.....wise choice using that air bump start.....great job getting it running
Great tutorial/instructional video on the explanation of how those engines work. Taking the head off, Taking the valve off and showing the intake and exhaust ports. Gives one a much better understanding of the engine internals. Thank you for this video.
EXCELLENT! THANK YOU for the detailed explanation of the parts of this engine and how it (engine) and they function. MOST RU-vid engine channels omit this 👎 Your very detailed explanation is VERY helpful to those of us who are not experts. PLEASE do more videos in this manner. 👍👍👍
You have done a great job again, I am sure your friend will appreciate the work you put into getting the engine running, it would be nice to see her again after you finish the fine tuning, to see how easy a start you can achieve, and if you give your buddy a crash course in air starting.
Great video! Thank you for posting! I worked for Cooper-Bessemer (Cooper Energy Services) in the 70's - 80's. Never saw anything about the Bessemer engines, even though I spent time in the Grove City 'Bessemer' plant.
The longer the hot tube, the more advanced the timing. That tube seems to be too long and ignition is starting well before TDC. It also makes it very unforgiving to start. I'd go back to that 6" now that you have it running and see how it behaves.
I'm 62 years old and lived on a farm as a kid but, never delt with such machinery as this. We did have an old tractor,( brand escapes me), with steel spiked wheels that a wide belt ran from the side of the engine area to a large cutting wheel/table combo behind it that we used to clear our land of trees and cut them into logs. So, I never experienced these combustion engines like this but I sure as hell am amused and love watching these videos! You got a new viewer for as long as you do your work on them. Thanks for letting me learn about how things work from the past.
I have loved old steam and hit and miss engines since my childhood. Thanks for clarifying with detail on how they work. Fascinating how they produced power from this in 1899. Thanks for sharing.
Well, I'm 62, and my first tractor was a model H "Poppin John" which was ancient when I was 20. It could be used to back into a 6 or 8" drive belt and become a stationary engine to drive a cane mill. Even though it was tiny tractor, it had incredible torque.
The small one I was Building was a 6 stroke - fired on both ends the piston has 2 plugs or ignition sites. Runs on Propane and air. has a large wheel and a smaller wide wheel. Somewhat like this but different. Complex timing. Nice explanation. Called a "Merry"
Thanks for the video, fun stuff! It looks to me like the counter rocking of the trailer was one of the reasons it was so hard to get it going. It was losing a LOT of momentum moving that trailer which would have gone into piston movement otherwise. Just an engineer's quick observation. Great video!
Looks like the trailer movement is making the engine run uneven. Anyway, it was good to learn about the timing issue with the hot tube. I guess it is not just the length but also the temperature that affects the ignition point. There are many variables to get right as you demonstrated, the gas pressure and the strength of the inlet valve spring. I assume that each engine needed to be adjusted to suit the conditions at each oil well, back in the day. I wonder if any of the old boys that kept them running are still around? I imagine the magneto was added to take some of the timing guesswork out of the equation. I suppose the hot bulb ignition needed a constantly running blowlamp? The air start was pretty dicey but better than seeing you run the risk of getting mangled in the flywheel. Good interesting video.
Pretty cool machine, though a bit scary. Regarding starting the engine, as a EE, I would put a solenoid on the gas line, an opto-interruptor to pick up the 6 radial arms, and one to pick up a single reflector on the rim to detect the phase of the flywheel. Then I'd connect them to an Arduino programmed to open the solenoid based on the rotation of the wheel. Basically automating with precision, what he is trying to do by eye.
Good video! A museum has similar engines they run once a a year. Their engines are larger I think. The museum is at Gossel , Kansas. The only thing i'd make was a comment on the flat belt pulley , maybe a photo if I could find one.
My grandpa Roy janes owned an old Bessemer engine almost identical to this one. It is now at the scottville engine club on display there. It always ran that I could remember but his was black. I always remember the plaque on the side my grandpa made that said “big ole bess”
Looks like the exhaust release ramp on the piston clears the exhaust port first allowing the expanded exhaust gases to start exiting and scavenge the cylinder before the inlet port opens for the transfer port. To have to remove the spring from the inlet valve, either air is being drawn into the induction chamber past the piston rod or exhaust gases drawn past the rings. Probably
When you were on top with the engine running, it's sounds like that slide block is dragging pretty bad (i.e. insufficient lubrication) and I noticed some of your oilers are empty. Would probably be a plan to get some water in it to keep from making hot spots, which will also affect your ignition timing, and pull the torch off of it after it starts, so you can get a more accurate fuel mix. It seemed like it was awfully hard to turn by hand (also related to the slider). Pretty nice old engine though. Good catch on the port timing.😉
The noise your hearing are the outriggers on the trailer scraping the floor. I was hand oiling everything. The engine was pretty dry when I got it, so I was applying liberal amounts of oil to free it up, instead of relying on the oilers.
Golley, I didn't know Ridgid made rusty pipe wrenches. OOoooppps, I believe that is a workman that doesn't care for his tools..... LOL I was ready to go buy one but maybe I'll wait. Thanks for the intro.
one thing I noticed, is that the way the propane is introduced into the intake valve via the multiple ring of holes directly under the sealing flange of the valve........the pressure of the supplied propane is actually helping to lift the valve open. The hot tube concept is eerily similar to the pre-combustion chambers that were common on diesels for some decades.
The hot tube antedates full Diesels. It was invented by Akroyd Stuart, which is why both he and Dr. Diesel are credited with the invention of the compression ignition engine.
This was really informative I just bought a Bessemer from a guy in Lakeville Ohio Tuesday it is rough and missing the serial tag and governor as near as I can tell it is a 20 hp
Yes I did. In the late 90s bill patton in millersburg was still running some wells in the killbuck valley with Bessemer engines dad took me down and bills helper started a few of them up for us
Dad bought a 20 and a 25 from him in 1998 or so and I don’t know what happened to it but mom took a video of them getting loaded dad sold them after not doing anything with them about 10 years ago and I have wanted to find one for a while it is stuck but I will get it freed up eventually and hopefully can get it to run I have not taken any of it apart yet but I don’t see any cracks on the water jacket
Near here in south western Ontario, we have places that have sour gas wells that produce a mixture of oil, gas and water. They use pump Jack's and a more modern type of the same engines that run day and night, off the gas from the well. Thanks for a quite informative video. One thing I'm a bit puzzled about is when you took the head off there were obviously, by the rust, water jacket passages around the cylinder. At first I thought the red valve, you subsequently used for the air start, was for the water jacket supply. At no time, other than your "diagram", did you mention a cooling system. Presumably there must be a cooling tank that would be connected to the jacket and feed cooled water by a thermal syphon system. I'm familiar with old petrol engines that had a cast tank surrounding a vertical cylinder which needed to be topped up constantly or, as my father did on our farm in Zambia, connect a 45 gallon drum next to the engine and it would replenish, via a ball valve, enabling the engine to run all day or until the fuel ran out. Regards from Canada's banana belt. 🤞🇨🇦🍌🥋🕊🇺🇦🕊🇺🇸👍
Never been to any type of these shows but I love engines. Crazy how big that thing is and it makes 15 hp, sure it makes tons of torque. We've come a long way in just over a 100 years.z
great video.. from Tyler County, WV and was around a lot of these but was too young then to understand them..come on down to the Oil n Gas Festival in Sistersville
Great explanation! I recently got a 25 and have been wondering how it works. The valve is missing so I was going to make one out of 1/2" brass but after watching this it might be better to make one a little lighter.
Most informitive video on these old engines I have seen yet. Grest job and very cool engine. Is it hit and miss or does it fire on every stroke no matter the load?
I was 40 years a mechanic and have to say you are a hell of a man. I really hate to see you wrestling with something that was a piece of junk even when it was “new”, but I understand why you can’t walk away from it too, you just have to show it who’s boss.
