this antique Continental military engine made in 1959 was picked up on facebook market place in unknown condition for $50 lets see if its any good and if it will run?
My mom just passed away last Sunday. After over 10 years of my life revolving around her needs I am now completely lost. These videos have always brought me a sense of peace and I'm hoping the same right now. Thank you for your videos over the years Mustie.
Condolences to you and family my friend from uk wherever you may be 😢💔 mustie can get us thru a sunday tho keep your good practice to to still make most of your life plz your mom would of still needed best for you 💛💚💙💜💓
Mustie is the Bob Ross for therapeutic Sundays. Great demeanor and I love the way he teaches you in simple to understand terms. Great job on this engine. I hope it brings you joy for another application down the road.
i still would take all oils out and look are there any metals and look in side cylinder before starting grank it,and i dont care how old or cheap engine is if you do all right you can save it and give it to some one who needsthat or sell it forwards and make sure its also last long time.
The reason that your spark plug rattled after you reassembled it is because you didn't reinsert the spring that fell out when you turned it over after, you removed the screw inside the plug. The little rod that was then rattling around inside the plug is a carbon resistor, used to mitigate any R.F. interference that would mess with any nearby sensitive electronics. The resistor also explains the weaker spark across the plug, than with just the plug wire. If it were me, and I wasn't going to be using the engine around any sensitive electronics, I would remove the carbon rod and install a steel rod of the same length, find the spring that fell out unnoticed, and enjoy a much fatter spark at the plug gap.
I saw that piece come ot when he tapped it on the bench just after taking out the resistor, I could not make it out to be a spring as I was watching on a small screen phone and thought it was crud, unlike mustie to miss something like that.
These "military standard engines" are cool. They came in 1, 2, 3, and 4 cylinders, and the parts are interchangeable between them. They call use the same pistons, spark plugs/wires, they are made to run a constant speed for uses such as driving a water pump, or a generator... Good stuff!
Mustie1, retiring from the Military after 23 year many years ago and had to run small generators while in the field they only had 2 modes. Start with a fast idle and full throttle as they were built to run for days, weeks and longer. No low idle on any of them and the larger generators the same way. BTW air routed down was to help the engines run in extreme cold weather, I did both hot and cold weather training and the same generator was used for both as you take all your equipment with you.
I vote for a generator too, probably running something like battalion field comm. The shielded plug wire and plug would have reduced RF noise and a fancy governor would stabilize RPM. Running air past the muffler means they really worked at moving hot air past the oil pan. The fuel tank looks like aftermarket, probably farmer field expedient.
It's an 8 cubic inch with 1 1/2 hp, meant to run full tilt all day. It's like a 3 1/2 hp B&S lawn mower engine. The ones I have were built by Lycoming, the airplane engine maker to pretty much the same specs. That "muffler" might be a spark arrestor. The shrouded plug is to make sure it doesn't give any electronic noise that could be picked up by a radio, since it could be running a generator powering a radio about 2 feet away. I have 3 one cylinder, 3 two cylinder and 2 four cylinder engines, they all use the same cylinder, head, piston and con rod. The fuel pump is to pull from a G.I. 5 gallon gas can or other can. If the output shaft is tapered it would have driven a generator supporting the that end of the armature with the crankshaft bearing. This one seems to have an oil bath air filter on first two versions, next two versions have paper air filter.
@@OkieFarming Now it could be 14.6 CI HENKE 20-910. The military ones were designed to run all sorts of equipment to provide one inventory item. Mine are one + two + four cylinders all the power parts, head, valves, pushrods, cylinder, piston, rings, con rod are the exact same model. You can use a one cylinder unit on a four cylinder or the reverse.
I have a smaller military generator. A 12V one (engine by Lawson) made in 1944 for powering radio equipment. My dad and I used it when camping in the 70s. I last started it in 1999 with 20+ year old fuel in it! I wish I could ship it to you because It reminds me of my dad and I'd like to hear this relic from the past run once more. Since that probably won't happen, I've 'pickled' it by putting a few ounces of tranny fluid in the top end and may take it on myself one day based on the restorations I've seen here. Thank you for videos like this one. 👍
This engine was made in several versions. The one you are working on is a 1AO8, the others are 2AO16, 4AO32, 2AO42 and 4AO84. The first number of each series is the number of cylinders. These are referred to as a military standard engine, and the ratings are derated because the 4AO32 is rated at only 6 horsepower. The one you had in this video is 1-1/2 hp. Some websites claim the actual horsepower is between 18-20. The 4AO84 is sometimes used in experimental aircraft. The 4 cylinder engines have electric start on 24 volt, but certain BMW car starters can be made to start the engines, since they are 12v. The military standard engines are really nice in that they shared common parts, like pistons, valves and valve covers, etc.
The second number identified the size of the engine in cubic inches. The 1A08 was 8c.i., the 2A016 was 16c.i., and so on.. The series did share alot of common parts, and reminds me of the old Detroit 2 stroke diesel series.
18-20 h.p. sounds more correct for a 32c.i. four stroke engine. If it only made 6h.p., it would be a terrible design. I never did quite understand those wacky ratings. Maybe the 6h.p. would be correct in the absolute WORST conditions, with the poorest quality fuel. Who knows.. 🤷🏻
@@davelowets There are two ratings max. and continuous. a 2A042 engine, (2cylinder, 42 cubic inches) (@3600rpm) is rated at 10HP continuous, and 16.7 Max. Continuous ratings good to a max of 120F ambient temperature and 5000 feet altitude. HP output is more than just displacement. Valve size and timing, compression, cooling ablity etc. JD model M tractor is 100 CI but only ~13HP (@1600 rpm max).
Mustie1, Boy has your channel grown. I started watching you when you were fixing a floor fan you found on the side of the road. Jumping around to repairing your dads ice maker. The one that got me thinking about reworking my own garage into a repair "sort of" shop was you busting out the Porsche engine at your old shop at home. Ever since then I have been looking for small engines, real anything I can get my hands on to tinker with. Thanks for all these videos, I get having so many projects backlogged must make you have enough to do videos every day. Keep it going can't wait until you hit a million. Love that you keep your channel real on reflecting that we the viewers can break out the old toolbox and try wrenching ourselves....
That looks like the motor off of a portable compressor I used in the Army. It was mounted on a 2 wheel frame with handlebars. It had 2 long cylinder shaped tanks, paired with a wet sump 3 cylinder compressor, they put out enough CFM to run air tools for airframe repairs on the helicopters.
That plug is built that way to keep water from grounding it out as easily. We had engines like these for generators and pumps that we would use in tactical environments where noise can give away your position.
That engine appears to be set up for COLD weather running. The air heated by the head/exhaust is used to warm the oil. The overhead valves were FAR ahead of B&S engines of that time.
Dual fuel engines were commonly used in tractors back around WW2. They would be started on petrol, (gasoline), and allowed to get good and warm, at which point they could be switched over to paraffin, (kerosene). Strictly speaking the paraffin/kerosene was TVO, (tractor vapourising oil. Which had extra octane added, which had been extracted from heating oil). Petrol was taxed, TVO was not. Nice little engine.
Yes our farmal M was exactly that my Grandfather said the power was not as good as gasoline but the ration cards did not hit for gasoline, inner tubes, tires etc which were difficult to find
HISTORY TIME When I was a kid in the 1960s we had a pre-war John Deere B tractor that could run on 2 fuels, though by then it was run exclusively on gas. It was setup with 2 fuel tanks; the smallest was a gas tank and the larger tank would have been used to hold oil or kerosene or some mixture. By using only gasoline, it allowed the engine to start easily because you needed a warm motor to burn oil or kerosene. But for us, the big tank was used for gas and the small tank held a reserve of gas. (We started the John Deere tractor by manually turning the flywheel. We also had a Farmall M with an electric starter but could use a hand crank if necessary.) Now people think of dual-fuel to mean E-15 or E-85 blends of gasoline and ethanol, but it wasn’t always that way. Early diesel motors often used a small gas engine as a starter motor. Go to RU-vid channel Squatch253 for great information on starter motors. Diesels require heat and pressure to make diesel fuel combustible. We’ve come a long way in making electric starters and batteries stout enough to fire a diesel motor. Mustie made reference to “white gas” which my dad had to find to fire up his old blowtorch. When lead additives were removed from gasoline, what remained was essentially white gas. Lead was added to gasoline for many years to prevent engine knock. When lead was removed from gasoline for environmental reasons, other technology was required to reduce engine knock.
Yes in the early 40'ies my dad was working at a shop that would chop old Ford engines in half and turn them in to 2 cyl boat engines that could run on kerosene. Probably because of gas rationing due to the war
@@bigredgreg1 Same here. Grandpa had a Farmall B, H and Super M. All three started on gas, wait till the engine got warm and shut the gas off and turn the tractor fuel on. I got chewed out more than once for forgetting to shut the gas off after it started and also for trying to start it on fuel! Them was the days!
Regarding the direction of rotation: Forward-swept vanes are very common on centrifugal fans/pumps and kick the flow forward to create higher flow speed/volume at a given RPM, with the side effect of increased loading of the motor when inflow is restricted and unloading the motor when outflow is restricted. With backward-swept vanes, the fans/pumps have to spin much faster to create equivalent flow, but are fairly insensitive to flow restrictions and can create higher static pressure. Vanes that are flat and strictly radial have a flow characteristic in between the other extremes.
Looks kind of like part of a portable compressor I used in the army. When we worked on helicopters on the flight line, we could not use any electrical tools. I was a sheet metal structural repair guy and I had to drill out rivets often. It had two bottle type tanks with the engine on a two wheel dolly cart I could drag behind a tricycle with a flatbed for my toolbox. Pain in the butt to start with the wind up rope pull.
Good morning Mustie, haven't got into today's video yet but I wanted to say thanks for the long format videos. I really enjoy these longer deep dives. Coupled with the shorter mid week content it's great. Over the 9 years I've watched you have looked for a balance on video lengths but I think you've nailed it now. Here's to 9 more.
That spark plug looks very similar to some aircraft spark plugs I've seen. Given that the engine was made by Continental it's very likely that that's what it is
I'd love to see some motorized bicycle builds! Thanks for bringing back the long Sunday videos; the longer the better. So much cool stuff happening on the mustie1 channel! I've been watching for years and just can't get enough.
@Mustie1 There was a small spring that fell out of the spark plug just after you removed the pin out of it and then tapped it on the table you see the small spring Fallout and roll towards the vice grips which explains the rattle in it after putting it back together and maybe why it had weak spark after cleaning the points
Do what you can with what you have, that's the way my old man taught me. Watching you figure out and diagnose issues is an education and enjoyable, perfect sunday evening. Thank you!
Last thing first! the Camera! I LOVE it. No more anoying beeps!! And while it is odd for you to put us further away, It just mean you will be able to work your stuff without hiting us on the head!. First thing last, the motor is a blast! I've learn another thing again today. The way that carburator was working look a lot like an oldy I worked on 20+ years ago and I had so much trouble to make it idle. And now with your video I understood why I could not make it run like I wanted. As always, fun stuff to watch and keep on wrenching!
Cold War era. It was meant for extreme operating conditions in Siberia, were war to occur. The Germans learned in 1942-43 that the oil in their tanks would freeze locking them solid. They had to light fires under the chassis to thaw it out. That is the reason for the recirculated exhaust gas around the crankcase and oil pan.
Since the engine was made by Continental its made like one of their aircraft engines and they route the airflow over the cylinder head and cylinders first. also it has an aircraft type sparkplug. It is a relatively slow speed engine with a fairly limited rpm range. Designed for longevity and reliability.
Yep, but don’t forget that Continental engines sometimes have a nasty habit of cutting out when they get up to 10,000 ft, so remember to pack your parachute….
love your content buddy . love the RU-vid attention. and asking us what we want to do with questions . such great chill out videos . keep up the great work
Darren, I worked for nearly 10 years doing mechanical demolition on HVAC equipment, and it's not unusual to find squirrel cage fans with the blades seemingly backwards, but worked well as designed. Recently, I attempted to repair a draft induction fan for a water heater, and the blades also looked backwards.
The "second" muffler attachment point is actually where a spark arrester would me mounted. The front mounting pull start cup also doubled as a point where a crank handle could be inserted. Reminds me of an engine we used to have on the PMU-27s back in the day.
I love watching your videos! Since watching them I have fixed a carb on an old craftsman trac snowblower and 16hp kohler tractor motor. Thank you! When you were welding the nut to the plate, it looks like you’re grounding clamp is arcing against that vise grip. Keep up the awesome videos!
I wish you had run it with the additional muffler to hear the difference, if any. Anyway, a real nice sounding engine. It should be a keeper for another project someday. Great content!
I seem to remember seeing something like that engine in the mid 1960s as a kid. It was set up to be really quiet, and the warm air exhaust from the engine cooling goes under the engine to keep the oil warm enough in Arctic conditions. That's why the extra sheet metal and the fins on the bottom of the block. I think it was used to power a radio setup, with a gennie.
In my mind I was yelling this plus the carb that has the centre tube that the main jet sits in with fuel around it and draws fuel through the small fuel inlet port in the centre of the bowl wish I could explain it better hahha I wish I could tell him hahaha
Would explain the shielding all over it especially on the spark plug wire those would light up a nearby radio with noise otherwise especially those old very sensitive AM sets.
Yes but they were mostly two cylinder. There is a great video series where there recovered an old Bomber somewhere in the arctic. They brought everything In with a caribou rebuild it on site, when they where ready to fly out it could on fire because of a fuel leak right on that APU and burned to the ground. Sad story thoe
I love all your content (thanks for sharing it), but the bike builds are still my all-time favorites. I'd love to see another one of those someday. Best from Nashville, TN!
When you say " let`s hope it get spark" , I think is safe to say that we all hope it doesn't get any spark, so we can enjoy watching you finding out why!! 😁
Right on Mustie1, loving these revivals of old motors, especially military type. Would love to see you do a review of ALL the bikes you have built in a video. One by one explaining what and where and how, and get to hear them running and you riding them. Would be super cool. Would also be super cool to see you build another one using the current motor you just got running. Thanks for the great content and looking forward to your next wrenching vid. Cheers
Hi Mustie, been watching your videos for ages now and love them all but never commented. It was great watching you play with that old engine, as always, but…., that bike you showed at the end is just beautiful, it’s a work of art but with a purpose, it’s a masterpiece, the styling, the look, the component parts, all period, all in sync, you would never know that it was made from bits and bobs by some crazy geezer in a shed… stunning. Show us more, please….
That was definitely different! Those fans rely on the Sirocco effect, which on first sight seems counter intuitive, but once you get your head around the notion that air has mass, which is accelerated centrifugally to the tips of the fan blades, and given added impetus by the forward curl of the fan blade coupled with the mass of air behind, it all makes sense. There's a fair bit of science behind the way it works, but it's way more efficient than simple, straight bladed fans. Try running that style of fan in the opposite direction, and you get next to nothing coming off it.
I have a vintage Mortphy Richard’s “noiseless” centrifugal hair dryer - that the impeller spins the opposite way to the angle of the blades, towards the outlet
those plugs are still available, its an aviation / industrial style, designed for maximum electromagnetic interference suppression and weatherproofing. You see them in light aviation and old military jeep engines.. Not cheap, looks like they run 15 bucks. the little carbon plug you removed under the screw is a suppression resister, you will find the same thing in resistor spark plug boots.
Great video ! New camera; if you had not spoke about it, I would never have known. You always accomplish great quality video results. Thank you for all the time invested in bringing knowledge, and always a positive attitude to the channel.
You could try the old mechanics trick of cleaning a carbon fouled plug with a propane torch. It should be hot enough to burn off the carbon without harming the plug.
That little piece that came out of the spark plug is most likely a resistor. There was probably a tiny spring between it and the screw to keep it snug but it got lost somewhere along it's journey. It and the shielded plug lead were to reduce radio noise. Nice job!
Hold on, where does the spring go? I just took apart a weed whacker today and I found a tiny spring stuck to the magnet on the flywheel. It's working fine, but I'd like to know where it came from. Edit: nvm, my whipper snipper definitely did not have a spring in the spark plug
I've watched a ton of your videos and love every one of them, even the really old ones with the "not so good" cameras, lol! This new camera looks great! BTW, the return of the mid-week shorts are a welcome addition to your regular videos.
Another great video Mustie, i have a lot of old stuff that i tinker with being an ol body man people say why do you need all that stuff, because it keeps my mind and hands busy and i love it
Interesting little engine! Pretty good bet that the engines manufactured today will not stand the test of time like this one! Enjoyed you letting us help you walk through the steps of analyzing and getting it running...love you asking for our opinions on the process 😂! The new camera and audio quality were great. Thanks for sharing!
Not so, get the military stuff and do it per spec. The stuff has great longevity as most are diesel. Military has tech manuals on EVERYTHING. Snoop around on the internet, it's all out there ...
This whole setup looks like it's supposed to be an all weather enclosed system. The enclosed spark system. The tims around the oil pan to keep the oil warm in cold weather, like at high elevations. The baffle in the oil pan to keep a consistent oil level even at extreme angles, like on the deck of a Navy ship or aircraft. A tremendously good video mustie.
It's more a radio interference protection system than all weather protection system. So that engine probably was driving a generator for some field radio operations or on an aircraft.
@@ehsnils It's for both reasons. It has to run in the rain too... The engine is built by the Continental aircraft engine company, and uses the same ignition setup as their aircraft engine do.
I LOVE watching you build bikes - hint, hint. And build kit cars, and starting 40 yo engine, and dodging the cops on 3 wheeled meter maid trikes. Bikes, car, trains or planes, I'll watch you mess with it.
We had engines like that in the then, Rhodesia. Starts on petrol and then you can switch to paraffin (kerosene), Jet engine fuel You need to start on petrol and once it was warm swap to the cheaper paraffin. There were quite a few Fordson tractors converted to run like this. That is what the second fuel line is probably for.
That black cylinder held with a screw inside the spark plug...I think it may be some kind of resistor to suppress radio interference. Sometimes when resistors get old they increase their value, so that may be why it's messing with the spark.
One thing that I have found with that type of plug is, the ceramic that is inside of steel tube of the plug had a hair line crack near the base. You can also find a standard plug that will fit the engine.
That plug looks like a repurposed aircraft engine plug. Military equipment was designed, in general, to run as a closed system. The ignition system was isolated to protect against water intrusion. Multi-fuel engines were a much later development. Not something that would have been thought of back in 1959 beyond research and development. This is especially true of small general-purpose small engines like this. True multi-fuel engines for the military didn't really become part of the operational military world until the mid to late 1970s and then were almost exclusively used as truck or armored vehicle powerplants.
Would they retrofit older power plants with multi-fuel? I have seen a welder from the sixties that my grandpa had. It was a portable unit multi-fuel. I don’t know about military mechanic policy but if it was a good engine on thinks they might🤷🏽
My thoughts exactly on the spark plug, especially as that engine is made by Continental, it looks very much like a plug from one of their aircraft engines.
I always thought that those centrifugal fans would blow out only but I've actually seen quite a few of them that spin what I would consider the wrong direction. Turns out there are two different kinds of centrifugal fans. Forward curved and backward curved. If you look it up you can see the difference. Apparently this one is a forward curved one.
Imagine, instead of a propeller, you are trying to throw a bunch of ball bearing as fast as you can. With the centrifugal action the ball would roll along the inside curve of the blade, getting the most increase in speed by the time it leaves the outside of the blade. If the blade was shaped the other way, the ball would slow as it left the blade, rather than go faster. This is just the opposite of what you want it to do. Now, instead of the balls rolling along, just think of the air doing the same thing.
@@dwightelvey645 actually turns out there are two different types of centrifugal fans. Forward curved and backward curved. I had no idea. If you look it up you can see the difference. This one's obviously a forward curved fan
For an engine that old that would not start you made it pur like a kitten that was fantastic love your videos never miss one thank you and thanks for sharing and your time was really great.
That was freaking cool. I was dying when you were tuning it and stuff was falling off the drill press. I was worried about it falling off the bench and also wondering how close your hand was to that spinning chuck of metal you used to start it. That could remove a finger or knuckle in a flash. Are you familiar with what Cyclekarts are? That engine would look great in one.
I missed you for about 6 months. Not sure why your videos weren’t coming up. I finally seen one the other day. Thanks for the vid. I found myself talking back while watching, lol. Scary.
Another great video Mustie. For the fins on the flywheel, I would say imagining each one is like a cupped hand going through water. You would cup your hand in that same shape to push the water, and since it's going in a clockwise direction it would tend do push the water up towards the top of the engine. Also, the teardrop shape is much smoother on the left side, so I would guess that it's favoring that side of the faring to move the air up and through the fins.
21:20 My guess is this was something made to go in an enclosed space, like the back of a truck, so you'd want the air to be pulled from the inside of that space, and vented to the outside of the vehicle. That's why it has a exhaust flange past the internal muffler, that connected to an exhaust pipe to shunt the exhaust out of the vehicle, and same with the cooling air for the engine, if it somehow sprung an exhaust leak, you want all of that to be shoved out of the occupied area through some sort of porthole in the vehicle. That wouldn't be possible if it was pushing the cooling air over the engine, only if it was pulling air over the engine. 53:20 If my theory is correct, and the flywheel fan is PULLING air instead of pushing it, then that is the shroud which pulls air across the hot muffler to preheat the air for use in very cold situations, like fighting in below freezing temps.
The flywheel fan draws air in through the round hole in the flywheel cover, and then directs the air up and across the head, and straight out the other side of the cylinder. The air also takes a second path from the flywheel fan and gets routed through the tins across the bottom of the oil pan, keeping the oil cool during extended run times.
@@jimthesoundman8641 facing the crankshaft these rotate clockwise. The way it works is that it pulls warm air through a corrugated tube from the bottom of the motor passing by the exhaust up through and around the flywheel fan and then across the cylinder head. There should be a wax motor or a little flapper door which adjusts that air flow automatically. With the original tins it can pull air directly through the center where pull start rope with attach.
As a mechanic that has rebuilt many many carbs this had me squirming in my chair! Lol! But at the same time it was so cool to see you work through how it works!
@@WoodieCoalburner Yes, I suppose it’s “fun” for Mustie and for his viewers (like me) to soldier through it, but I don’t have his knowledge and skills, so I would take the path of least resistance and follow A-Lab comments to find the manual.
My first beetle would apparently run on kerosene (paraffin in UK) due to its low compression ratio, fortunately its owner (who worked with my father) lived near an airport, so the smell was less suspicious. With the foolishness of youth I chickened out of buying the ~1957 32hp car I was offered which had come from S. Africa and was absolutely immaculate in favour of his daily, a 1963 40hp car with fuel guage and other refinements. The auto choke later seized which made starting difficult and the car was sadly sold in 1970.
I would say you lost a tiny piece from the inside of the spark plug while tapping it to your bench. Maybe thats the Point why something was loose after reassambling. You can see it around 26:15 to 26:18 rolling away.
Captivating and inspiring as usual. About the camera. Seemed ok visually, AND, the audio lacks the faint beeping I always seem to hear. Thanks for your continued dedication to giving us quality content.
Hi there, Mustie1, I have been watching your channel for a little while now, but never commented (I don't think). I have learned a lot, by watching your videos, so Thanks. You describe things in a simple way for us dummies lol. But I have noticed that you have no problems, saying "well, I am not sure about this bit, if anyone knows, please leave a comment". This is not the norm, I remember when I did my trade, if anyone asked a question, and the teacher didn't know, some of them would mumble and grumble and not really answer anything, or worse, they would pretend to know and really stuff things up. So it is great to see someone Happy to say 'I don't know', And that in its self can spark a conversation going, which is Fantastic. Oh, I am a Leco by trade, so looking at all this mechanical side, is very interesting. So THANKS for the Education, and I am with you, I love the old engine, and it purrs like a kitten, and they just keep going, not like a lot of the machines of today. Take Care and Stay Safe, Oh and keep on Wrenching. We would call the Fitter and Turners "Spanner Heads", So keep them coming. Regards, Gordon - Australia
Designed to be Constantly Running. My son a NAVY mechanic says Hoover Dam motors/engines are NEVER STOPPED unless for servicing! Hoover Dam was finished in 1936 !
That is an awesome collection of bikes. I've got a few engines (Jetski Rotax 2 cylinder 2 stroke, and a 150cc GY6 moped motor) that i'd like to stuff into something cool like you did. Maybe a tricycle or something oddball. Keep up the great work as usual Mustie1. I was laughing quite a bit watching all the stuff fall off the bench when you were dialing in the carb lol
Thanks Mustie 1. Great observation with regards to the pull-start. You always come up with great content. The new camera is so much clearer. [ IRELAND ]
If you havent said it i wouldnt have noticed that it was a new camera. That said i am more interested in the content then the actual footage. Great job as always. Thank you.
