semi diesels

[Silkie]

Not sure why (unless it's related to the length of time since my last sailing fix) but I've recently gone a bit potty about these very slow revving engines, max power at 3-400 revs.

Maybe it's the palaver involved in starting them (first find your matches)

[youtube]http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=GSlpxmlWkV0[/youtube]

or the tricks they can do (watch the flywheel)

[youtube]http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=1H6XOSkAuFI[/youtube]

or just the glorious noise (some fine boat handling in this - the handle he's winding controls the pitch of the prop)

[youtube]http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=jBOJ779LtBM[/youtube]

or the element of danger (I was waiting for this to expode and kill or maim all those within range - first time it had been started in 20 years but the crankcase had been over-filled and it was burning oil.)

[youtube]http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=AG1MnXkHhlM[/youtube]

[Telo]

I have never started one of these things but I've seen it done in the 60s when I vaguely knew a bloke called John Gray who came from around Kentallen way as I recall. He was a well known character with a climb named after him on Gearr Aonach (presume he did the first ascent, can't remember, all my old climbing guidebooks are in the attic, or somewhere).

Anyway, he bought an old Danish fishing boat (100 tons? ....does that make sense?) which he renamed he "Eala Dubh", the Black Swan. It had a single cylinder diesel engine, which I think was manufactured in 1906, and which would have been about the same time as the boat was built. He used it as a coastal trader taking bulky or heavy supplies out to the islands, hay, cement, coal, timber, building materials and suchlike. The engine was so slow, that with a reasonable breeze from abaft the beam, the old canvas sails were more effective, or so it was said.

Starting the engine was a bit of a palaver; there was an integral paraffin blowlamp that was attached to, and pointed at, the engine casing. This had to get going to heat up the whole clamjamfery, and then, at the critical moment, no idea what constituted it, the Man Who Knew would attempt spin the flywheel whereupon the thing was meant to cough into life, which it sometimes did. It wasn't the sort of engine that you'd just switch on while you dropped the sails at the harbour entrance.

Sadly, I never had the chance to sail on her, and I believe that the "Eala Dubh" departed this world in true Viking style.

Incidentally, I see that Aja reckons you're losing the place a bit....

[FullCircle]

So the old Yam outboard is getting to you? Quite right, smelly thing.

Mrs Full Circle's ex collected this sort of thing - I had to sort the garage out when they sold the house. Unfortunately, he never really put any of them to work, which is a bit like caging an animal.

I had a Panther 600 Sidecar in me yoof which was engineering anarchy, and my trick on my Scrambles Bantam was to advance the timing and start it up backwards and ride round the paddock sat on the handlebars. Those 2 pieces of machinery, when taken with the fact that my Dad bought a Perkins 25hp outboard for me to race with, meant that I am now eternally attracted to kit that works efficiently.

I love my Yanmar 3YM30, its a peach of an engine.

[sahona]

Excellent, dave.
I assume that's the same type that the-three-men-in-a-boat-in-Ireland couldn't start.
Jim, I had a Panther600 as well - no sidecar though, terrible solo m/cycle! My mate had a Jawa 2-stroke which had an intermittant habit of starting in reverse, so you had to be careful with the first clutch action. He managed to get it up to 3rd gear backwards once.

[FullCircle]

I had a Panther600 as well - no sidecar though, terrible solo m/cycle!
My mate had a Jawa 2-stroke which had an intermittant habit of starting in reverse, so you had to be careful with the first clutch action. He managed to get it up to 3rd gear backwards once.

Respect you rufty-tufty Scot you. Anyone who even thought of riding a Panther solo needed his bumps felt. We used ours, and a later ES2 sidecar as the carrier of mountains of spares for getting to bike rallies.

The Jawa 350? You mixed in some exalted circles. I did fettle a CZ250 which went well except the really lazy gearchange and the foot long gear lever.
An MZ250 was a surprisingly rapid tool.

But mainly I had the GT380 Suzuki and a Matchless G9 for work, an RD250 for racing and a Triumph T110 chopper with 18" overstock forks.Ahem. Oh, and a screaming tuned Puch Maxi that did 50mph but went bang a lot.

[Silkie]

So the old Yam outboard is getting to you? Quite right, smelly thing.

Wash your mouth out with soap young Jim. I won't hear a word against The Venerable Yamaha.

[Silkie]

Among others I had an MZ TS250 sport which looked remarkably like this one although mine was slightly more cherished.

[youtube]http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=L40ZLNpEiD8[/youtube]

[Nick]

.
I had one of these beasts as well - found the noise in the video very nostalgic.

[Aja]

I played on the beach and up the Forestry Commission trails with one of these. Not devastatingly fast or anything but for 100cc it really had enough grunt.



Donald

[FullCircle]

Pedant Mode: You probably had the TS100, with 5 speeds, the TC-100K was a US product with 4 and switchover.

I worked for Suzuki GB in 1975. Interesting Suzuki fact: All the internals for the engines were interchangeable, but they charged different amounts, as we took them out of a crate, and put them in different resale boxes.
Thus, a TS 100 piston, rings, small end, conrod, was one half of a GT185. My GT380 had 3 x TS125 pistons. It was quite a little marketing empire.

[Aja]

Sorry - you were right it was the TS. Now you have got me going back to my biking days now.....

Ahhhh Honda CBs
[YouTube]<object width="445" height="364"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/u990av-dwmw&hl ... ram><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/u990av-dwmw&hl ... 1&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="445" height="364"></embed></object>[/YouTube]

or whatever...

Donald

[Rowana]

Fred Drift !

How did we get to bikes?

Anyway, if you want a REAL marine engine, here's one -
110 rpm full chat, 7000 HP from 6 cylinders. No clutch or gearbox, so when you wanted to go astern, the whole engine went into reverse. You get an idea of the size by the 3 guys on the bottom, middle & top plates.




As fitted here -



I sailed on this ship for over a year. 16,000 tons of oceanic splendour !

Not sure how you do the video thing, but have a look at this. It's in the diesel museum in Copenhagen, and was the largest diesel engine in the world for about 20 years

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RBeI7YN ... re=related" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Silkie]

I feel a FAQ coming on. Stand by.

[FullCircle]

Pah, tis nought but a moped lump.

Here is a big engine, in fact, the biggest, at the moment.

[Silkie]

FAQ