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This is an instructable on how to change the camshaft timing so that you can run a push mower engine on steam/compressed air you can usually pick up these engines really cheap or free
I am entering this instructable in the hack it! challenge and the mad science fair so so would love the vote's if you like it
I am entering this instructable in the hack it! challenge and the mad science fair so so would love the vote's if you like it
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Signing UpStep 1Tools
wrench or socket set
hacksaw
screw driver set
welder ( if you give the camshaft to a friend with a welder or someone who takes shop in school they should be able to do it with ease)
hammer (optional helps with stubborn things that get stuck)
hacksaw
screw driver set
welder ( if you give the camshaft to a friend with a welder or someone who takes shop in school they should be able to do it with ease)
hammer (optional helps with stubborn things that get stuck)
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To get power comparable to the engines rated output, you have to use air or steam at pressures comparable to that developed in the cylinder during combustion, or around 4-500 psi for a typical gasoline engine. The valve spring doesn't stand a chance at that kind of pressure.
If you are using the spark plug hole, you can use a simple ball check valve, actuated by a stud fitted to the piston. Piston gets close to TDC, the pin sticks thru the hole, and pushes the ball off its seat, letting air go past. Drill exhaust ports into the cylinder just above BDC, to let the pressure out. (you even get to call it a "uniflow" conversion).
Yes, it does mean that pressure is let in before tdc, so it does mean you need a flywheel, and the engine won't run well at low speeds, (it will be like a split-phase electric motor, lots of power at speed, but lug it a little bit, and it stalls). It won't be self starting (single cylinder engines of any valve configuration rarely are). But with a bit of flywheel to keep it spinning, it will run, (in whichever direction you start it in) and run well.
You can still buy today, very small engines that work just this way, for indoor model airplane use - they run off CO2 cartridges. (I have even seen a cheap plastic one that you pump up with air) They have mostly been replaced by electric motors, but there are still some out there
Oh yea, stick to air to run such things. A steam boiler large enough to get actual power out of such an engine is large enough to interest the people that regulate such things. It means a certified design and construction, regular inspections (there is a national board of boiler inspectors), and in some locales operator licensing. Getting a 5hp boiler wrong, can result in an "energetic" event. The sort of event that leaves a crater and a body count. Just the kind of incident that inspired the relevant laws in the first place.
Also, air won't turn your crankcase full of lubricating oil into something resembling beige mayonnaise, like the steam blowby will. Splash lube doesn't work well if what you are splashing into isn't liquid. If you are going to run the engine for any length of time, be sure to keep it rotating in the same direction it did when running on gas. The connecting rod has a scoop to fling oil where its needed, and it doesn't work if dragged thru backwards.
This isn't a big deal, as long as your piping system can cope. If you stick to welded or mechanically connected stainless steel plumbing, you won't have a problem. If you do the usual copper and silver soldered connection of hobby steam, it will melt. (and the paint on your steam chest will burn off)
For extra credit go digging thru the patent database. In the 60's a mech e Prof at MIT named Smith (yea, I know there will be too many hits) developed a variant on a flash boiler that added a bunch of packed fine steel balls filling some of the voids between the tubes. Greatly increased the surface area. A prototype built into a 2lb coffee can, got 10hp with natural gas firing. The company formed to commercialize it was called Steam Engine Systems and was in either Watertown, or Newton Mass.
If you are going to convert something, in its favor, a motor home is large enough that you should be able to find a place to put a boiler. (it definitely won't fit where the original engine lived, expect it to be bigger than a household double door refrigerator). Given that they use a truck chassis, it should be able to take the extra weight of the boiler and the water storage system, assuming the motor home builder didn't go overboard on the decor (no granite counter tops, or marble floors....).
The conversion will be "straightforward" (as anything involving superheated steam can be called straightforward) . you will find the process of inspection and getting the required permits to be the difficult part.. (the boiler inspection is national, but the operator licensing is by state, and not all have reciprocal arrangements) A boiler large enough to move a motor home, is definitely large enough to interest the regulators.
The hard part of any steam power system is the boiler. The engine is essentially an afterthought. And since they can explode (even the low pressure ones), and a simple pinhole leak in 600 psi steam plumbing (what the Stanley's ran) can kill, boilers are responsible for the very idea/existence of industrial safety laws.
Go visit a power plant, or other facility where they are running steam at 50 bar or higher. Ask someone on the maintenance crew to show you the leak detection tool. They will point to a 10' hunk of 2x4. To use, hold it out in front of you sweeping it up and down. When the far end of the plank explodes into a bunch of splinters, you found the leak. When it catches fire, you are real close. At those pressures you won't see the steam escaping at the hole. you don't get the white cloud until a few feet away from the leak, when it will have cooled enough to condense.
I encourage people to play around with model steam. If you want to try something significantly bigger (able to power a couple of houses), or running at noticeable pressure (over 200 psi) , a stationary system with some provision to keep the shrapnel inside your property line is tolerable, (put it below grade say) You can do a boat if you keep the size reasonable and your pressure under 10 bar. (your classic 20 foot steam launch with a 2-3hp engine and the all important fringed fabric roof)
If you aren't already an ASME member and certified welder, (and already own and have read a copy of the applicable standards) don't try to design or build your own over-the-road system, especially if you want it to go highway speeds. and on public roads. You may be fine with the risk, but the guy in the next lane didn't agree.