The Steamboating Forum

I located the "Firefly" (British radio generator set from WWII) manual, which uses this engine, and it describes engine startup and operation.

The manual just has a note to check the oil drain after every few hours of operation, and if water is present, drain down the crankcase plug until oil starts coming out, then top off to proper oil level. The setup also injects no cylinder lube into the steam, evidently the slide valve got enough lubrication by oil seeping past the pistons and getting into the exhaust steam.

http://www.stationroadsteam.com/archive/1632.htm
http://www.campx.ca/WWIIClandestine.html




-CB

fredrosse wrote:Bart, I am assuming you had a 2 cylinder, 180 degree crank? Steam cylinder oil in the crankcase, or pure mineral oil (non-compounded)? Did you have a slide or piston valve, and did you inject oil into the steam?

For simplicity I plan on just adding a new head with a piston valve (very nearly), and an eccentric running a rocker, ala Westinghouse Junior Engines.

Yes, 180 degree crank. Cylinder oil in the crankcase; non-compounded would be better. It had a slide valve. I've used oil in the steam line, but there was enough carry-over of oil such that it wasn't really necessary.

- Bart