Oiler Installation

[JonRiley56]

All,

I need some help on getting an oiler set up on my boat. Here is what I have to work with"

1. Lunkenheimer Senior Displacement Oiler
2. Manual Oiler from Beckman (Plunger type)

I will need to supply oil to my Steam Driven Pump and to the Engine.

The installation on the manual plunger type would be relatively simple if I am tapping off the main steam supply for the line to the pump. My only concern then is whether I am oiling enough, or too much, how do I know when to give it a shot of oil..... I am going to be condensing so I would prefer not to over-oil, since I will have to get the oil out of the condensate before I return it to the boiler.

If I go with the Lunkenheimer Senior I am not sure how to mount it. It is very heavy, which suggests the closer I get to a fixed pipe the better I am. That would mean that I need to mount it close to the boiler off the side of the steam line. I would then need to supply steam to the oiler, but have to allow for enough piping for it to condense. Do I need to run a steam loop with some length and Height to allow for it to condense ? It seems like it will look strange and is really just a great spot to burn yourself.

If anyone has any thoughts I would be grateful. Pictures would also help. I am still learning to read....

jon

[Lopez Mike]

Are you sure that you need to lubricate? There are a lot of advantages to letting the water do the job. What sort of pressures (temps) are you likely to see at the H.P. valve?

Mike

[JonRiley56]

Hi Mike,

I am not super heating so I am running wet steam, I start getting a squeak out of my engine after a things get truly heated up. I figured if I went with the maunual oiler I could just give it a "squirt" when it squeaks instead of constantly having oil entrained in the steam.

I am going to split my hotwell and have the condensate return in 2/3 of it and the "clean water" section in 1/3. The two sections will be connected at the bottom of the well. I am going to put in a partition that sticks up above the top of the hotwell so that if I overfill by accident I dont spill oily water over into the clean side.

I was intending to use the "Oil Only" polypropylene based spill control mats to absorb the small amount of oil that is returned in my condensate. Do you happen to know if those float ? If they do the easiest thing to do would be to just have a blanket floating on the surface. If not, I will have to rig some sort of basket. I would really like to have the return flow visible to me so I am hoping to keep its entry above the surface of the well.

thoughts ?

jon

[Lopez Mike]

Yes, they float. I have one in my hot well just to catch the small amounts of crud that seem to get through the system even though I'm not lubricating. I also have one in a pan under my engine to keep the bilge from getting too nasty. I tend to over lubricate the outside of my engine!

I too have a squeak. It come and goes. The manufacturer of my engine says that he has many, many of these engines (Strath Steam Warrego) in generator duty with high running times with no squeaks. He says that due to my engine having been stored for many years without any preservative measures it my just be some rust pits and to run it and see if it gets better. I have opened it up and the bore looks fine. Black and glossy as I have come to expect from healthy engines. It's an annoyance but I'm going to wait and see.

I can turn it over by hand with the cylinder head off and the squeak is right near the top of the stroke. The slightest wipe of light oil (WD-40) makes it go away for a while but it comes back after a short run.

If you lubricate lightly (very lightly) and do as you are planning with your hot well, you shouldn't have a problem with boiler deposits.

Mike

[fredrosse]

You want the condensate to flow through the poly oil absorbent material, not to just float on the surface of the water, yes? And you want to use a non-compounded mineral oil, Green Velvet makes this up, with a tackifier to keep the oil from washing away.

As to a small squeak, try some Moly dry lubricant, clean the cylinder surface with acetone, spray it on and let it dry overnite. The stuff is about $20 for a spray can, but it does help in those areas where a dry film lubricant can be applied.

[JonRiley56]

Hi Fred,

I have the green velvet oil, I intend to use it. I envisioned the returned condensate free falling out of the return line (so I can see the flow) onto a floating "oil only" pad. I figured the oil would absorb/adsorb into/onto the pad and the water would flow off the sides of the pad.

Does that make sense ?

jon

[JonRiley56]

Mike,

What are you using to lubricate the outside of your engine. I have some of the green velvet steam oil in an oil can that I have been using. IS that the right stuff for slides etc ?

jon

[fredrosse]

Steam cylinder oil is OK to lubricate external machinery, but much more expensive for that service. Ordinary gear oil, 90W or 140W will do fine at a small fraction of the cost. The steam oil clings to surfaces very well, which is good for many applications, but this means it picks up dirt readily, this is not often a problem on the boat, except on the trailer ride to/from the outing with road dust clinging to machnied surfaces, ready to grind them away later. I usually trailer the boat to the fun without much oil on the machinery, oil during boiler warmup. Later after driving home I clean up the engine with WD 40, this removes the heavy oil and any road grime picked up during transit. A simple engine cover for transit would very much ease this problem, but then you do not have the fun of cleaning the engine and machinery.

As to the poly oil absorbimg material, many steamboaters arrange a cylindrical basket or cage (about 3 inches diameter x 12 inches long, made of hardware cloth or perforated sheet metal) on the condensate discharge pipe, and wrap the oil-absorbing cloth around this cage, fastened with cable ties or the like. This assures that all of the condensate flow must pass through the poly material. I think the filter arrangement must have the condensate forced thru the material rather than just running over it. There are many other arrangements to get this result.

Green Velvet Steam Cylinder Oil comes as "Compounded" or "Straight Mineral Oil". The compounded oil is virtually impossible to "un-mix" with water, the only way to separate the oil from the water is to boil away the water, the oil remains, but we cannot do that on a steamboat. Check your oil by mixing it with some hot boiling water, put it into the blender, then see if it can be separated from the water with your poly material. This is a good test to see it separation can be obtained. However it may cause separation from your wife if you use her blender or her stove/kitchen for that matter! If the oil separates, the water will be clear, OK to feed the boiler. If the water stays milky, the separation does not work.

[Lopez Mike]

When I said that I over lubricated the outside of my engine, I meant that I tend to set my drip oilers for too much flow. Thus there is a fair amount of loss into the drip pan.

I have had very good performance on the various external places, including the connecting rod and cross slide with chain saw bar oil. Just the right viscosity and very sticky. No complaints. I just need to figure out the right drip rate on the oilers.

Mike

[DetroiTug]

For external lube, the Vactra type "way oils" sold by MSC and others will work for that as well. I ran out of PB&J Green Velvet and used that last summer, seemed to work just fine. $30/gal

I wouldn't use it for steam cylinder oil. Steam cylinder oil has tallow in it which is a rust inhibitor.

-Ron