Office of Steam Forum for Model & Toy Steam Gas & Hot Air Engines

I was watching that Ind-X-Engine on Ebay and couldn't quite pull up on it. Is that site glass tube faceted?

The threads for the sight glass are OK.  A bit rusty. But they cleaned up.  It takes a 3/8" diameter bolt.

I used some gas pipe compression fitting elbows and a small piece of high temp tubing as a temporary fix so I could run it on air.  I would have just put bolt plugs in it, but I didn't have any in my shop.

Initially, it took about 20 psi to get it going.  After a couple hours of running it, I can now get it to run on 10 psi.  Still won't work with my air brush compressor. 

The biggest problem with this one was that someone had applied grease everywhere.  And after 40+ years, the grease had hardened.  I completely took this one apart, soaked all the parts in Baltisol and cleaned them with a scotch brite attachment for my Dremel. 

I was thrilled to get it running on air at all.  Now, it just needs more fine tuning.

Next up will be a test of the heater.