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

 This is my 5 cylinder radial engine. It is very loosely based on the Morton M-5 radial, I'll explain.
 Many years ago while attending an antique engine show and displaying some of my engines a fellow stopped by to have a look. After a few minutes he remarked that I had no radial engines. I said no I didn't. He said would you like a set of drawings for one? I replied that I would so he left and after about an hour he returned with a complete set of drawings for the Morton. He said I could make copies and then he would like the originals returned. I did copy them and sent him back his drawings.
 The drawings sat in my box of drawings for many years and one winter while contemplating what I would build I pulled the drawings out. After doing extensive research on the Morton to find out what it was all about I decided that I really didn't care to make an exact build of the engine so I set about redesigning it.
 The Morton has a single cam, no cam ring and the pushrods come out behind the cylinders. I made a cam ring (internal gear type) and moved it to the front  of the engine more like the typical radial engine.
The Morton feeds a fuel/oil mixture through the carb and into the crankcase to feed the cylinders and lube the internals. I move the carb to the rear crankcase just to feed the engine and designed an oil pump to feed and scavenge oil to the engine.
The Morton distributor lays horizontally out of the back of the engine. I stood mine up and made it a Hall type trigger instead of points.
The Morton cylinders are cast as one piece with the head and need a blind bore to accommodate a pressed in sleeve. My engine has separate cylinders and heads that screw together.
Along with my changes came numerous small items like roller lifters, double ball bearings in the nose etc.
When I first finished it I had used a large plastic prop but it didn't have enough weight (inertia) to run the engine so I set about designing and creating an aluminum prop and hub. The hub is 2 pieces into which the blades are secured with an enlarged boss at the base of the blades and trapped between the 2 piece hub. The pitch can be adjusted by rotating the blades and then tightening the hub.
 The engine runs well after some experimentation. I will post a video in that section. [ Guests cannot view attachments ]
gbritnell

Just watched the video, thanks for all the pictures too