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

The Regular Stuff: Chat, Buy, Sell, Off Topic, etc. => General Discussion - Scale Model Gas Engines - Hit & Miss - Throttle Governed - Non-Compression – etc => Topic started by: Steam Technology on September 12, 2020, 04:01:04 am

Title: Re: Alternative fuel.
Post by: Adirondack Jack on September 16, 2020, 11:56:36 am
Oil injection ought to be fun. A diaphragm pump operated off vacuum would be my first thought. Similar to automatic chain oilers on chainsaws.
Title: Re: Alternative fuel.
Post by: Steam Technology on September 16, 2020, 01:45:19 am
I beleive the WD spray used propane as a propellant a while back, the newer WD sprays dont seem to have the same eff3ct with newer propellants. Carby cleaner is a goto when an engime is reluctant to start.
 Working on oil 8njection next.
Title: Re: Alternative fuel.
Post by: Adirondack Jack on September 16, 2020, 12:23:05 am
Butane or propane conversion isn’t exactly difficult.  A fellow I know had a Honda generator he converted to propane before Honda offered the dual fuel variety. He tapped into the intake manifold vacuum that operated the diaphragm fuel pump, put a Tee and a selector valve in the line, allowing him to either pump gas from the tank, or feed the intake manifold directly with propane. The key was inserting a small orifice restrictor in the propane feed side, limiting how much gas went in.  For a fixed RPM unit like a generator, it wasn’t that big a deal.   I also knew a guy who ran a Model A ford pickup on propane in the 1970s. A homespun conversion.

I could see using a simple intake horn on a hit and miss air inlet, with holes in the horn to suck air, and a tiny flow of propane or butane into the intake horn, similar to the “turbo torch” concept.  I’m guessing you’d need a small propane or butane line with a ball valve or similar to meter the gas. 

It’s amazing how engines will often readily run on most anything if not flooded or starved. I used to clear water from an RC Glow engine outboard by starting and running it with the thin wand of a can of WD-40 Inserted into the fuel line. It would start and run fine on WD.
Similarly, full sized outboards that failed to start due to fuel issues, a diagnostic to prove it was a fuel problem and not a spark problem was to start them by spraying carb cleaner into the air intake while cranking.  They’d run as long as you kept “puff, puff, puffing” the carb spray.

Title: Re: Alternative fuel.
Post by: Steam Technology on September 13, 2020, 10:36:29 pm
Now that I have proved the concept, I am going to massage this one into a stationart engine style layout.

[attachimg=1]

Title: Alternative fuel.
Post by: Steam Technology on September 12, 2020, 04:01:04 am
Not ethanol or biodiesel nor hydrogen.
Video says it all.

https://youtu.be/pDbd32VRg14

This is what happens when lockdown fever kicks in. :o :)