Rarely seen Stirling

Rarely seen Stirling
Posted by Stoker on 08 Oct, 2020 14:02
I have recently acquired a rather uncommon Stirling Cycle engine with a most unusual linkage set-up that was totally unfamiliar to me. Yet, this unknown engine has something about it that seems most incredibly familiar as well.

See if you can spot the features that make it so strange yet so familiar:

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Obviously it came encumbered with a number of poorly made "enhancements" from a prior owner, the purpose of which I've yet to deduce.

#1 Reply
Posted by txlabman on 08 Oct, 2020 15:54
I am stumped.

@crazydoug has a couple models from this maker.

Eco?

Made in Canada?

https://youtu.be/wc1gjOmZ2vA

https://youtu.be/AS3YnYWN_YY

#2 Reply
Posted by Stoker on 08 Oct, 2020 17:00
Yep he does, and I've already hit Doug up for what info he might have as to this rather uncommon engine ..... along with yet another that he also has.

One interesting tidbit I've picked up elsewhere on the internet is that this engine may be from as early as the mid-1970's.

#3 Reply
Posted by Jim on 08 Oct, 2020 17:33
Interesting engine(s) what year do they date from?

#4 Reply
Posted by crazydoug on 08 Oct, 2020 22:12
60's or 70's from what i have been able to learn. Not much info on these. I also have the ECO horizontal in an un-machined casting kit NIB with bluprints and detailed operating instructions for both models. This kit came with the most info I have been able to find on ECO engines so far.
crazydoug

#5 Reply
Posted by Stoker on 08 Oct, 2020 23:35
I have not yet found any info that suggests dates as early as the 60's, but I also have not found anything that would refute that possibility either. As Doug says, there is very little out there to be found on these unique engines! The earliest date I have found was 1975 if I recall correctly, but it couldn't be called an authoritative reference, so even that is up in the air.

Sadly, even with all of Doug's materials, that he so kindly shared with me, I saw no copyright or even print dates to help solve this mystery.

The search goes on .... but what of the original questions I posed?!?!? ;c)

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#6 Reply
Posted by Jim on 09 Oct, 2020 00:02
Quote from: Stoker on 08 Oct, 2020 23:35
.... but what of the original questions I posed?!?!? ;c)

Arizona Solar esque ?

#7 Reply
Posted by Stoker on 09 Oct, 2020 21:02
Quote from: Jim on 09 Oct, 2020 00:02
Quote from: Stoker on 08 Oct, 2020 23:35
.... but what of the original questions I posed?!?!? ;c)

,
Arizona Solar esque ?

Well of course you are spot on for the second part of the question Jim ..... the burner set-up is exactly the same as that still found to this day, on the Solar #1 Stirling engine as first produced in Phoenix Arizona in 1977-78, and continues to be produced by PM Research in Wellsville New York to this very day. Dimensionally it is so exact that the last two photos that you see in my post above, have the ECO motor wearing a PM Research wicked burner cap and firebox/chimney, which both fit the ECO motors base casting to perfection.

It should be noted that the original burner cap does not have a wick, but rather just has an almost 1" diameter hole in the top of the (knockout plug) cap, and has the well cast in the base packed with several layers of coarse weave fiber (probably asbestos), and in fact doesn't seem to work near as well as the Solar Engines wick design. Mine came without the cylindrical firebox/chimney, but the ones typically mounted on the Solar 1 engine fits over the displacer hot cap and in between the three uprights cast into the base just as though it was designed for it. I should note that there are three different styles of firebox/chimney for the ECO motor that I have seen so far, but they are all just slight variations on the same basic theme and dimensions. The one Doug has with a short small diameter chimney on top is the only one like it I have seen so far.

Well Jim, I guess you're the only one that is interested enough to play my little game, no real surprise there, so I'll go ahead and answer the first part of my query as well.

This engine has what may be the most unusual linkage that I know of, in that it has a free floating piston attached with a yoke to a hollow disc of plastic (possibly Nylon, probably Delrin), which is pinned to the crankshaft at a very off-center location, making it a cam. The plastic cam rotates within a horseshoe shaped "U" frame that is attached to the displacer, which causes the displacer to move in and out of the bore, thus initiating the Stirling Cycle by feeding deferentially heated and cooled (expanded and condensed) air to the power piston in this Beta unit.

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#8 Reply
Posted by Jim on 09 Oct, 2020 21:37
When you think of the time the company was making these, sales would have (presumably) been made through hobbiest magazine ads, or at engine fairs.

Do you think this company in today's world market with the internet and online sales would be in a better position to prosper?

All hypothetical I know.

#9 Reply
Posted by Rob1962 on 09 Oct, 2020 22:57
@ Very nice Stirlings.They have that old school charm and colors.It is a 70s Thing.Very different,Thanks for sharing.

#10 Reply
Posted by Stoker on 10 Oct, 2020 00:03
Quote from: Jim on 09 Oct, 2020 21:37
When you think of the time the company was making these, sales would have (presumably) been made through hobbiest magazine ads, or at engine fairs.

Do you think this company in today's world market with the internet and online sales would be in a better position to prosper?

All hypothetical I know.

I'm not sure that this dog would hunt, even with the far better exposure provided by internet and other modern media outlets.

The extreme weirdness of the linkage, and the fact that it seems rather awkward, inefficient and probably more that a bit fragile I think, dooms this particular model to have rather poor sales whenever it may have been released, in my opinion.

But the part that intrigues me most is the cast in burner well with the cylindrical firebox/chimney being essentially absolutely identical with the Solar 1 that was produced some two thousand miles away, and maybe a few years later. I would love to know with a certainty which was produced first, but current information only suggests that the ECO motor of Guelph, Ontario, Canada was the first on the scene, possibly by several years, and the Solar 1 of Phoenix, Arizona USA may have been second.

The best explanation I can come up with is that both Stirling Cycle engines were designed by the same individual, and thus incorporated that same feature ..... and I think I know who that designer may well have been ..... maybe?!?!?