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

I thought I should add that my Poppin hot air engine has an aluminum bore And Aluminum piston, while the aluminum cooling fins are great for cooling the hot air sucked into "my" engine, the aluminum piston rubbing on aluminum bore is a terrible wear surface. This is likely why I have had better success with graphite dry lube. I don't know if your drip oiler is functional but it may well be, and may perform just fine with the materials this engine is machined from. I wanted to point this out as my advice may not be the "best" for the Model in this post. Bengs Modelbau has several hot air engines with cast iron bores and report good performance with thin mineral oil. Hope you get it running!