Four pieces of 50mm square
timber were added and held in
position with some temporary
cross braces. These line up with
the positions of the mounting
holes in the fabricated steel
Startomatic baseplate.
In the foreground is a drum taken
from an old washing machine. It
is about 470mm diameter and
310mm deep. It will be buried in
the concrete and act as a large
expansion chamber for the
exhaust gases.
A layer of ballast (sand gravel
mix) was included at the bottom
of the pit. Any condensation
from the exhaust will permeate
through this and slowly seep
away.
The entry to the expansion
chamber is the small hole in the
top and the exist is the large hole
at the 2 o'clock position.
Installing the Startomatic - 3 days hard labour! - Mid October 2007 Update
For More Information:
Ken Boak can be contacted by email by anyone wishing further information on this project.
Since starting on this Lister project, several other Lister engine enthusiasts and their CS
engines have come to my notice. These links describe a few of them. We have recently started
a Lister CS Owners Group, contactable via Yahoo Groups
|
Saturday October 13th 2007.
For some months, the Startomatic engine had
been waiting on its transportation trolley to be
installed in the engine shed.
With concrete booked for Saturday morning, and
the promise of fair weather it had been a week of
digging and preparation of the engine base and a
4.4m x 2m level concrete area behind the engine
shed and a lean-to for storage for the bulk oil
tank, firewood and other large equipment.
First the pit for the engine
mounting block was dug to a
depth of 600mm. Whilst the first
400mm was topsoil, the bottom
200mm was heavy, claggy clay
and took 2 hours to finish the pit.
The pit is 1600mm x 800 mm x
600mm and will hold about 0.75
cubic metres of concrete.
The 9 litre fire extinguisher
gives some idea of the depth of
the pit.
Outside the 2m x 4.4m level area
was shuttered and prepared
ready for the concrete.
Just in front of this shot, a trench
(below) was dug and insulated
with Kingspan, to carry the two
heater pipes across to the
adjacent shed which will be used
as my garden workshop.
With the concrete poured the
engine mounting block is left to
cure. With 600mm of concrete,
this will take several days to
achieve full strength.
On the left, set vertically into the
concrete is the 50mm diameter
entry pipe for the expansion
chamber.
The 4 wooden stakes marking the
mounting plate bolt positions
will be cut off level with the
concrete.
A 22mm thick rubber mat will be
place over this block to smooth
out any imperfections in the
concrete and act as a sound
absorbing layer.
A view of the mounting block
from outside. The exit pipe from
the expansion chamber can be
seen on the extreme right of the
picture.
This was made from a short
length of 3"cast iron drainpipe,
and it emerges in the area where
the brick built forge hearth will
be constructed.
Another view from outside shows
the two heater pipes for the
garden office emerging at the far
right of the engine shed.
The back of the lean-to will be
supported on timbers located
into the Metpost sockets.
The lean to will provide storage
for the bulk oil tank and
firewood. It will also contain a
salvaged stainless steel sink unit
providing hand washing
facilities for the inevitably oily
hands.
The hearth area will have a three
sided brick wall skin and a
raised floor. Once completed it
will be about 1100mm wide and
800mm front to back.
It will give a safe area for
running the gasifier and
blacksmith's forge, with the
fumes being vented up a fluepipe.
The exhaust from the diesel
engines once expanded will also
rise up this flue, using the
eductor principle to create a
through draught for the forge to
help draw the fumes up the flue.
The 22mm flexible heater pipes
to the garden office emerge at the
other side of the concrete area.
They are insulated in 19mm foam
insulation and this is enclosed in
68mm round plastic downpipe.
Here they cross the threshold to
the office and will be coupled in
to provide one or two radiators
to make the office very cosy in
winter.
Sunday 14th October 2007.
Day three of the marathon Startomatic installation weekend. The commentary is a bit limited, because of time
pressures, but the pictures tell the story. More comments to be added later.
My friend Paul brought me these very nice 200 litre and 300 litre expansion vessels! The have a rubber bladder
inside that holds the water and outside that is filled with pressurised air. A generous access hatch allows the
bladder to be replaced. They will make great thermal stores or possibly veg oil storage tanks, or possibly
gasifiers or possibly biogas digesters ..... The jury is still out on this one but they were definitely a good find.
This shot was taken by mistake, when I accidently dropped a piece of 4 x 2
timber on top of the digital camera! It's a niceclose up shot of the heater pipes
emerging from their insulated tubes.
The "Twins" finally in place.
It took 2 hours to shift the 500kg
Startomatic engine 2 feet - using
the Egyptian method of blocks
and levers.
The main problem with this sort
of move is getting good access
with the engine crane, and most
of the time the Plint
dynamometer was right in the
way.
If the engine crane's wheels are
up against an object and the jib of
the engine crane cannot extend to
move the load forwards - that
movement has to be done with a
lot of manual effort whilst the
crane supports the weight.
The engine crane is moved
outside so that it can lift from the
other side and help drag the
500kg engine into place.
When it is lined up a M12 bolt
can be located in at least one of
the mounting holes. With one
bolt in place, the engine is
man-handled into position and
then the jack and crane allow it
to be lowered slowly onto the
baseplate.
Tapping out the engine mounting
holes in the baseplate so that
standard M12 bolts could be used.
The original bolts were very
rusty and not easily replaced.
Part of the Startomatic control
system. The box on top of the
alternator contains the starter
motor contactor, a selenium
rectifier for the field current, a
step down transformer and a
couple of fairly meaty
wirewound power resistors. This
was high-tech in 1953!
Getting ready to lift the
alternator into position using the
engine crane.
The 15" flywheel weighs about
65kg alone.
The slide rails for the alternator
have been turned around so that
the engine and alternator can be
swapped over left to right.
This is not standard for the
Startomatic but it suits my
installation better to have the
engine closer to the centre of the
room for running the exhaust.
Lister affectionados must be
cringing at this blatant deviation
from the norm.
Outside the new concrete
provides a 4.4m x 2m useful
workspace. Very pleasant at
11:30am when the sun came out
from the mist.
Whilst open at the moment, this
area will probably be roofed over
and incorporated into the
ever-enlarging shed.
I have some big toys that need to
be kept in the dry.
The engine baseplate will be
bolted down to this 22mm thick
rubber mat to help with
vibration absorption.
The 50mm square timbers set
into the concrete are sawn off
level with the concrete ready to
accept 250mm long 12mm coach
screws.
Friday October 12th 2007.
This weekend, mostly I will be installing a Startomatic, and wearing old, oily
concrete splashed clothes.
With the concrete booked for 10am Saturday, Friday was spent preparing the
shuttering and formers for the concrete.
The preparations for the concrete were well underway - but it took me from
11am to 9:30pm to get finished.
At last he's found enough rope to
hang himself and he alternator....
Alternator is now roughly in
place but will be slid on the rails
to achieve the correct belt
tension.
The engine is lifted with the
crane, using the yellow polyester
rope and a 500kg steel cable to
support the weight.
The Startomatic engine weighs
about 170kg more than the
standard engine - most of it is in
those very heavy flywheels.
Shifting the engine took a few
hours - and so day turned to
night....
A car jack was used to lift the
crankshaft and the engine slowly
raised on stout timbers.
Finally it was in place with a
securing bolt threaded into the
engine mounting and into the
baseplate.
The ropes, wooden blocks and
jacks are removed to leave the
engine in place.
The new concreted area outside
was very useful for getting the
crane into position from the
otherside.
The Startomatic base is made
from fabricated steel sheet,
though earlier ones were made
from superior cast iron.
Its about 1200mm long and
600mm wide and weighs about
75kg. Strengthened areas accept
the bolt down mountings for the
engine and alternator.
In the cold light of day....
The Startomatic can be accessed
easily for servicing the belts etc
through what had been the back
louvre doors of the engine shed.
It is likely that there will be an
acoustic housing around the
Startomatic.
With the engine and alternator
arranged this way on the baseplate
(normally the decompressor
solenoid is adjacent to the
alternator control box) the entry
pipe for the buried expansion
chamber is neatly in line with the
exhaust port outlet.
There will be an exhaust heat
exchanger located in this area, for
which I am thinking of using a stack
of storage heater bricks.
In the foreground adjacent to the
Startomatic will be the forge area.
This will be a 1200mm wide x
900mm deep brick built hearth,
which will allow simple
blacksmithing and heating/welding
operations to be carried out in
relative safety without flammable
materials nearby.
Now that the Startomatic is in
place it is just a matter of
plumbing in the water cooling
and the exhaust system.
The exhaust can go temporarily
straight out of the back of the
shed, and the local cooling
cylinder will be re-plumbed to
allow both engines to
thermosyphon into it.
Thursday 25th October 2007
My biggest problem is soot. I need to start pre-heating the oil to see if I can get better combustion.
Best solution would probably be one of those PTC thermistor type heaters, these run on 12V-24V dc or 100V to
240V ac. They self regulate and heat up to a fixed temperature (40 to 200C)and with variable wattage 20W to
200W. Priced about £12 each for the higher power devices.
Alternatively thick film 100W power resistors are available in a TO247 plastic package. Two could be bolted
back to back with the hp line between them. About £5 each. Or always wind your own heater from nichrome
wire and insulate well with fibreglass tape.
I wound a 1" long coil of 10 turns from 0.5mm nichrome wire on some fibreglass tape (woodstove shops), wire
was salvaged from an old electric heating element. I located it about 4" from the injector inlet. It could be
closer, but I wanted space to feel how hot the pipe was getting after the pipe heater.
The resistance was about 1.5 ohms. This gives very close to 100W when connected across a 12V battery. I
insulated it well with glasswool and put a temperature probe on the hp line about 2" from the injector and
measured pipe temperatures in excess of 70C.
Tomorrow in day light I will try and see if this direct heating of the hp line makes a noticeable reduction in the
soot.
The heater for the injector
line is a 1" long coil of about
12 turns of 0.5mm nichrome
wire. The resistance is about
1.5 ohms.
It is wound about 100mm
away from the injector inlet -
but could be placed closer for
better efficiency. I wanted to
ensure that it was heating the
oil in the high pressure line
and not losing all its heat to
the cylinder head.
The picture shows the coil
insulated with a patch of
rockwool and connected to a
12V battery with terminal
block and 2.5mm2 copper
cable. Current will be around
8 amps.
Not a very clear photo but
this is the coil glowing
orange hot with the
insulation removed.
The 100W resistance wire
coil will preheat the veg oil
to more than 70 degrees C.
This makes the oil much less
viscous and allows a better
spray from the injector which
greatly improves combustion
efficiency and reduces the
soot in the exhaust.
