I'm Getting Ready For The Fourth Of July

cathead

CATWERKS LTD
Registered
Joined
Feb 7, 2013
Messages
2,481
IMG_0662.JPG IMG_0664.JPG IMG_0665.JPG IMG_0666.JPG Yesterday I decided to build a fuel tank for the old Fairbanks-Morse Z.
The tank is made from 1/8 inch mild steel and MIG welded together.
The photo shows the screened suction tube I fabricated along with the basic
set-up and piping. The carburetor is two sided and it is supposed to
start on gasoline and after warmed up a bit switched over to the other
side of the carburetor to run on kerosene. I may run it on gasoline or a mix
of gas and diesel as kerosene is expensive and hard to find. The engine has
a fuel pump that fills the bowl and the excess runs out an overflow back to the
fuel tank.

The second phase of this project is to add water cooling of some kind
using some piping and a big tank or possibly a small water pump and
a screen dribble down system.

It is a throttle governed engine so it supposed to hit every two revolutions
but it needs a bit of tweaking to get it to cooperate in that fashion. It starts
easily so with a little work it will be a fine engine. It was a stuck engine
when I got it and has new rings now with nice compression.

Here are some photos of my latest work on the engine.

Vintage: about 1920

Weight: about 1800 pounds
 
Last edited:
Those things are fun! And I have one of those things. I guess mine is a vertical because the piston goes up and down and not sideways. If my memory is any good? I think it’s a Nova. Does not have the mag on it like yours. I just hooked up a T buzz box to the plug. Also, the water is contained in the top of the head, like a pot. Stop using it about 40 years ago when it started to rod knock. Haven’t got around to fixing it …Dave.
 
It's probably a Novo. I have a Fairbanks-Morse T model which is vertical. I have had it running but it needs
a lot of work. It was missing a LOT of parts so had to a lot of fabrication to make an engine out of it.

Heck, spend a little time on the Novo and run it on the 4th of July!
 
Dear Cathead, What a great engine. Those things are a little scarce in my neck of the woods. They are called hit and miss engines rightly, as you say, mainly because they used to run hot with only a 44 gallon drum holding the cooling water, so they made it fire every second stroke, thereby reducing the temperature of the cooling water and preventing the engine from overheating. If you make a forced flow cooling system, then they can be run with a power stroke every stroke, with a resultant power increase as well. The governor for speed adjustment sits inside the flat belt drive pulley. If you turn the handle that is on the outside of the drive belt pulley, you should be able to adjust the spring tension of the flyweights inside the pulley space, thereby adjusting the engine speed, which will be much slower than todays engines. Maybe only 100 to 200 RPM. They were really overbuilt by todays standard and should still be running when your grandchildren are your age. Enjoy the fun getting this engine running again. Geoffrey.
 
I would love to have something like that, But I have never seen one around san Antonio for sale, Or even where I grew up I the Texas Panhandle. I think working on something like that would be fun, and to make them work to do something would also be fun. that looks nice and if you can work on it between now and July forth you should be able to get it going good. I would think that if it was designed to run on kerosene, then it should run on thinned diesel with no problems. I'm hoping to make a small cannon between now and then to make some noise.
 
Nice engine. Good to see fellow engine collectors !!! What hp is it?
 
This engine although looks like a hit-and-miss is throttle governed so fires on every other revolution and the speed is controlled by
the governor which is connected to a butterfly valve. The beauty I see in these engines is that they were so overbuilt that they
seem to run forever.
 
Last edited:
I would love to have something like that, But I have never seen one around san Antonio for sale, Or even where I grew up I the Texas Panhandle. I think working on something like that would be fun, and to make them work to do something would also be fun. that looks nice and if you can work on it between now and July forth you should be able to get it going good. I would think that if it was designed to run on kerosene, then it should run on thinned diesel with no problems. I'm hoping to make a small cannon between now and then to make some noise.

A cannon would be fun too!
 
Yea, Just to make a little noise, But have to watch it I live in town, (they annexed the area a few years back) so they may not like it to much.
 
Back
Top