Big Push to get the 216 Started

About six weeks ago Pete and I decided to give the 216 it’s first run by the end of September, well we are burning the midnight oil to get it ready for it’s first run in a long time, and Brian Mills is bringing along his 216 . so with a bit of luck the sound of a pair of Bristol Hercules will be heard again in the Val of York. There is quite a bit to do and a lot of jobs are running alongside each other so I will touch base on a few of them.

Oil Priming the engine before a start up after laying dormant for so long is essential,

216 Oil Prime 004 216 Oil Prime 003

Basically we rigged up a Plessey pump to the priming port on the oil pump and fit a pressure gauge, fill the oil tank inlet pipe and start to prime.

216 Oil Prime 001 216 Oil Prime 006

After about ten ltr’s of oil it started to come out of the sump and CSU conections and oil pressure started to build up to over 20 psi.

We need a good ignition sparks, so after cleaning the points and checking the time with a special tool I managed to find on Ebay a few months ago, and using a brand new Rotax booster coil, we get a good spark while cranking.

09 Sept 2014 3b 09 Sept 2014 075

 

After Pete spent a lot of time cleaning and painting the Rotal prop hub and blades, it was finally ready to have the blades refitted and the whole assembly fitted back on the engine.

216 ELECTRICS 005

First thing tighten the blades by hand.

216 ELECTRICS 008 216 ELECTRICS 007

Then tighten them up using Brian’s Big Spanner!

216 ELECTRICS 006

 

Once all the blades are fitted , with the help from a willing customer Andrew, we gently rotated the whole prop and eased it onto the engine.

216 ELECTRICS 010 216 ELECTRICS 011

 

And once on we tighten up the securing nut and stood back to admire..

216 ELECTRICS 012

 

For the first few runs we lifted the engine and stand onto a plant trailer and secured it down. We will be make a new stand to fit the trailer over winter, we are making it demountable because we may have three engines in total that will run and it’s the most cost effective way of doing it.

216 ELECTRICS 002 216 ELECTRICS 001

 

with the aid of Grahams  Manitou we lifted the Engine and frame onto the trailer.

216 ELECTRICS 003

When Gill was’t looking I borrowed the wife’s car to move it back into the workshop.

The control and monitoring of the engine is done electrically, I have used linear actuators for the engine controls , these have a 10k built in position feed back. The starter solenoid is from a large marine engine.

216 ELECTRICS 001a 216 ELECTRICS 002a 216 ELECTRICS 003a 216 ELECTRICS 004a

Cylinder head temperature monitoring is vital, after a bit of Googling  I came across this system that has been put together for VW air cooled engines, so we ordered a pair with extra long sensor wires. The type K sensors replace the sealing washer under the Spark plugs.

216 ELECTRICS 014 216 ELECTRICS 015

 

After a full weekends wiring , we have a fully working control panel and remote control station.

216 ELECTRICS 016 216 ELECTRICS 017

 

Just the tachometer  to fit in the center of the panel.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *