Pumping Crude Oil with a Fairbanks Morse Engine

Driving down the two lane roads of South Central Illinois, you can usually spot an oil well or two. In this case, the ones we spotted were open and available for some camera work. They run with Fairbanks Morse flywheel engines that use the wellhead gas for fuel. Cooling water is sealed and recycled through a radiator and lubrication is never far away. As a result, these engines can run for a week or more before attention is required. In fact, at a slow, steady speed, their lifetime is practically unlimited. Change out a spark plug or maybe a bearing or a valve and it's ready to go to work again. See the Oil Field Engine discussion group at WWW.SMOKSTAK.COM for more information.

http://www.smokstak.com/forum/showthread.php?t=51529

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Illinois
• oilwell
• oil
• pump
• pumping
• oilfield
• energy
• gas

[sw8741]

all these old engines amaze me. but what amazes me most on this vid is, theres no fence around it! just out in a field? hate to say it, but can anyone say lawsuit? unfortunately today you have to think those terms. :(

[oldengine1]

There are too many lawyers on this earth!

[nswiss1975]

how much fuel will that engine consume in a day of work????

[oldengine1]

It's running on well-head gas, which would otherwise be wasted into the atmosphere. I doubt that it needs a significant amount of gas to operate.

[carmenlee87]

So can any one roll up to this machine and start her up?

[oldengine1]

Anyone can roll up to it, but it's already running. (24/7)

[LPV1974]

That is a 208 10hp..Still get new parts today. The engine base was the fuel tank as well...Unitil it shook apart from part operators and Pumping Unit crews that do not know how to dial in correctly..Any person that gets hurt on a lease deserves it. Like that Kid in Oklahoma that climbed a 10" fence and lost a arm.

[userunavailable3095]

@sw8741 I think its high times we start answering every one of those lawsuits with a counter suit for trespassing.

[flanksteak2]

How far away is the holding tank?

[jewicke]

hey that one actually has a muffler, we always ran a pipe into a 55 gallon barrel with hatchet holes chopped in it

[rkdkellycreek]

I'd like my boat to sound like rhat

[wpiken]

@sw8741 Two guys i worked with were trying to start one of these. One was a "mechanic"; always saying how smart he was. They hand cranked this thing for over an hour in the heat of summer; all it would do was "POP" once and die. I pulled up, asked them to try again. They did; I hit the intake valve with my hand once, un-sticking it, and it started right up. I left them, red faced, sweating, and spewing profanity. "If you guys need any more help, just call me!" gratifying...

[gibbo1112]

@024reredrum no, it uses the gases that come out of a oil well, methane and such

[thedanesimon]

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ஜ۩۞۩ஜ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

ＳＨＵＴ　ＵＰ　ＡＮＤ　ＥＮＪＯＹ　ＴＨＥ　VIDEO！

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[TestECull]

@sw8741 Anyone who gets injured by this machine is too damn stupid to survive and deserves to be mauled. It's not like it's a terribly fast, small and/or unpredictable beast!

[douro20]

@XELA2T

If you own the well you can get a cut of the profit.

[crudeoilsystems]

ye amazing