5 hp Economy hit & miss engine full power to low and slow

This is a 1920sh hit and miss engine attached to a modern generator. Plugged into the generator are a couple of heaters to provide a "load". The video starts with the engine at full load, 450 rpm, "hitting" all the time. The water is boiling in the hopper to cool the engine. As the load is removed it starts to "miss" so it won't go too fast. I then manually fire the ignition to get it to run real slow. It would run even slower without the generator attached!

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Hit and miss engine
• hit & miss
• Economy engine
• Economy
• antique engine

[TechMaven]

Would you know the displacement of this engine? 5HP at only 450rpm equates to 58lb/ft of torque! That's a real workhorse!

[kwequeg]

@TechMaven I am out of the country now, so I can't look it up. But I think it has something like a 3.5 x 5" bore and stroke. A long stroke gives it all that torque; and also requires a big pair of flywheels. Not sure why these engines were designed to put out their power at such low RPMs; perhaps from the steam engines that it replaced to drive low RPM loads.

[kwequeg]

The water only boils during full power, "100% hit" operation. Never ran it long that way, so I don't know how long the water would last, but would estimate 30-45 min. Most operations would require filling after 2-3 hrs operation. Modern engines have throttles for speed and power control, so they always sound smooth.

[R5H4D0W]

I've always wondered what is the waveform of the alternator when connected to a hit and miss, as they are more of a variable speed engine than anything else... but I suppose a rectified DC of this sort pumped through a DC-DC converter should iron things out.

[kwequeg]

@R5H4D0WIt was a modern brushless alternator hooked up to it, so I believe it would still be a relatively nice sine wave. As the speed varied, the amplitude and frequency varied. To minimize that effect, I hooked it up to a pure resistive load, without any motors or circuits. Thanks

[kwequeg]

Thank you for your interest. I have not measured the fuel consumption. I havent even measured the power output yet because the generator wasn't turning fast enough. I hope to make some changes next summer and will measure the power.But not sure if I will measure fuel effec.

[R5H4D0W]

@kwequeg forgot to ask, what is is water replenish rate? seems the the hopper is unpressurized, but it doesn't appear to boil off that quickly, at least when its acting like a hit and miss, not a regular 4-stroke.

Why can't modern engines sound like this =P

[colmwn]

nice engine 

[stevep41]

what is the fuel effeciency of this setup? thank you