OK.  Memory lane here

I grew up driving old British machinery made in the '40s & '50s - and your pushrod stories remind me . . . .

Some of those Luton-built Vauxhall/Bedford engines were designed to have the valve clearances set when they were hot and running.  They were screw-and-locknut rockers.  IIRC there were .007 and .013 valve clearances and Vauxhall/Bedford supplied feeler gauge strips in these two sizes in the form of flexible metal strips maybe a half-inch in width and a couple of feet in length.

The process wasn't complex as there were no "find TDC" issues with the engine running.  You simply loosened off the locknut and screw a tad and inserted the end of the feeler strip.  As the pushrod moved it would pinch-and-release-pinch, obviously.  As you adjusted the screw, you could feel - by pulling the strip back and forwards a bit - when the "pinch" was just right.  Tighten the locknut at that and move onto the next . . . .

As you might imagine, a certain technique was required - but not as difficult as it sounds.

However, three hands were needed:  One to hold the spanner on the locknut.  One to hold the screwdriver that wanted to keep bouncing off the top of the adjuster screw.  One to hold the feeler gauge strip.  Bear in mind, also, the engine is running sans rocker cover that this point - albeit at a slow idle - so there's black oil everywhere.

The approved technique is:  One hand on the screwdriver.  one hand on the spanner.  Hold the feeler strip between the teeth (also had the benenfit of giving you a good, close, look at what you were doing) and move the head back and forwards a little to "feel the pinch".

When the end of the feeler gauge strip got a bit too battered - just nip it off and move on

Stories of glasses spattered with engine oil are legion.  Better, though, is the description of the oil as it migrated up the feeler gauge strip (oil was thin, black shit in those days), how it tasted, and the stains it left in one's beard as it dripped off the edges of the bottom lip . . . .

Those were the days . . .

Hi Stef and everyone else. After the fires and more recent floods in Northern New South Wales, I fixed dozens of petrol generators that were donated by the public to aid with the recovery efforts. Most of them had done little or no work. None of them would start. Mostly this was due to them being stored full of fuel that evaporated leaving them full of red/brown sludge that clogged the carburetors and float valves. Some of them had obviously had E10 fuel in them which absorbs moisture from the environment causing corrosion.
Very simple to fix: Flush fuel tank, strip and clean carby, check air filter for spiders/ants, check/adjust tappet clearance, clean sparkplug.
A lot of these Honda/Chonda engines have a low oil level cut off switch so check oil condition/level. After that they should fire up after a couple of pulls.
I still have half a dozen such generators and water pumps that I haven`t got around to fixing yet, I would send you one but I suspect the shipping costs would be prohibitive.
Taz is looking good, My new shed has been ordered and is being delivered at the end of the month. The ground workers and concreters are starting work next week. I will post pics and info once they start.

Exciting times 
Bob

+1 on that

Couldn't tell you how many generators I have bought for a quarter of heir original purchase price "Used once or twice.  Sat in the shed.  Now won't start"  Nine times out of ten it's just old gas.  So:

If you have bought a generator as an emergency backup supply - it's going to be nothing more than an expensive, petrol-smelling tin box if it won't start when needed.  rules are simple:

Keep the tank full of good-quality clean gas

Put fuel-stabiliser "Stabil" or similar in the tank

Give it a good run once a month

Learn how to open the carb-bowl drain with a 10mm spanner in case it does sit a bit too long and the gas in the bowl gets stale

People say you should turn off the gas and let it run dry?  I dunno.  No need if you do the above imho

Hi All

Bob

Hope all is well down in Taz....

Thanks for the encouraging noises, I'll drag some more kit up here and give it a go, I'm hoping to put a five speed gearbox in my 88" Land Rover next month and that'll involve knocking up new engine mounts as the later box is around 150mm longer, I should have bought a bigger truck!

Mike

That's a good shout, a quick scout around here and they seem a bit dear, still I'm going to go back to the UK at the end of the month, who knows what I can find at the Great Dorset Steam fair...

Cheers
Stef

Stef you could always sell the Landie & retire . . .

https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/land-rover/other/listing/3683250737?bof=vLrQ2Oc0

https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/motors/cars/land-rover/other/listing/3572666400?bof=vLrQ2Oc0

Thanks mikenash,

"Certainly if you extended that pipe by a couple of metres and put fins all over it and ran it through a bathtub full of sand . . ."

I think if I could build a reliable, small, safe waste oil burner, I would not need the sand at all.
Just run the burner constantly along with some safety shutdowns which cut the fuel supply if needed.
I do agree that  an oil burner/heater is the most efficient way to heat with used oil.
Also needed would be a method of rapid/easy cleaning since waste oil leaves a lot of ash and crap in the burn pot.

Does the burner in that picture have a forced air supply or is it self-drafted?

Hi Veggie

I'm keen on "keep it simple" so the burner has no fan.  Really, of course, the flue - which is about four metres long - is the secret to a good draft as you will understand

It's a lousy pic, sorry

The burn pot is just that, a stainless steel, copper-bottomed pot I bought for $2 at the Salvation Army store.  There is a couple of lugs sticking out above it, and a bit of 50X10 flat underneath it with a couple of 13mm holes that match the holes in the two lugs.  There are two shorth lengths of M12 galv rod & some nuts that run from the lugs down to the flat and hold the pot in place. 

The pot is perfectly-sized to fit into the O-ring groove of a NB200mm profile steel flange - so, as it sits up into the groove, it makes quite a good "seal" and is positively located.

I guess it takes about 2 minutes to take it off to clean (loosen the nuts, drop it down, slide it out).  Beneath the whole thing there's a giant stainless bowl about 500mm in diameter and about 200mm deep that just slides in and out.  It's both a "bund" and an easy way to catch any mess when it gets a scrape-out/clean.  I paid $15 for it on FB marketplace

There's no denying they are dirty, messy things

I have a couple of boxes of throw-away gloves and a few cans of brakleen - and I figure they're just the cost of running the thing.  Maybe $10 a month?

I'm fortunate in that I have a source of a great deal of "used" oil which is effectively "new" oil contaminated with metal particles but no combustion byproducts or random automotive fluids.  It's an industrial gear oil from a specific application.  If I let it stand in 200 litre drums for a year or two - then just the bottom few inches is sludge and the rest is effectively "clean" - so my fuel is 100% consistent, free, readily-available and as "clean" as it can be

FWIW I'm just making some changes to the design to improve the "cook-top" function of the top of the burner and to increase the size of the reservior to maybe two or three litres.  But I'd never leave it burning unattended

Happy to help with details or drawings if needed.  Cheers

"I`d be going for a thermal mass chimney system and smudge pot oil burner, but what do I know? Good luck and keep us informed. Bob"

Hi Bob,
The biggest issue I have with used oil heaters is that everything I have seen on youtube has been cobbled together with metal scraps. The units glow cherry red when running, and don't have any form of safety shutdown incorporated. They look fine as experiments, but running one in a garage every day (winters) in a residential area looks risky.
I would love to build a small (20K BTU) oil burner system if I could find a reliable and safe design to follow.
If anyone knows a good forum on this subject, or a good design example, please post it.

I know a little bit about drip-feed and other low-tech oil-burners.  I have made six or eight prototypes and currently have one running.  My short conclusion is that they aren't safe for unattended running and that the only reason I'm happy to have one running in my shed is that it has a small oil reservoir and sort of a "bund" (four or five times the capacity of the reservoir) on top of a concrete hearth just in case it has a brain fart & drops a half-litre of hot oil out the bottom

If you search online - there are good ones using dosing pumps metered by things like little arduinos, with thermostats, oil shut-off solenoids and the like.  BUT, I haven't seen one like this that runs reliably that doesn't use an electric fan . . .

In short I haven't seen one that is good and safe that doesn't have several moving parts

Good luck

Substances such as compacted sand, stone etc will have known properties - the rate at which they will take up heat; and the rate at which that heat will bleed out into cold air - dependant on temperature, ratio of exposed surface area to bulk - and so on . . .

I mention this because a technique widely used here is stone/concrete walls which are exposed to/heated by sunlight during the day - and which slowly release that stored heat at night.  Near me there's a community centre which has massive concrete heat sinks at the back of north-facing (southern hemisphere) rooms which do just that.  They're warm to the touch during the day - and still warm to the touch in the middle of the night.

Obviously it's a new build with good insulation and triple-glazing etc etc - but the point I make is that this is a case of a BIG mass being raised just a few degrees above ambient, then slowly yielding its stored energy back into the room.  SIZE/MASS is the key here.  because it's big - the temperature differential can be small but still work well

Maybe a LOT of sand . . .

mikenash

That starter should work well.
What is the intended use for the Listeroid
Are you going off-grid?

Hi Veg, I guess so.  "Going off grid" kinda sounds like some virtue-signalling, green-wash process.  But the reality is I live somewhere with lots of sunshine hours, I live largely on my own so can please myself how I live (except when the grandkids are there, of course).  I have good skills with woodstoves, basic solar hot water and basic photovoltaic; and I'd prefer not to pay a power bill.

I have two sections and there is mains cable to the next-door one, and I could get it connected - perhaps when I get old & feeble?

But right now I get on fine with solar/woodstove/gas hob/oil-burner

When I retire to that spot full-time - perhaps in a couple of years, as I'm 65 - I'll upgrade the photovoltaic to maybe 1500W and a big LiFePo4

I'm aware that I'm not gonna be a $$-rich retiree.  So if I can avoid paying a power bill - then I will

Cheers

Hey Stef talking about your Rayburn reminds me . . . I have had woodstoves with wetbacks in the last four houses.  Each one has been more heavily modified than the last to the point where with this place (it's more of a shed/workshop/house than just a "house") I built my own from scratch - as much as for any other reason to get the wetback "right" so that the thermosiphon produces enough hot water - but not so much that the cylinder is always boiling . . .

We have talked before about my oil-burner attachment to the front of the stove - it's a pragmatic move . . . .I have access to almost unlimited oil and I need heating, so . . . and you have (quite rightly) laughed at its crudity

Since my last trip up there I have been tinkering with the burn pot - chasing efficiency and "clean, hot burn".  I gave it a bit of a run last weekend and it's interesting how the column of hot air/flame heats the water via the wetback - an unexpected bonus

Before I turned it off at bedtime, I gave it a two or three minute burst with all the air intakes wide open ("full throttle")  and that (sorry, very low quality) pic is the result.  It took about three minutes for that steel bend (150mm diameter, 5mm wall) to be glowing bright red and too hot to get anywhere near.  It's ugly but well worth playing with

If I can get it heating water via the wetback efficiently then even better

The wetback is a single flat section - effectively the "back"of the firebox about 500mm wide by 250mm high by 60mm deep - homebuilt out of welded 6mm stainless plate with 50mm (2") wetback fittings and 40mm copper pipe between wetback & cylinder

Cheers