Turned out freight quoted was kinda $NZ500+ shipping NZ-USA, probably similar to the UK?  That was for a nominal engine-szed pallet (and, as you say, that is plus customs etc etc)

https://www.trademe.co.nz/property/residential-property-for-sale/auction-1444849722.htm?rsqid=063c204937754465a8e7614bf297e810

even has gum trees . . .

Hi Guys

I know folks on here love to share their experience, and I'm interested in improving my thinking on inverters . . .

Firstly let me say I have been re-reading Starfire's excellent post and subsequent responses.  See link below:

http://listerengine.com/smf/index.php?topic=7460.msg84365#msg84365

I'm a big KISS fan.  I used to enjoy having cars with points ignitions and carburettors cos I could see how everything worked and diagnose a fault in 5 mins flat - but I have gotten over that particular Ludditery and these days have a couple of $1000 2.2-litre Toyota Camrys as they are the philosophical equivalent and may well outlast me

I'd like to own an inverter like the Camry - tough, simple, good, over-engineered and under-stressed . . .

The gentleman who has been advising me on solar stuff - and whose advice I have found to be good - suggests that the modern combination of inverter & charge controllers are the "way to go"

He is recommending this unit:

https://www.victronenergy.com/inverter-charger-mppt/easysolar

But I could just as easily buy whatever I can find that is a super-robust charge-controller and do things like managing charging/voltage myself, and maybe run two or three small inverters

Typically my households use bugger-all current as I tend not to have anything with an electric element apart from an electric blanket and a small toaster.  My norm/current setup is: solar hot water, woodstove, wetback, gas hob, low-output microwave, spring-fed water so no pumps etc etc - a familiar picture I am sure

I am attracted to the Outback inverters

I have a couple of 230V gen heads as works-in-progress and hope to be in a situation where one or other of the two CSs can be either putting 24VDC back into a battery bank and/or generating a few kWs AC if I need to run the small welder or the angle grinder

I'd be interested on thoughts on inverters and on modern complex/sophisticated equipment like the Victron units vs something heavy and simple with a big copper transformer and a steel frame and two big handles kind-of-setup

I have a couple of quiet, (one genuine Honda, one cheap Chinese) 2.4 kW generators with 15-litre tanks that can idle inaudibly all night if need be, plus a big 5kVA genset that can run the fast-acting 3.6kW 60-litre hot-water cylinder as a convenience if the sun isn't shining, the fire hasn't been going and herself wants a shower NOW . . . so no real need for a big-current inverter.  If I had just one unit (instead of a few small ones) it'd be a 1500/2000W job, I would say

I don't reckon I give a rat's about pure sine either.  Everything I own seems to run OK on a dirty square wave with a few corners clipped off and, in my luddite-ish way I figure cos the laptop runs off of a 19.5V (DC I assume) charger thingie, it probably doesn't care if the VAC going into it is a bit dirty?  Since I am blessed to not own a TV I don't care about that either

I might put a search on TradeMe (think ebay/gumtree) for small inverters and get an idea of what sells for what $$

Enough from me - this is turning into a Glort-length rant

I'd appreciate any thoughts

Cheers, Mike

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fR9nDN73brg&feature=share

Steph, thanks very much

That's an absolute beauty - especially the finish

I hadn't considered the alloy piston as an option - but I guess with such a "cold" engine their durability is good

(the 3.5/1 came with some random English truck piston fitted, and it had run on-and-off for years like that.  The guy I bought it off was in his '30s maybe, and his grandfather had fitted it "years ago")

Is there a body of experience/school of thought around the longevity of the alloy pistons?

Cheers

Hey there experts & knowledgeable folks . . .

I have a couple of 6/1s, but also the bottom end of a 3.5/1 in the yard as well (I gave the barrel and heads to some bloke for his one)

The 3.5/1 piston is a bit lighter, I guess, so maybe the counter-weights on the wheels are different - does anyone have any experience around the interchangeability or otherwise of these, I wonder?

What started this train of thought is that the mains are probably the same bolt-hole pattern so the case could be a donor "spare", cleaner-upper for one of my 6/1s

Then I started wondering about the crank . . . am I right in thinking maybe there were two sizes journals of 3/1 big-ends and maybe (a later?) one is the same dimension as the 6/1?  Or maybe that's wishful thinking?  What excited me there is one of my 6/1s has buggered Gib keys with the heads snapped-off and is going to be challenging one day; but the 3/1 bottom end has good-looking keyways and gibs

Apart from all that, it seemed to me that if you took the 3/1 wheels off and put them on an axle in a pair of rollers and cut off the balance weights carefully until they were "neutral" balance-wise; you could just about run two flywheels on both sides of one of the 6/1s as an experiment in rotating-mass and anti-flickering and stuff like that?  (After all, the one with the buggered gib keys is never going to want to yield its flywheels so I could trim what little is left of the heads of the gibs back to nothing without being any worse off - and snug-up another pair of flywheels

Just an idle thought-train of a cold Saturday evening with the fire going and peace-and-quiet here to allow the brain to wander . . .

Cheers

Here you go Glort

I forget how people got onto the subject of micro-vee pulleys, but this is the driven pulley for my 3000 RPM head off the 24” wheel of the CS (should run no-load 3150 at 580 engine RPM if my count-on-the-fingers is right)

It’s the aircon pulley off a big truck.  I went to the local truck wreckers with a pair of vernier callipers and checked out the pulleys on lots of engines until I found one close to perfect

There were lots of those 8PK pulleys of all sorts of diameters from 250mm downwards driving water pumps and power-steering pumps and some quite big-load sort of truck stuff

This one had a clutch in the centre as it was an aircon pulley and I cut that out and filed the stubs of the lugs out of the way

I just cut a bit of M16 plate into a circle, welded it onto the end of a bit of 40mm shaft, got the local machinist to turn it to 107mm to suit the I/D of the pulley and face-up the back of it square

Tacked the pulley in place using the thumbnail-ometer to get it flush and gave it a trial spin on the lathe to check it for true – it came up primo.

$80 for the pulley and $20 for the machinist