Hi all,
It’s nice to have a place for Listeroid-heads to congregate. Until now I’ve felt out of place hanging out on the old engine sites. Hope the site attracts like minded folks.
After looking for a long time, I bought an Ashwamegh 6/1 from George this past May. As soon as I got it home I tore it apart down to nuts and bolts (many of which I replaced), stripped the paint and plaster (!) filler, and removed the minor surface rust down to bare metal. I then sanded and primed the castings with auto body primer, then topcoated with Rustoleum Hammered Silver spray paint. It gleams like a pearl.
Found some pockets of casting sand in the crankcase around the corners beneath the upper deck. Removed them with a screwdriver, then rinsed the crankcase with paint thinner before applying a coat of red Rustoleum paint to all the interior surfaces to cover the damage I had inflicted to the factory-applied paint with all my scraping. Then placed about 6 1” round magnets in the sump to catch ferrous metal nasties. During final assembly I didn’t uncover any major defects with the exception of the piston wrist pin. The pin had a considerable amount of casting sand in it. Bad place for that to turn up, and it was fortuante I didn’t run the engine before tearing it down.
During reassembly it’s important to get the piston/head clearance right. There’s a specification, something like 0.055” to 0.065”. I took two small slivers of soft lead and placed them on top of the piston, then applied and fully torqued the cylinder head nuts. After turning the flywheel a few times, I then removed the head and measured the squished lead pieces. The cylinder base gaskets (mine had two) can be used to adjust that clearance. Each is about 0.015” thick. My engine measured about 0.070” which was so close, I didn’t bother to go back and remove a gasket. If I were at a higher altitude, or living in a cold climate where higher compression is desirable, I probably would have done so.
I finished assembly on a steel assembly bench I welded from 1 1/2” steel angle, and bolted the engine to the 3/4” plywood top. After evicting a seemingly never ending stream of air bubbles from the fuel lines and injection pump, the engine finally caught when I cranked it over and accelerated smoothly to 600 rpm. I had my hand on the fuel rack the whole time ready to shut it down if it started hopping around like the proverbial “jackrabbit on steroids,” but no need. As soon as the fuel injector “pings” it’s time to pull the crank off the shaft. In fact, I no longer use the compression release to start. Simply back the flywheel up against compression, then crank hard a couple of turns in the opposite direction. As soon as you get through the compression stroke and the injector pings, the engine is off and running.
I static balanced the engine using the procedure described on the CD. My engine ended up needing 15 oz. of weight opposite the cast-in counter weights on the flywheels. But when I wired that much lead to the flywheels and cranked it up, there was really no improvement. I think a lot of what people perceive to be out-of-balance vibration is actually caused by the acceleration and deceleration of the flywheels during each power and compression stroke. The engine mounts are only13” apart, and each power and compression stroke really wants to rock the engine back and forth. Sitting on the assembly stand with only two ¼” steel bolts holding it in place, vibration was considerable. However I found when I bolted my engine to its 3/8” steel angle bed which was bolted to a 4” x 6” timber frame it didn’t vibrate as much. Then, when I belted the engine to the ST-5 generator the added mass of the rotor and shock absorbing properties of the serpentine belt smoothed it out some more. Finally, when I applied a load to the generator and the engine began to work a bit, the vibration pretty much went away. I wouldn’t set a wine glass on the fuel tank while it’s running, but it’s certainly acceptable, given that it’s a one-lunger. And yes, you can feel each power stroke through your feet on the garage slab. I think that could be fixed by placing some pieces of blown-out truck tire tread between the slab and whatever you mount the engine to.
So far, the engine seems to handle a 3800 watt load with only the tiniest amount of smoke. I expect that it should handle about 10% more once the rings are seated and I finish the cooling system. I got a radiator from Ebay for a 1995 Geo Metro for $79. It’s about 14” square, with vertical cooling passages, so it should thermal siphon well. I’ll run it unpressurized with a coolant recovery tank to act as both a sight glass and easy fill point.
Apparently George and Joel are no longer selling the Ashwamegh because according to Joel, “Ashwamegh doesn’t stand behind their product.” Don’t quite know what that means, but with so many manufacturers out there, importers can pick and choose as they like.
Cheers!
Quinn
