You can "search" for it the same way I would! I don't have it stored locally, if that's what you mean.

--Justin

I have 38AC's balancing procedure. Looks to be a hassle, but I have an idea that I've seen in practice on a hit-or-miss engine, and on tire balancing. My setup is on a rigid-frame set of I-beams, and I will have (4) heavy-duty rubber engine mounts under it. This makes the whole engine a dynamic load, and subject to the sway of the vibration. I've seen 3/4" steel pipe (electrical conduit, I believe), fabricated into a closed loop, sized just to fit inside the rim of the each flywheel, and either welded or encased in epoxy for a secure bond. Each hoop is filled with a few pounds of loose lead shot.

Since the engine is free to vibrate on the rubber engine mounts, centripetal force distributes the shot around the hoop within seconds of starting, but not evenly. A vibration cycle to the left, forces the shot to the right, since the engine assembly moves to the left and the shot is free to move on its own. This actually forces the shot to distribute itself in exactly the opposite directions as the flywheel overweight, causing the flywheel to be self-balanced within a few dozen revolutions of the engine. They do the same thing to automatically balance tires. (Look up a product called Dynabeads. You put them in a car or motorcycle tire to do the same thing and they work very well.) I've seen this done on a hit-and-miss engine and the engine was as smooth as you could please.

This method of balancing will work its way into the final setup at some point.

Agree that there isn't much waste heat in the cooling system. It takes a good long run to get things warm, and a moderate cooling surface does a good job of dissipating it.

--Justin

Overthinking things is a true skill of mine... Not saying that I'm good at it, just something that I do a lot! 

Thanks for all the great replies! I will be switching to 15W-40 and next Summer's project might be to add some kind on periodically-running electric oil pump to run the oil through a filter. Maybe.

I live near the USA/Canada border, so Hugh's insights are very appreciated. Thank you for that!

As 38ac stated, these engines have come through thick and thin and in far worse conditions than mine will ever get, so I should not let "perfect" be the enemy of "good."

Great information here, and I thank you all for taking the time to jot your insights down for my education!

--Justin

I have a recently-running 1999 Metro 6/1. It's hooked up to an ST-5 generator head. I'm using a thermo-siphon and 20 feet of baseboard heating cores as a cooling system. I have machined an adapter for an automotive thermostat (195 degrees) be be placed in the head to regulate temperature. The cylinder head heats to about 190 before the glycol starts flowing and holds a temperature between 193 and 205 for the entire time of the engine's running.

Here's the question: no matter what load I put on the engine, everything from idle to a continuous 3,500 watts being pushed by the generator, hours at a time, the water remains nearly constant in temperature, and heats quickly at initial startup because of the thermostat. I'm running just under a gallon of Rotella SAE30 oil in the sump. No matter the load, no matter the time the engine runs (often 8 hours or more at a time), the base of the crankcase never exceeds 130 degrees, which tells me that the oil never exceeds 130 degrees. It takes quite a wile (well over an hour of hard running) to attain this temperature.

I've always done well by the rule of never starting an internal combustion engine unless I plan on getting the oil good and hot to drive out the moisture byproducts of combustion, and in my mind, that means getting the oil above 212 degrees for a reasonable length of time. In this engine, however, that does not seem possible, and concerns me about the oil life and the buildup of acids and other unwanted chemistry.

A secondary question with this is that if the sump always stays relatively cool, should I consider putting a 15 weight oil, or a multi-viscosity oil (15W-40?) for winter? It's not uncommon for me to want to run this engine at temperatures well below freezing, and since the sump never gets hot, I'm seriously wondering about the effective splashing action of honey-thick oil in there.

What has experience taught all of you who have had their engines run far more hours than I have yet to put on mine?

I made a (crummy) video of the engine to show the guy that I bought it from that I got it running, and it shows the cooling system, mounting, generator, etc, in case you're curious about the layout or perhaps I've made some fundamentally poor design choices that I need to address. Feedback and your own experience welcomed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPBrGu09J9U

Thanks!

--Justin

I'm not a fan of having an "always engaged" starter. It jsut seems like a waste of energy constantly turning a mechanism for nothing and it's just one more thing to break over time. I think about how fast I have to crank to get it my 6/1 started, and I can't imagine my hand turning that crank faster that about twice around per second, or 120 RPM.

That said, a 12V DC or 120V AC universal motor (like on a 120V drill) could be fitted with a small wheel with a rubber tire and mounded to a handle that's attached to the engine base frame on a hinge or similar pivot point. (Imagine a broom handle attached to the frame with a hinge.) The motor/wheel is attached to the middle of the handle and arranged so that the wheel is not in contact with anything normally, but can be moved to be in contact with the engine flywheel by moving the handle when desired. Gravity or a spring returns it when in its resting position. Since commutator motors (DC or universal) spin at much higher speeds, the wheel can be much smaller to get the desired engine RPM, giving you a greater mechanical advantage. To start the engine, you just turn on the motor, push it up to grab the flywheel and then when the engine starts, lower then handle and shut off the motor. Or engage and then turn on the motor if the motor is sized so that you don't need to initially "slip" it to keep it from stalling. Since the motor is DC (and universal motors can run on DC as well), you don't need perfect AC power and could use a string of batteries or whatever voltage is needed to get it rolling.

A similar idea would be to attach the motor to the engine base and use a belt/pulley arrangement where the belt is larger than needed and freewheels with no power transferred because of continual slip. The handle arrangement described above would have an idler pulley instead of the motor, and when you wanted to start the engine, you'd turn on the motor and move the handle to take up the slack in the belt and get the engine rolling that way. Then when it starts, you let go of the handle and let the belt freewheel again.

--Justin

Thanks for the advice. I am not a fan of RTV on things and was really looking for a way to avoid it. It sounds like I'm a not out of luck on this since it sounds like it's a pretty common problem. RTV it is!

Thanks a lot!

--Justin

Interesting. Did Lister only make one kind of ring, and it's for chromed bores? This is certainly not a chrome bore, since I had it honed without any problems. The Lister rings don't look chromed, they look like standard grey metal. (They would be "gray" in American English!) So, I'm hearing that I should put the Metro rings back in, imperfections an all?

--Justin