Author Topic: Tough engine, stupid operator  (Read 3197 times)

Hugh Conway

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Tough engine, stupid operator
« on: February 03, 2016, 01:33:55 AM »
I changed over my cooling system today. Removed the 30 gallon tank and installed an old 10 fin cast iron radiator. That part works great.

When done, I fired 'er up to charge my off-grid battery bank. After it warmed up, I removed the air filter and sprayed a bit of water into the intake........do that every so often to clean out the carbon. Slopped a bit of water, so unthinking (my excuse is that I was tired after a long day) picked up a rag to dry things off. The damned thing got sucked into the engine!!!!!

A 10" square cotton rag does slow things down. However, it did not stop, so figured what the hay, let it go and see what happens. After a few minutes it started to pick back up, resumed 650 rpm, and continued to charge the batteries. Has been running for another hour now.......everything normal.
That's one way to clean it up inside; would not recommend it though.

Cheers,
Hugh
JKson 6/1  (Utterpower PMG ) Off-grid
Lister 6/1 Start-O-Matic engine......running with PMG
1978 Royal Enfield (glutton for punishment by Indian iron)
1963 BMW R-27 project

dieselgman

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Re: Tough engine, stupid operator
« Reply #1 on: February 03, 2016, 03:15:22 AM »
That story reminds me of several occasions where rags have caused me a lot of grief... each time a rag sucked into an engine inlet. It is common practice for us to protect an open inlet port with a cloth rag while working an engine in the shop... works fine until it is forgotten and the engine is cranked!
On more than one occasion a rag blocking the inlet has prevented a new engine from startup and a couple times when it was not noticed - caused a lot of work trying to figure out why the beastie would not start up. Once, way back when I was young, I had a finger sucked into a revved up engine cooling fan by a rag. You would think I would learn something by such costly and painful experiences!  ???

dieselgman
« Last Edit: February 03, 2016, 03:17:05 AM by dieselgman »
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