Topic starter
15/01/2014 1:22 am
Due to a very gracious grant from Atlas Machine Company, the Belle is getting her main engines bored, along with fabricating new pistons and rings! They started last week boring the stbd. cylinder, finishing with that cylinder today. You can see in the foreground past repairs when "imperfections" in the cast wear through. Such imperfections will be covered with a liquid steel compound called Belzone before honing. The dark areas on the far end of the cylinder are just shadows from my amateur photography skills. Atlas has been able to do their work with the cylinders left in place--saving much time, work, and anxiety! More photos to come!
15/01/2014 7:36 am
She's gonna be hot rod now!!! Bored & stroked!!!
🙂
Is this in preparation for a future race with the DQ?? 🙂
15/01/2014 4:14 pm
Atlas Co. donation
As I recall the newspaper article a while back announcing this gift from Atlas, it pointed out how much it would save the ownership and would make her 'good to go' for many a more year...so if the nasty rumors of her planned demise after the Birthday Bash would complain about the expense of needed repairs, blah blah blah, I would think it look 'fishy' after this generous act.
Topic starter
25/01/2014 5:11 pm
While I have certainly heard these rumors of the Belle's shutdown after her 100th birthday many times, I believe a project like this shows an earnest effort to keep her running for many more years. Such rumors remind me of all of the instances I've been asked by people how long the Belle will last and my answer tends to be, "She'll last as long as she is cared for." Anyway, I look forward to the next race with the Delta Queen! Here's a shot of the machine boring the port cylinder, minus the hydraulic pump I couldn't fit into the photo. Atlas finished honing the cylinders this last Monday--all looks well and we await the new pistons and refurbished rods!
27/01/2014 5:54 pm
Terrific news, Dan - thanks for the updates! Does the use of Belzona permit building up the walls enough to get back to the original bore, or will the cylinders end up still a bit oversize?
Topic starter
29/01/2014 11:16 pm
The Belzona is just to fill in any severe inclusions showing up after boring. The cylinders were not out of round as much as expected, but the cylinders will be slightly larger (no more than 3/16" removed). New pistons and rings are being fabricated to fit the new cylinder dimension. The metal for both the piston and rings will be of a softer material than the cylinder to help better preserve the cylinder's shape.
30/01/2014 12:42 am
Why fix something that's not broke? By that I mean, it seems the old piston and ring materials were just fine. Those engines have been around a long, long time....at least a century come this October and those pistons and rings have traveled many a thousand miles inside those cylinders. If they've only worn the cylinders less than 3/16" out of round in all this time and all those miles, it seems to me they were darn near perfect in the first place. Old Reese knew what they were doing when they built those engines in 1914 or the 1870's as some people speculate.
Topic starter
31/01/2014 4:02 am
Actually, the rings are replaced 5-7 years, and one of the pistons was replaced when it collapsed during a spring start-up in the sixties. The new pistons will be, basically, of the same design. The reason they are being made new, though, is to use a softer material than the cylinder to slow down wear on the cylinders. These cylinders were honed (and possibly bored) in years passed. I doubt Reese envisioned these engines running for this many years, so we are charting new territory in how they are maintained. The ingenuity of their operation is still preserved, but the genius of their design is in the simplicity of the parts to be replaced (as we have many times) if we intend to operate them. It reminds me of an analogy Alan bates would use in describing the Belle's preservation like the old family ax--still the same ax, but has had the handle replaced many times!
01/02/2014 5:30 am
Dan,
You forgot, that axe head was replaced twice too--but it's sill great-great grandpa's axe!
Of course, in the Belle's case, the cylinders are still the originals. I wonder how many times the piston rods have been replaced?
Hmm, and how much larger are the bores from the original diameter?
S'
David D.