1905 Hornsby hot bulb

I've now got the engine home and had it running in the garden for a few hours as it's not been run for some time now, there ia a picture and video albeit a poor quality video which magnifies the mechanical noise but it's a representation

For some time now I've known that the engine gets tight after running a while so I removed the piston and de-carbonised it as there was quite a bit in there.
I also adjusted the big end shims as there was some tightness there too, this has had quite an effect on the running as it's quite hard to govern the speed (it was a bit of a problem before), rev's constantly fluctuate up and down.

I have decided against re-cutting the ball valve seats in the pump instead I’ve selected some different balls and tapped them to seat them in the existing seals and it seems to have worked quite well.
I made an insert to take an “O” ring in place of the string seal that was original equipment, this seemed to be fine but the ring can’t have been of the correct rubber for oils as quite quickly it swelled and caused the piston to hold up, I’ve gone back to string for the time being.

With the pump now appearing to pump reasonably reliably I set about the injector.
I stripped the unit out and checked it out and made a new injector nozzle as the original seemed to have too large a hole.
The hole is 14 thou and I’m told it should be more like 4thou, the smallest I can drill one is 12 thou but that’s around thirty per cent less area so at least it will be better

I have now re-fitted everything and test fired the engine, it seemed better for the period that I ran it but it had no coolant so it was a short run.
I’ll be giving it a proper run to assess the new injector (there seemed less smoke from the exhaust which is encouraging).

Many years ago this engine had the piston turned upside down to gain some compression (a practice I’ve been told was common to get more life out of a bore cheaply).
Having sorted the pump and injector I tried running it with the piston in the correct way up but there was audible blow by and it deposited so much carbon on the bore in a short time that the piston locked up and became too tight to turn.
I’ve since learned from Ray Hooley that the injector hole was correct and should be 15thou, so I’ve turned the piston back the other way and honed the bore.
I think I’ve now sorted it as it now seems to run quite well.
I made a short video of it running after the last work.

21.06.09 engine has now been working well for some time and I've rallied it twice, Strumpshaw 09 and Suffolk agricultural show 09.
Ran faultlessly at Strumpshaw all three days but suffered a blocked injector at the Suffolk show, I stripped the injector out at the show and fitted the original nossle.
It then ran faultlessly for the rest of the show.

12/03/2016
I had intended on starting the Ruston 7HRG but things have changed a bit, up until now whenever I decided to rally this engine it was a major undertaking, having to manoeuvre it out of workshop, turn through 90 degrees on a small patch of concrete barely big enough before perfectly aligning to winch onto twin axle trailer.
I decided to make life a lot easier (not getting any younger and have suffered a weakening illness (brachial neuritis)) and turn its trolley into a towable trailer that I can hook up to with van or tractor and just go.
Trolley was made very sturdy in first place with 4 inch box and 3/16” wall with quarter plate top and bottom, however this wasn’t wide enough for safe towing on road so extended sides (see pictures).
I found an old set of twin axles and spring on eBay which could see was rusty, I didn’t realize how bad it was and had to make a lot new with new bearings and brakes, wasn’t really worth it but spent too much getting it to dump it.
I managed to get a second hand hitch and have fitted “A” frame, been a slow process due to the illness and I’m also making a piston for a friends Gardner 1F at moment.

14/02/2020
With Gardner now fully complete I'm turning attention to Mr Hornsby
Future of the large Ruston 7HRG in uncertainty as to whether I'll actually continue with it, I've decided to start a long desired project of having Mr Hornsby relined.

I've wanted to do this for some years now as he's quite worn and has very low compression, I've also done some jobs on it that needed doing plus, having discarded the previous project of turning his base into a trailer display, I'm going back to same base he's been on since getting him.
Also I've traded the exhaust pot he had which was a Campbell one for a proper original Hornsby jobby, I've removed exhaust from base and piping straight to pot as going through base took away what little note they have and left with just inlet and mechanical noise.
I've put up some pictures of what's happened so far

02/06/17
With sadness and embarrassment I have to report that I’ve had to drop this project.
I have to confess the raw materials were really bad and should have stopped there before spending a lot more money and time on it, after assessing it with the aid of an opinion of a friend it became obvious this has some issues that although could be fixed would cost a lot more time and money.
I’m having to start again and re-think how set up a trailer mount, (should have bought a half decent twin axle trailer and sat it on it in first place).
Progress will re-commence soon (hopefully).

28/04/2020
The engine has suffered more in its life than had been realized, it has been left when it should have had a bore and sleeve many years ago.
Instead piston had been turned over and oil hole for big end feed put in top which with reverse loading gave it some compression back.
This has all resulted in the water jacket being crammed full of rusty crud and resulting mega uneven cooling has made cylinder badly distorted and needed too much removed too use existing piston so I’ve had a new one cast.

Starting to build back up, new cast piston and pattern haven’t arrived back from heat treatment yet (assuming this is due to present Covid19 virus lock down).
Front end is mainly together along with new water inlet flange (had to make a new one as the existing jobby was quite a cobbled up mess (this must have been done in its working life))

04/07/2020
Been making some progress! I’ve fitted and plumbed up cooling and exhaust system.
The tank is now mounted above exhaust pot as shown earlier in this page, I’ve had to make flanges for pot as didn’t receive any when I received it.

10/10/2020
Not a large update, but! after sometime of having the new casted piston I'm finally starting machining of the new cast piston over next week or so.
Not sure how long it'll take, I have had a set of rings made by Alan Smith of The Clupit Ring & Gauge Company.

11/11/2020
Started machining new piston and have got it to size and cut ring grooves (going for 4 one quarter thick rings instead of original 3 three eight jobbies).
Piston is now to size with correct wastage at top to allow for heat expansion, however! There is a major cock up! (should have checked both ends of liner for inner diameter), honing company has frapped it up and seem to have over crushed back end and is under size.
Too much to be honed and don’t know at this stage how this is going to be rectified as piston is now to size (company has since gone under after first COVID-19 lock down).
Steve Green (theengineegineer) is assisting with this at moment, liner is once again out and with him at moment, piston still needs gudgeon pin hole, cheeks of gudgeon pin area and oil feed hole machined.
Some pictures from piston machining.

24/11/2020
The liner is now with a large engine machining engineer and am awaiting news as to whether he can do anything with it, just praying he doesn’t hurt me too much on price.
Meanwhile I’ve completed piston machining and tried it on conrod, the images below are rest of piston machining and complete on rod.

07/04/2021
After over a year it’s finally finished, cylinder finally came back from company who corrected the cock-up the other firm did.
I’ve fitted to main case, set ring gaps, assembled rings onto piston and completed piston/rod assembly.
Completed engine build up and ran for first time (in workshop due to weather), as soon as we have some better dryer/warmer weather I intend getting outside for a good run.
Here are some pictures and a video.