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BOLINDER ENGINES


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There is no doubt that a single cylinder hot-bulb engine has a magic to it like no other. There is a lot of rubbish talked about them and they are made out to be far harder to run and maintain than they actually are. Like anything if they are totally worn out they will behave badly like any engine that is totally worn out. The advantage being that they mostly have no more than about 20 moving parts in the whole engine. Most of these are big so it is easy to find the problem. Pretty much anything can be repaired or replaced. I was lucky enought to have a hot-bulb Petter in my boat one of the often forgotten narrowboat engines as only a few survived. Not as dramatic as a Bolinder because it wasn't hit and miss or direct reversing. I dispute massively the comment about poor economy. I always found them to be very economical. Not signifcantly worse than the Lister JP2 I had. Recently I have had a few Kromhout hot-bulb engines in the workshop which were used in a couple of the GUCC Royalty Class motors and some other tugs. A good engine with some interesting features.

 

here is a video clip of one: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=xyW0xAMXdu8

 

Like Malcolm said each engine is different and has little quirks but learn to listen to them and it just becomes part of the routine.

 

I have a 9hp Kromhout for sale at the moment if anybody is interested - £3k so not daft money. I also know where a 15hp Bolinder is lurking and could probably help facilitate a good deal on that.

 

For my own fun I now have a German hot-bulb tractor which is like an 11 litre 35hp single Bolinder on wheels. Here is a clip of one: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=hCGtYyrlTt4

 

John

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Why do film and TV lovies always imagine that old vehicles should sound like a cross between a knackered sewing machine and a pneumatic drill, even when they have the veteran or vintage car on their film set they stick their microphone right under the bonnet to get 'the authentic sound'..

 

In fact the reverse is invariably true, I was once stood with some friends alongside a veteran Renault for probably half an hour.. The owner got in, put it into gear and drove away, we were totally unaware that the thing had been running for all that time.

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Fortunata, that rise and fall in revs when you start it must be a feature of Gardners. My 2LW does just the same. I think it is doing it to annoy me: I start the engine, wander off to do something else, then hear the engine note slowing down almost to a stop, rush back to the boat to restart it - and almost invariably the engine has accelerated again by the time I get there!

Someone with more technical knowledge than me (and that's probably most of you) will know why it does this. Could you tell me, please?

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Like Malcolm said each engine is different and has little quirks but learn to listen to them and it just becomes part of the routine.

 

For my own fun I now have a German hot-bulb tractor which is like an 11 litre 35hp single Bolinder on wheels. Here is a clip of one: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=hCGtYyrlTt4

 

John

 

That tractor is great! Does the steering wheel ever come of like that when you're driving it?

SteveE

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Fortunata, that rise and fall in revs when you start it must be a feature of Gardners. My 2LW does just the same. I think it is doing it to annoy me: I start the engine, wander off to do something else, then hear the engine note slowing down almost to a stop, rush back to the boat to restart it - and almost invariably the engine has accelerated again by the time I get there!

Someone with more technical knowledge than me (and that's probably most of you) will know why it does this. Could you tell me, please?

 

Hi, it's probably because the tickover is set too low, and the centrifugal governor kicks in to speed it up (see page 46 'operating & maintenance instructions for Gardner LW engines), recommended tickover around 420rpm. Hope that helps and excuse my input.

albi

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That tractor is great! Does the steering wheel ever come of like that when you're driving it?

SteveE

No it has a big catch on the steering column that holds it in place. It effectively takes the place of the pin in the flywheel on a Bolinder. The end of the crankshaft is drilled and a slot milled acros the face to match the end of the steering cloumn. The trick is not to pump too much fuel in or they can get a bit lively when you start them and the steering wheel can jump out of the crank. Also if they get cold, just like a Bolinder the engine can reverse by itself. It is a bit scary when you put it in forward gear at the lights and set off backwards!

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How is it that Marshall engines were not used in narrowboats? Was it the fact that you needed two people to turn them over.

I would have thought they would have been an ideal engine, single cylinder loads of low down power. I have never seen or heard one in a narrowboat.

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How is it that Marshall engines were not used in narrowboats? Was it the fact that you needed two people to turn them over.

I would have thought they would have been an ideal engine, single cylinder loads of low down power. I have never seen or heard one in a narrowboat.

 

They're horizontal engines, and are integrated into the tractor chassis. It would be a fairly major engineering challenge to adapt one (properly) to drive a narrowboat.

Also these days the tractors fetch premium prices!

 

BTW it doesn't take two people to turn them over, one person can quite easily start a Field Marshall, I've done it loads of times.

 

Tim

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They're horizontal engines, and are integrated into the tractor chassis. It would be a fairly major engineering challenge to adapt one (properly) to drive a narrowboat.

Also these days the tractors fetch premium prices!

 

BTW it doesn't take two people to turn them over, one person can quite easily start a Field Marshall, I've done it loads of times.

 

Tim

 

Hi Tim

 

Wouldn't want to meet you on a dark night then :lol: 40 years ago, my then brother in laws dad was a farmer, and he had a field Marshall driving a corn drier. We were always given the job of starting it with the two man starting handle. We did note that when he had to start it a cartridge and smoldering blotting paper were used. Not so with us it was "git on that andle and git the bloody thing guing". :lol:

Now we were then two strapping youths and swinging a tractor starting handle was normally no bother but this monster was something else.

When the De-compressor ran off the groove in the flywheel the piston would stop dead and would have us doing somersaults over the starting handle, much to the amusement of others.

Edited by Big COL
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Hi Tim

 

Wouldn't want to meet you on a dark night then :lol: 40 years ago, my then brother in laws dad was a farmer, and he had a field Marshall driving a corn drier. We were always given the job of starting it with the two man starting handle. We did note that when he had to start it a cartridge and smoldering blotting paper were used. Not so with us it was "git on that andle and git the bloody thing guing". :lol:

Now we were then two strapping youths and swinging a tractor starting handle was normally no bother but this monster was something else.

When the De-compressor ran off the groove in the flywheel the piston would stop dead and would have us doing somersaults over the starting handle, much to the amusement of others.

 

I'm amazed you could start it at all without the blotting paper :lol:

Restarting when hot, yes, but only very quickly after stalling or whatever.

 

Tim

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My current dream boat has a 15 horse Bollinder with hydraulic drive- hence less scary reversing!

 

There's also the story of the fleet owner who refused to fit the costly reversing gear to his Bollinders when he first bought them, reasoning that as horses don't have reverse gear, engines don't need them either!

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The tractor on the road reminded me of a .... doodle bug. OK while you can hear them !

 

It did seem quite easy to start the other tractor in the (nice & large) garage. Was he swinging it either way against compression ? And then finally over the top in the right direction ?

 

And did he drive off with the blow lamp still on ?

Edited by jake_crew
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The tractor on the road reminded me of a .... doodle bug. OK while you can hear them !

 

It did seem quite easy to start the other tractor in the (nice & large) garage. Was he swinging it either way against compression ? And then finally over the top in the right direction ?

 

And did he drive off with the blow lamp still on ?

 

It's a fairly standard way of starting a small semi-diesel, bouncing back & forth between compressions until it fires, hoping when it does it's in the right direction :lol:

 

Tim

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My current dream boat has a 15 horse Bollinder with hydraulic drive- hence less scary reversing!

 

There's also the story of the fleet owner who refused to fit the costly reversing gear to his Bollinders when he first bought them, reasoning that as horses don't have reverse gear, engines don't need them either!

As a matter of interest, Bolinders fitted in the Irish M boats had the reversing gear removed. One of the crew was known as the "stop rope man", and he used a pretty mighty rope to do just that. I guess it was a simple financial equation-a cheaper, more certain way of stopping, rather than rely on direct reversing.

I doubt the maximum RPM of a Bolinder would supply enough "oomph" to power up a hydraulic pump?

Let me know if you want to buy a 15 horse. I've got one here in England, which wants work, and I know of another that can possibly be purchased elsewhere. That one is in operational condition, and has only ever been in one boat.

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Tell me about it :lol:

 

I've made an instruction video in case my wife ever has to start the Kelvin for herself!

 

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=wEaS097_tww

 

Nice engine , interesting video. I thought the whole point of the petrol starting process was that you could do it by starting handle for when the batteries were flat , stolen or maybe never installed. The impulse mag, low compression petrol chambers etc enable you to just turn the handle slowly and away it goes, independant of any electricity supply and do-able even in a force 10 off the West coast of Scotland. Kelvin claim even the K6 132HP can be started by hand using this method.Still a lot more dignified than leaping about in the engine room trying to kick one of them Bollingers up.( done that - good chance of breaking a leg , foot or head and/or burns from the blow lamp)

Bill

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Hi,

 

Thought the filming quality of the video excellent, does the engine blow smoke rings?, I still think the Gardner method of switching on the ignition and pushing the start button is easier, athough you 'Kelvin Chappies' might miss the sound of a load of nails rattling round in a galvanised iron bucket .

 

Albi.

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I thought the whole point of the petrol starting process was that you could do it by starting handle for when the batteries were flat , stolen or maybe never installed. The impulse mag, low compression petrol chambers etc enable you to just turn the handle slowly and away it goes, independant of any electricity supply and do-able even in a force 10 off the West coast of Scotland.

Bill

 

True. But basically I’m lazy, because it’s still not that easy to start simply with the magneto and starting handle on a cold day. Also by turning the engine over with the low compression petrol chambers it puts far less strain on the battery and starter motor.

It’s reassuring to know that I can start the engine without a battery if I have to in the same way that I could, according to the Kelvin manual, remove the pistons via the crankcase doors, but I think I’d be mad to try it, especially in a force 10!

BTW I used to have a 25 hp Seffle which had the usual semi-diesel way of starting with a blow-lamp and kick start. But it also had a compressed air start. The legendary boatman, Jack Monk, who had the Seffle in Willow Wren days, used to have a trick of of standing on the counter and, having heated the engine up with the blowlamp, would pull a piece of string which released the air valve and the engine would spring into life – just as though he’d pressed a starter button. I never managed to replicate this, however, in all the ten years I had the engine!!

 

If I ever work out how to transfer an old VCR tape to digital format I'll post a video of starting the Seffle.

 

Thanks, johnthebridge, the boat's the ex FMC Owl

Edited by koukouvagia
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