Ruston Hornsby 2VSH thermostat fitting?

[oldbulldog]

Hi folks. Have the above engine in my old narrowboat (1910ish). Cooled by skin tanks but there aint no thermostat. Are there any bits out there that i can use/adapt that will allow me to fit one. Engine constantly smokes and have been led to believe that it could be due to not getting up to working temperature.

[MtB]

I have used a three port thermostatic blender valve on my Kelvin to do the same job, so yes it's possible.

 

It was discussed on here at length at the time, have a search!

 

MtB

[oldbulldog]

Cheers for reply. My first post so slowly getting into it. Have seen your comments on the other Ruston topics so appreciate your interest in vintage engines. Will try and hunt down the info.

[casper ghost]

If you find out, i'd like to know as I don't have a thermostat on my 2VTH.

Casp'

[hughc]

The Lada car had a three port thermostat which fits into the top hose IIRC. These are still available. Regards, HughC.

[oldbulldog]

Will go into heavy disguise and try to find out more about this Lada thermostat. Lada Riva by any chance? Old enough to remember them i'm afraid (But never owned one!) Honest!!

[oldbulldog]

Top man Hugh C. Have just been on e-bay and purchased a Lada 3 port thermostat. £7 squids inc postage. Well worth messing around with to design a thermostatic loop for my Ruston. Lots of them on there as well. Dont see many Lada's around these days. Looks like its a built in unit that if it fails you just throw it away and replace. Will buy some more if successful. Thanks once again.

[casper ghost]

So why 3 ports? where do they go, does one go up to the reservoir? and what temperature will a Lada thermostat open at?

 

Casp' excuse my ignorance...

[BM 1051]

Hello,

I use a Three port on my Seffle hot bulb(Ducati 999 )just to get it up in temprature Quick.

Together with keel cooling(Spelling.....)it works very nice,it open at 60 degree celcius.

The middle port is from Engine,bottom port is to Engine,top port to cooling tank,from cooling tank to a T and then to Engine,the lower on the thermostat is connected here.

 

 

Cheers

Christian

[Tinhare]

My 2VSO doesn't have a thermostat either, nor a temperature gauge. Although it does have valves in the pipes leading to and from the skin tank and a bypass valve.

The cooling system flows thus, starting from the water pump:-
into the engine.
out of engine and into heat exchanger around exhaust.
out of heat exchanger and into calorifier (located in adjoining bathroom).
out of calorifier to skin tank.
Where the pipes exit and enter the engine room to the calorifier they are T'd and there is a valve inserted between. Basically a bypass valve to enable quicker warm up.
There are valves located near the skin tank on both pipes.

To get it to run warm or hotish I feel the inlet pipe before it gets to the water pump and gradually close the bypass valve until it is hot but not too hot. Trial and error and now I know that it is about three full turns on the valve to get it running at about the right temperature.

Yep, it's a pain and like the OP I will be looking into installing a thermostat AND a temperature gauge myself.

Don't know why I typed all of the above as it does nothing to answer the OP's question

However, I'd love to know what solution you came up with. The three port seems lie the ideal solution for me placing it where the bypass valve is located.

 

Cheers,
Alan.

[oldbulldog]

The way i will be fitting my "Lada" three port thermostat is as follows:-

 

The 2VSH has one water entry point and one exit point. After this exit point is where the LADA 3 port will go. The three port valve will have an inlet port and two outlet ports, one will be straight through and the other outlet will be controlled by the thermostat.

 

The straight through exit will then literally loop back to the engine and join the water that returns from the skin tanks in a tee piece. So once the engine fires up and whilst cold will just cycle round this small loop:

Engine exit- Lada Thermostat- Engine entry

 

Once the engine coolant has warmed up this will eventually open up the 2nd outlet on the thermostat which then allows the coolant to run round the skin tanks as well.

 

Its just a case of designing the pipework to facilitate this arrangement.

 

Will let you know how i get on. Will then have to rename the engine to a Ruston Hornsby Riva:Special edition of course.

[casper ghost]

Can I ask, When the thermostat is closed, what will the water pump be doing with no water flow through it?

Casp'

 

I have a similar system to Tinhare, with a tap where I can divert the flow solely through the calorifier.

[BM 1051]

Can I ask, When the thermostat is closed, what will the water pump be doing with no water flow through it?

Casp'

 

I have a similar system to Tinhare, with a tap where I can divert the flow solely through the calorifier.

When the thermostat is closed the water will flow to the bottom of thermostat and then to theT coupling before the pump and then back into the pump and engine.

You always have low pressure before the pump and higher after(ofcourse)push it thru the engine and to the thermostat,if open then to tank,from tank to pump.

If closed,just back to the pump.

Hope you understand,i don't have the correct English word for it i Think

I will take some pics of it.

 

Edit:when the thermostat opens it will Close the bottom port and water will go out in the top port and when it Closes it will open the bottom port.

 

Christian

Edited March 27, 2014 by BM 1051

[oldbulldog]

Thats exactly right.The water will always flow,either through the small loop (closed thermostat),or through the skin tanks,(Open thermostat).The beauty is its automatic, no manual valves to open and close. No pipes to feel to see how hot they are etc etc.

 

On another note, I have also found on ebay and in line temp sender,so you just cut a hose, put in this sender and use this to connect to a water temp gauge so you can keep your eagle on how its all running. Relatively simple, cheap and hopefully effective.

 

Will keep you posted on how it all works.

[IanR]

So Oldbulldog, how is the Ruston Riva Special working out?! I'm at the stage where I am about to do the same, fitting a stat and running the extra circulator through a radiator in what was the hold. If this works well I may extend the circulator beyond this radiator through the hot water cylinder but that would involve an extra 50 / 60ft run and I'm not sure it would pump that far too successfully. I'd be interested in details of the inline temperature sender too as I have a gauge hole in the pigeon box that needs filling!!

Cheers, Ian.

[David Mack]

There's a description (translated from the German) of how the Lada 3-port thermostat works at https://translate.google.co.uk/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http://www.ladawiki.de/index.php/Thermostat&edit-text

I note that, unlike a conventional thermostat, it is fitted in the return line, just before the pump.

Edited January 4, 2018 by David Mack