Thread: Something to do with old pistons...

For anyone remotely interested in this sort of stuff go here. Its an interesting read.

http://www.oldengine.org/members/blkstone/History7.htm

I have an old print somewhere of a very young stevo standing inside the bore of a genset engine out in the Tanami Desert in the very early 80's.

Originally Posted by Stevo_62

For anyone remotely interested in this sort of stuff go here. Its an interesting read.

http://www.oldengine.org/members/blkstone/History7.htm

I have an old print somewhere of a very young stevo standing inside the bore of a genset engine out in the Tanami Desert in the very early 80's.

I had a look at the above site. Interesting. I compared the photo of the engine erecting shop with one I had of Mirlees, Bickerton & Day erecting shop from the late thirties in an English engineering text book. The thirties shop was dark and dirty, and was not an assembly line with engines on trolleys and rails like the more modern photos, just a bunch of poms in boiler suits, dust coats and cloth caps, with partially assembled engines on stands. The fitter and his matey built the entire engine in the one spot, and recorded the dimensions and tolerances on a build sheet which accompanied the engine to the customer, hence the term "erecting shop".

The last big engine I worked on was in an ocean going tug used to pull rafts of logs around the Solomon Islands, ex Royal Navy, built in the 30's. Mirlees Bickerton & Day, Stockport, Lancashire, 7 cylinders in line, 36" bore x 42" stroke, 400rpm governed, with reduction box to the prop. shaft. Big sucker, still giving sterling service after almost fifty years.

back in the early eighties as a young apprentice I used to do a lot of work at Richmond RAAF base and the back up genny was either a V12 or V16 and I seem to recall it being an Oshkosh. Anyway, It was bloody big.
One of the fitters used to reckon they would tip a tin of Bon Ami down each bore to bed the rings in after a rebuild