Oil for Bulldog tractor/crawler.

[Sly]

A question for the vintage tractor / motor buffs amounst us.
Is there a old style mineral oil avalable off the shelf , that is suitable for use in a single cyl Bulldog.

[Bearman]

It's been a while, but I am pretty sure my dad used to use Shell Rotella in his Field Marshall.

[rick130]

Any idea what Lanz specified originally ?

I'm guessing it would have been a straight SAE grade engine oil ?

Basically as long as you meet the original viscosity specs you could use any modern oil.

eg my old Fiat 550 specified a 20W-40 in engine, gearbox, hydraulics and air cleaner so I just use a modern 15W-40 CI-4+ oil.
It works well.

[edit] the Bulldog is technically a two stroke, isn't it ?
If so, maybe a Detroit two stroke diesel oil is most suitable ?
I tried finding the specs on the Castrol Datacheck site but no luck.

[edit 2 @ 7:07 EDT) Thinking further (dangerous ATM, I'm on my second huge glass of shiraz) I'd reckon a DD specific oil would be ideal. They are a super low ash formulation to reduce piston and exhaust deposits and have a high detergency.
Something like Castrol Tection Monograde 30 (or 40 if that SAE weight is required ?)

[justinc]

IIRC it was a SAE30?

The 'bunker' oil used to run them on though.... What an environmental nightmare

JC

[rick130]

IIRC it was a SAE30?

The 'bunker' oil used to run them on though.... What an environmental nightmare

JC

They were basically designed to run anything that would burn, weren't they ?
Basically, if a farmer could pour it, they would burn it.

Might come back into vogue in the next ten or so years the way the world is currently heading

[wagoo]

IIRC it was a SAE30?

The 'bunker' oil used to run them on though.... What an environmental nightmare

JC

I don't think environmentalism or even humanism mattered too much to German authorities back in the earlier Lanz tractor heydays.
I used to work for a bloke that was a keen collector of old Lanz Bulldog tractors.
Apparently they were designed to run on any liquid that would burn, including mineral,vegetable oils,soap,animal fats and sadly, during Germanys darkest days during WW2, human fats too
Wagoo.

[JDNSW]

If my memory is correct, they have a drip feed lubrication system. While designed for straight mineral oil (there was nothing else in the 1920s), the requirements are not critical, and I would expect that any lubricating oil would be satisfactory, as long as it was liquid at operating and starting temperatures.

John

[Blknight.aus]

yep, the lanz will run on anything that has a pour point that sort of resembles a proper liquid. I bet but, probably wouldnt try, that it would run on 80/90 diff oil once it was started.

as for the lube oil I was once shown by an old bloke a drip tester, basically a 1/2inch wide tube with an X size hole in the bottom of it, any oil that poured out or dripped better than about 2 drips a second was good to go for lube oil.

[rick130]

From Wiki (pedia, not leaks )

Two-stroke engines

The cycle starts with the piston at the bottom of its stroke. As it rises, it draws air into the crankcase through the Inlet Port. At the same time fuel is sprayed into the vapouriser. The charge of air on top of the piston is compressed into the vapouriser where it is mixed with the atomised fuel and ignites. The piston is driven down the cylinder. As it descends the piston first uncovers the Exhaust Port. The pressurised exhaust gases flow out of the cylinder. A fraction after the Exhaust Port is uncovered, the descending piston uncovers the Transfer Port. The piston is now pressurising the air in the crankcase, which is forced through the Transfer Port and into the space above the piston. Part of the incoming air charge is lost out of the still-open Exhaust Port to ensure all the exhaust gases are cleared from the cylinder (a process known as 'scavenging'). The piston then reaches the bottom of its stroke and begins to rise again, drawing a fresh charge of air into the crankcase and completing the cycle. Induction and Compression are carried out on the upward stroke and Power and Exhaust on the downward stroke.
A supply of lubricating oil must be fed to the crankcase to supply the crankshaft. This means that a two-stroke hot-bulb engine will gradually burn its supply of lubricating oil – a design known as a 'total loss' lubricating system. There were also designs that employed a scavenge pump or similar to remove oil from the crankcase and return it to the lubricating oil reservoir. Lanz hot-bulb tractors and their many imitators had this feature. This reduces oil consumption considerably.
In addition, if excess crankcase oil is present on start up, there is a danger of the engine starting and accelerating uncontrollably to well past the RPM limits of the rotating and reciprocating components. This can result in destruction of the engine. There is normally a bung or stopcock that allows draining of the crankcase before starting.
The lack of valves and the doubled-up working cycle also means that a two-stroke hot bulb engine can run equally well in both directions. A common starting technique for smaller two-stroke engines is to turn the engine over against the normal direction of rotation. The piston will 'bounce' off the compression phase with sufficient force to spin the engine the correct way and start it. This bi-directional running was an advantage in marine applications as the engine could, like the steam engine. The direction could be reversed either by stopping the engine and starting it again in the other direction or, with sufficient skill and timing on the part of the operator, slowing the engine until it carried just enough momentum to bounce against its own compression and run the other way. This was an undesirable quality in hot-bulb powered tractors equipped with gearboxes. At very low engine speeds the engine could reverse itself almost without any change in sound or running quality and without the driver noticing until the tractor drove in the opposite direction to that intended. Lanz Bulldog tractors featured a dial, mechanically driven by the engine, that showed a spinning arrow. The arrow pointed in the direction of normal engine rotation – if the dial spun the other way the engine had reversed itself.

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[Bigbjorn]

Lanz Bulldogs would run on anything that would vaporise in the hot bulb. They were a fair bastard to start on a cold morning. We had a yard crane out at Winton built on one. An apprentice job was to start the thing. If we knew we were going to use it again that day, it would often be turned down to low idle, about 120 rpm and left running. Cold starting involved use of the workshop oxy-acetylene trolley. Cockies often lit fires of gidgee under the hot bulb and took a blow torch to the oil reservoir.