My original "plans" were to eventually convert the little Duclos Victorian engine to a Vapor Foam system, but time caught up with me and I added an aspiration carb to get it running in time for a local show. Once again the engine is scheduled for the same show and this time I managed to get into the shop to try and get it running a bit better.
I began with the basic "bubbler" design from John Ridder and saw a significant increase in performance, but it had a tendency to blow fuel out of the tank if the engine missed a beat. Luckily, Chuck Fellows had recently developed his design which removed the need to submerge the air intake. Chuck's idea increased performance by an even greater degree.
The photo below shows my take on the system as I adapted / integrated it to my existing engine. It's such a simple system that one could easily get he idea it doesn't perform as advertised. Trust me.... this would be a rather major mistake.
Once the fuel problems were solved, a new problem arose. The engine performed so much better that centripetal forces were great enough to break the hinges on the 2 ball governor I'd originally installed. I'd been thinking about trying to redesign it to make it more adjustable, but had been procrastinating until it gave up the ghost.
When Brian Rupnow mentioned a 3 ball design project, I clicked to the idea of using a 3 ball governor on my engine as well. I've intentionally not posted a build thread on my version to keep from stepping on Brian's excellent thread. Mine was built by adding a few modifications to my original setup. It now allows me to make finer adjustments to the setting and allows the engine to run in H/M mode much easier. Here is the final results.
At one of the shows I attended, a young lad tried to adjust the air needle on the aspiration carb and bunged the seat up enough that the engine wouldn't run properly. I should have been more vigilant but I can't really blame the kid, since I have to resist the same temptation to turn touch things myself.
Since I'd promised to attend a fairly large show over labor day, I used this project to ease back into the shop after my recent bout of medical problems. I was having trouble getting the current steam engine project back in my head, so taking on something a bit more "familiar" suited me just fine. When the governor self destructed, the project became even more interesting and proved to be quite a lot of fun. Success seems to have that effect...(grin).
This little engine underwent a total personality change and now runs more like it should. As things are settling back in, the engine continues to perform better and better. I've had to learn all of its new little quirks all over again, but I'm told every model IC motor has it's very own traits and no two identical engines will operate the same. Thats what keeps it interesting, at least for me.
Steve
