Its all in the timing!!

Had another superb weekend in steam with The Coleman and our "new" rally caravan!! Spoke to Les Searle and had a go on the full size "His Majesty", steering that is quite a task!!! He had a look over mine and explained about the start valve postion and we sorted out the reg letting by a bit which has helped lock up but the most imperssive thing was resetting the timing whislt RED hot at about 2ish. He has timed and set up more engines than any of us so was worth listening to. WHAT A DIFFERENCE!!! If you havent done this it is vital to get a truely wonderful beast to control, On Saturday I had found the climb up the rally field needed constant adjustment of the reg to get enough steam through, after resetting the timing it was possible to just open the reg so it ticked over ( in First ) and it just crawled up the hill without need for any more, as it reached a clump of grass it just built up a bit of pressure as the steam expanded and kept going. It is a much more driveable machine.

To check out how well you have things set up, with the reg closed and the crank stationary see where it is set, if the HP side is either at the top or bottom ( piston in stroke ) then it should ( and will ) start on just regulator and will pull away. If it doesnt then it is not set right. If the crank is set so the LP is top or bottom then it needs the start valve to pull away. If it is between these two then it should begin to turn on the regulator and a quick squirt will help it keep going. To set the HP valve up you need to be really hot so all the expansion has taken place, at least a couple of hours in steam the then take the HP cover off. At full forward or back the valve should just be starting to open and needs to be even either side of the stroke, either adjust the nuts in the chest or an easier way is to loosen the nut on the rod at the weighshaft and turn in or out. Then do the same on the LP side and off you go. Well worth checking as I thought mine was OK and was way out, you wont believe the difference.

OK when can I bring mine to your house for setting??? I thought that the even sound would mean that the valve block was in its best/even position as the valve block size and inlet ports are predetermined. You set yours again by sound at Banbury if I remember.

Yes Brian I tweaked the LP when we were at the pub and that side was pretty much spot on but the HP side was quite a long way out. One side was about an 1/8 of an inch with the other side over 1/4 inch. Basically when the HP crank was top/bottom it wouldnt turn when opening the reg which it should as the piston is mid stroke. As Les pointed out if the HP is out then the whole timing is out which makes a real difference to the power. Even with everything super red hot it wasnt really a task to alter it, took about 20 mins but well worth it. We should have all had a go at driving each others engines when at Banbury to see how they all behaved.