Give Me Liberty!

wanttaja

wanttaja

Final Approach
Joined
Jun 7, 2008
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Location
"War-Torn" Portland
Display Name
Ron Wanttaja
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Twin Oaks Airpark
Today (November 2nd) saw the first public start of the rebuilt Liberty V12 engine for the Seattle World Cruiser project. Here's a video showing the start, and a closeup of the valve action once it gets started.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TavzF...ature=youtu.be

No ladders were harmed in the making of this video.

Seattlite Bob Dempster is the leader of the World Cruiser project...he and his team are building a*full scale* replica of the biplanes the US Army Air Corps used to fly around the world in 1924. After a considerable search for a good engine, he finally decided that the original Liberty would be the best pick.

The engine itself was rebuilt Steve Crider. The engine is somewhat modified, both with the changes made in the '20s and '30s as well as some later better ideas (such as a spin-on oil filter). One change is the addition of an oil ring to the pistons, with the hope of reducing the 1 gallon/hour use of oil. It IS loud... V12 engine, 1600 cubic inches, straight pipes. Steve says you can hear it in nine area codes.

One thing I found interesting is that the engine uses conventional ignition (e.g., non-magneto, powered by a battery). Steve said the engine developers did extensive testing, and found little difference in performance between a magneto and a battery-powered ignition. The BIG difference was that "any farm boy knew how to work on a conventional ignition system," and thus it was felt the field mechanics would have an easier time keeping it running.

You can view the World Cruiser project at:

http://seattleworldcruiser.org/


Ron Wanttaja
 
Pretty darn kool..:yes:.

I love the old truck the motor is sitting on too.:wink2:
 
I wonder why they didn't have that engine primed and ready to fire right up?
 
Tom-D said:
I wonder why they didn't have that engine primed and ready to fire right up?
Click to expand...
They're still learning what the big beast likes...not a whole lot of tribal knowledge on the care and feeding of Liberty engines (though they've talked to the folks at Creve Coeur). Might have just been jitters, even with the crowd being friendly.

Steve mentioned the carbs are too lean, and "It takes more than just a screwdriver." Sounds like they're going put them on a bench and get them tweaked.

As you can imagine, getting parts for a Liberty is difficult, and getting WORKING parts is even harder. They've bought "restored" engines from museums only to discover the engine has cracked cylinders or two left camshafts. Didn't matter, until someone decided to actually run one.

The World Cruiser is a HUGE project, and Bob is really going for historical accuracy (though that wasn't the main point for sticking with a Liberty engine). It's all scratch-built, and Bob has has stuff like rudder pedals cast to match the originals. Here's a shot from the web page:

farewell-plant2.jpg



Ron Wanttaja
 
To be so loud, I noticed no one wearing ear muffs. Some of the people in the crowd are holding fingers in their ears, though.
 
wanttaja said:
Steve mentioned the carbs are too lean, and "It takes more than just a screwdriver." Sounds like they're going put them on a bench and get them tweaked.
Click to expand...

Too lean? It was backfiring!

If they were using a sensor to determine that, a misfire is not distinguishable from lean mixtures, even if it's a rich misfire.
 
How is it I have never heard of this project before??? Senility??? :yesnod: I see a trip up to visit/drool/donate in my future. Thanks for sharing.
 
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