The Steamboating Forum

Yep, turbocharged Buick 300 stroked to 350" with MPEFI and homemade sheetmetal intake


That's for my '65 Buick wagon, waiting to be magnafluxed and sonic checked... and money for the billet crank and aluminium heads

General service pumps mounted starboard... Fuel, feed, bilge/fire/repelling boarders.



How we move our machinery in the winter:



Genset mounted:

Emergency infernal combustion 4kw generator with 4 110v outlets and a 220v outlet in case we need to do some welding. Exhaust will be routed up inner stack. Actually not that loud running in the giant drum of a hull with no exhaust modifications. (YES we were well ventilated)... Port side:



Reason I've not finished the valves yet was we sold our old 7x32 Jet mill several weeks ago and finally picked up our "new" 9x42 Bridgeport...

Old and new:

And FINALLY a video walk-around update:

[Youtube]<iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/9S1fiWuclIY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>[/Youtube]

Finally a video update to supplement the pictures:

What an impressive project. I would really like to do something similar someday. The Worthington pumps look great. I like the governor mounted on the Semple, I have one of those gardner governers here and have been noodling a genset for the tug. Think I'm going to use a regular generator head from Northern and find or build a planetary gear to drive it from the engine (one of the little Strelinger engines). Not sure how well it would work, may wind up just turning a DC motor for a generator like is on the engine now.

Keep the udpates coming, hope you folks launch this year.

Speaking of welding, that can be done off of a 12 volt car battery in an emergency. The duty cycle is short, but as long as there is some recharging system, intermittent arc welding can be performed. That is how we did it anyway.

Here is a chap doing it with two batteries.



-Ron

Thanks for the kind remarks and the awesome video Ron. I've heard stories of people welding with car batteries, but I've never seen it done. That would be a handy trick for a trail repair out here on the Rubicon... or a steamboat in the middle of the Lake or delta...

With your shop and tools it wouldn't turn out to be a 10year+ project like this one has.

The dynamo setup precipitated out of us having the alternator available and being offered the Semple engine (including governor) and the two duplex pumps for pennies on the dollar from a good friend. It would have otherwise probably been built up in the manner you're describing.

Wes,

I went looking at planetary drives last night to kick the RPM up from the engine. A few problems, I have no idea the exact ratio I need and all of them are surplus (the ones I can afford anyway); don't want use anything that cannot be ea$ily sourced/repaired concerning maintenance later on.

Will probably belt up like you folks did. Instead may put a jack shaft off to the side and use timing belts to kick the RPM up for the generator. Using timing belts, the transmission can be kept very small as they allow tight radius/small pulleys. I ordered the 2.5 X 3 steam cylinder from Tiny Power yesterday.

-Ron

Ron,

Hope your project is going well. I'd like to see some pictures...

A little more progress:

Been machining the weldament my father made for the condensate pump (mounts can bee seen for the 1" pipe feed pump bodies on either side).





Crankshaft is finally back in the engine. Sucker is HEAVY. Accomplished with great difficulty as we had to turn it while threading it through due to the large counterweights.

Another engine shot from the aft end:



A nice little touch:



Offsets the appearance of the log induced "acne"