Me holding a piston ring for the 1913 485 hp Cooper engine
 

In addition to working on cub cadets, I like old iron and help out at Rough & Tumble in Kinzers Pa at the working museum. www.roughandtumble.org The piston ring I'm holding is out of a 1913 vintage 485 hp Cooper engine that developed 21,000 ft lbs of torque. It was originally run on natural gas and was a pump for moving natural gas thru the pipelines. This engine plus an additional six others were in Medina Ohio.

Here's me with the piston ring
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7...d.jpg~original

The single flywheel is 14' in diameter and weighs 22,000 lbs. It has a 21-1/2" bore and a 36" stroke and is a "Tandem Double Acting" each pair of pistons has it's own cylinder casting and cooled in the center.

View from the front ( click for bigger pics)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7..._100_07971.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7..._100_07961.jpg

A couple pics of the compressor
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7..._100_07931.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v7..._100_07921.jpg

Here's how you bring an engine that weighs 150,000 lbs to TDC so you can start it. It's started with compressed air , 165 psi fed thru 2" steel pipe. The guy pumping is priming the oiling system.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvBQSYRBzdA

Here's it's running on propane. Both ends and the center are saddle mounted to support the weights of the piston assembles. The large eccentrics run the intake valves on the top and the exhaust on the bottom
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1jLYz9TtTY

Here's a view of the ignition system and the smaller eccentrics for the oiling.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUaLLfqZx9U

Here's one I took two weeks ago from the flywheel side. If you listen closely, you can hear when the air is switched off and it starts running on propane ( just a few seconds after the video starts)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVYq8DO8L_k

Jeff

Holy ****! That is huge! Don't think you'll be holding up the piston for us to see. :bigeyes: :beerchug:

:eek:WOW!!!!! Wonder what that would do in my 125?!

It would smash it like a bug. The engine weighs 150,000 lbs ( 75 tons)

Looking good Jeff, glad kinzers has you as a volunteer.

I hate to see the ring compressor:biggrin2:

I wanna see the file fit procedure for the ring gap! Pretty cool stuff!

There are a lot of good folks who help out. One of the guys is an engineer and designed a hydrogen system so they could run the 1868 Otto Langen engine. It is the first design of a combustion engine and is what got things moving as far as moving away from steam and into fuel fired engines.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85HkJCqjbrA

It looks like thin wall tubing. I'll get a picture next time out. :beerchug:

I always go to kinzers and have seen that engine I think.