My Small Engine Projects

Over the years I have built up a small collection of small engines. I've got a pair of 75cc SIF (Suffolk iron foundry) engines (one to be converted to run on steam), a honda g309 7hp, 2 5.5hp honda clones, a couple of 2 stroke trimmers, a 6hp Yanmar diesel clone, 2 3.5hp Briggs vertical shaft engines and a few more.
Most of these engines used to run but over the years I have just let them sit, so now is the time to get them running again.

First off is one of my 75cc Suffolks. The last time this one ran was in summer 2015. These engines are pretty similar to a Briggs and Stratton 5s. They were build in the mid 50s right through to the 70s. This one is from the late 50s. They did come with recoil starters but mine is missing.



I painted the shroud and fuel tank green a few years ago. I plan to repaint it in original red. The carb and intake needed bolted together and bolted to the block. This was somewhat difficult because all the bolts were lost and I had to re-thread them all to metric.



I also had lost the governor linkage so I made a new one out of a welding rod.



I got her all back together but couldn't get her to run. It fired a few times though. It's got good spark and is wetting the plug. Tomorrow I'm gonna take the head off to have a look.

Cool engine! That's one weird carb. Is it a walbro? Or suffolk?

Very interesting! Updraft carb.

Cool stuff Matt! I see its got the old "wind" governor, haha. Its probably got points and condenser ignition too does it?

RichieRichOverdrive wrote:

Cool engine! That's one weird carb. Is it a walbro? Or suffolk?

Thanks Rich! It's a Zenith 13TCA-2. It's leaking a lot of fuel out of the carb so I am going to take it apart today to have a look inside and to clean it. I'll get some photos of what it looks like inside.

mightyraze wrote:

Very interesting!  Updraft carb.  

Thanks mighty!

AllisKidD21 wrote:

Cool stuff Matt! I see its got the old "wind" governor, haha. Its probably got points and condenser ignition too does it?

Thanks! Yes, it's got the air came gov. setup. Works pretty well. It has points and condenser. It has a good spark so I'm not going to touch it.

MatthewD wrote:

It's leaking a lot of fuel out of the carb so I am going to take it apart today to have a look inside and to clean it. I'll get some photos of what it looks like inside.

Hopefully it's a speck of sand or debris/rust in the needle and seat. One good thing about the updraft carb is they don't fill the block with gas when they leak. It just gets all over the ground!

Wow, That is a cool old engine! Keep us update!

Mattd, are those suffolk engines aluminum block? I've been thinking how cool it would be to cast and machine my own briggs 5s block in aluminum. That's a bit out of my reach at the moment but...just an idea.

Packman wrote:

Wow, That is a cool old engine! Keep us update!

Thanks

mr.modified wrote:

Mattd, are those suffolk engines aluminum block? I've been thinking how cool it would be to cast and machine my own briggs 5s block in aluminum. That's a bit out of my reach at the moment but...just an idea.

Cast iron block. Are Briggs 5s aluminium block? Be pretty cool to cast your own blocks.

Anyway, I took the carb apart. Got some photos of it but I can't seem to get them uploaded. I also straightened out the primer rod which basically just pushes the float down to allow fuel in.

It still won't run. The timing is good and there is good spark. Not too sure what else to try.

Does it have good compression? Also how good is the spark exactly? Sometimes the spark looks okay outside of the engine but under compression it is not strong enough to fire the engine.

Sorry for the late reply. Compression is okay, although not great. The spark is also pretty good, nice white spark. I've tried changing plugs etc but still won't run.

Finally got the pictures to upload.


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I built a quick engine stand out of a pallet

And with no luck to be had with the first Suffolk, I turned my attention to my second one. I got this Suffolk engine with no carb or exhaust, and decided to convert it to run on compressed air or steam. I started the conversation a few yes ago, by welding 2 extra lobes onto the camshaft to allow each valve to open in every stroke, but never finished it. Recently I finished it and removed the sump and make an angle iron stand for it like an old open crank engine. It runs pretty steady at 20-25psi which is all that my small compressor can provide. In the pics it's running at about around 75-80psi using my big compressor. I have had it up to 115psi, runs really well at high pressure but my big compressor can't keep up with anything above 60psi for more than 30 seconds.

Onto the pics!

That's pretty cool stuff Matt! You got around to putting up some pictures of it sooner than I thought you would haha. Do you think it has enough power running on air to power anything? Just out of curiosity.

Thanks! It would be cool to have it running something. At 20 psi you can stop it with you foot but at 60+ it seems to have plenty of power. It needs a huge heavy flywheel though to keep up momentum

That is some cool stuff. I'm impressed.

Thanks! It's quite unique.

So I'm thinking of building a boiler for this engine to get it to run on steam. I still have to get round to trying to start the green Suffolk again.

Any cool updates! I'm curious if you made any new updates.

No, nothing further done on these engines. I still would like to take the carb apart on the Suffolk again to see if I can get it running again.

Hey @MatthewD, long time no post!

Sorry I missed your post Mighty

So I haven't done anything to these engines but I do plan on fixing my bigger air compressor to enable me to run my compressed air engine for longer and at higher speeds. Or I could build a big fire and set a container full of water on it, plug it into the intake and have a real steam engine!

I'll keep you all updated

Sweet... don't know why but your idea in this thread is very interesting.

Yeah I agree, the steam engine idea is super neat!

Be careful with your boiler, superheated water is dangerous stuff.

MightyRaze wrote:

Sweet... don't know why but your idea in this thread is very interesting.

Thanks, I seem to have a thing for collecting engines and not working on them and the plan for this thread was to motivate me to work on them. Don't think it's worked lol 

AllisKidD21 wrote:

Yeah I agree, the steam engine idea is super neat!

Thanks Allis, a steam engine would be pretty cool.

RichieRichOverdrive wrote:

Be careful with your boiler, superheated water is dangerous stuff.

Yeah, and it's at high pressure. I don't really think a boiler is feasible in the near future but it would be nice. In the meantime I need to pull the engine apart and take the cam out to modify the lobes and hopefully make it more efficient.