this evening have been trying to run my 1550 but for some reason it just doesn't want to know it is getting plenty of steam up everything moves freely just have no idea : .
JJ
Did you fill the dash pot with thick oil before you started, along with the piston bores Willbur?. I noticed there was no spewing of oil/water mix when you turned the flywheel over.
willbur
yeah put a fair amount of oil in it. have just cleaned all the ports out and going to have another try
JJ
Now I had a similar with my SE3, wouldn't run very well until I swapped the pistons over, after which it was fine. You seem to have a lot of steam loss too.
willbur
just tried it again and still no joy. masses of water and steam from between piston, cylinder and exhaust
Spokesmann
I find that these SELs need plenty of heat and the lamps just doesn't provide it... either try some new better wicks like Ians suoper wick or maybe a different lamp. I used a Mamod brass lamp in the end (SE2 size) worked much better and actually got some pressure in the boiler, and mine was only the 1540 standard.
wart
sel
I have the same problem with sel minor tryed laping port faces checked for blockages still no luck . sel seem to have very small pistons and so come to the conclusion that piston is just worn out piston does have alot of play in bore . piston scews off conrod so dont need to make conrod will have to turn new piston when i get the time.
silverfoxsteam
Oh heck!
Some very good advice from the previous posts. Without decent wicks the lamps are less than adequate, but you seem to have plenty of pressure!
This may seem to be stating the b****ing obvious, but are the cranks set correctly (180 deg)? One of the crank discs will have a grub screw allowing adjustment and disassembly.
If the pistons/cylinders are badly worn (although that would be unusual - they don't normally get that much use!), you could try cutting a groove in the pistons producing an oil-seal or even introducing a little packing, a la Mersey.
John Chapman
Well worth checking the relationship of the cranks they should in theory be set at 180 degrees to each other, but twins often work better if the setting is just a couple of degrees "off". If you are loosing a lot of steam from the ports it might be worth having a play around with the nuts that hold the cylinders in place. SELs often like them a bit tighter than you might expect.
willbur
cheers for the advice fellas just checked the pistons and were best at the same point so will adjust them and give it a go later on hopefully all will be good this time fingers crossed
it is getting plenty of steam up everything moves freely just have no idea :
.
hopefully all will be good this time fingers crossed