ABC Vee4 - new toy! - PolyTech Forum

Kim Siddorn · 2004-10-01T10:49:34+00:00

I had a school visit in Harpenden on Wednesday, so took the opportunity todrive on to Peterborough to collect the ABC Vee 4 I bought off E-bay onTuesday night. It is a bare engine, although complete except for itsmagnetos (more of which later) but once formed the heart of a "power pod",an encased Auxiliary Power Unit used in Beverley aircraft for chargingbatteries etc whilst the main engines were not running. According to theloose leaf manual that accompanies it, it was taken out of service in 1958.ABC engines are not common at the best of times and this Vee4 is the onlyone that I know of in private hands, although I understand Duxford have onein a more complete state. I've taken some pictures this morning, some of theengine itself and others from the manual, and you can see them at love these aircraft APU's, the engineering is to the highest standard andthe engineering solutions are s-o-o-o elegant.I'm told that sometime in the last eight years, the previous owner but oneremoved the BTH magnetos, imagining that they might be used on a motorcycle.I need a brace of clockwise, flange-on-the-base mounted, BTH MC2 magnetos,preferably the S25 model, air ministry spec They are not going to be leapingoff every table at Sodbury next weekend, are they? So if anyone has one (ortwo!), I'd be glad to hear from them. Base mounted magnetos off any flattwin (Petter, Norman, Coventry-Victor) will do fine.Why does a pair of flat twin mags fit a vee 4? Because there is effectivelyonly one crankpin - there are two separated by a centre main, but they arein line. So the crank throw is 360o, each pair of cylinders being offset invertical plane, the rods being simply side-by-side on each crankpin.Therefore, if you visualise the engine not as two vee twins (as I did tostart with!) but as a four cylinder engine with both pistons in one bankarriving at TDC together, it follows that one must be on the firing strokeand the other on exhaust. So, although it might be some little trouble tofind...

ABC Vee4 - new toy!

Oct 01, 2004 22 Replies

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Dave Liquorice 21 years ago

Electronic equipment cooling fans? Though they only go up to 120mm but are slim at around an inch. Available in mains, 12v or 24v versions.

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Tom 21 years ago

Don't know where you are, but 6" muffin fans are pretty common down here..

Tom

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Dave Liquorice 21 years ago

I thought they did as well but a dig about on CPC or RS websites and a look in Rapids catalog didn't turn up anything over 119mm that was 12 or 24v DC. A few 115 or 230v AC ones are bigger.

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