Engine Oilers - What Liquid?

Dan,

Daft question should an oiler not have oil in it. Salt, water and metal is called corrosion surely. If they are empty then why worry about frost ?

Martin P

Presume they are the sort which 'drip upwards' if you know what I mean, I thought the usual filling was glycerine.

That wasn't the one in the back of the latest SE by any chance was it Dan? Looks suspiciously similar! I was very tempted myself, only lack of room prevented it :-(

I think that the correct stuff to use in there is glycerine, available from your local chemist/pharmacist. Salt water was used as a cheap alternative, but its not nice stuff to have in a lubricator glass.

Regards

Philip T-E

We use a salt water solution in all the oilers here without any bother.

Paul

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Internal Fire, Museum of Power, Wales

Could one of our eminently erudite personages (evening Martin!) render an explanation of the principle of squirting oil through brine or glycerine. I've often wondered what the advantage of it is over a drip feed oiler.

Dan, like the engine. Someone's having a good Christmas!

Regards, Arthur G

I believe it's simply that the oil can be fed under pressure and therefore the sight glass can be positioned below the feed point (clearly a conventional drip feed must always be above the feed point). While I can see the advantage of this on large 'multi story' engines where it would enable all the sight glasses to grouped conveniently on the ground floor, I'm not sure why it was used on something the size of a TSH2.

To answer lots of questions -

1. Yes it's the one from the SEM - I saw it and fancied another 'different and interesting' for the collection.

1. No, I can't afford it and haven't room for it....(but SWMBO hasn't noticed it in the conservatory yet!)

2. The Crossley instructions state saturated salt solution for the oiler, but by the state of them I shall be obtaining some Glycerine as the salt has already taken it's toll.

Regards

Dan

This was an on-going little problem in the power houses in the 50's with the horizontal Rustons and Crossleys. Cleaning the sight-glasses was a bally nuisance. My boss set me the project of finding the best "solution" (koff).

Tried glycerine, salt water, all probable and improbable ideas, and eventually came to the conclusion that plain water was as good as anything. Preferably distilled or boiled, as it left less scaly crud on the inside of the glass tubes, although I think some of the crud came from the oil. It had to be scraped out.

Tried with and without the brass wire for the blobs to crawl up, found it better with. Tried a patent "waterless" plastic (perspex?) tube instead of the glass - seem to remember it had a black floating indicator thingammy jig, novelty value only, as the plastic tube became cloudy before long. (Think this was advertised in the "Mechanical World Year Book" of about that vintage? - must look that up)

However, there were no freezing problems there, so this might be a factor I did not need to consider.

(Tell us some more stories of the good ol' days, Grandpa.)

JW² in Oz Norton AntiVirus 2003 installed

Thanks to all for the suggestions/info. I've just bought some glycerine (60p for a 38ml bottle!), so I shall try that. Initially as an experiment I may fill one of the two glasses with Glycerine and try salt solution in the other.

Regards

Dan

I really must be missing something here, why not use the standard antifreeze solution available from any motor factors? It is safe in aluminium engines, is alcohol based so will not attack mineral oils and is a pretty blue colour .

There. That's me neck stuck out - but I'm glad you reminded me, because I think there is water in the 1075 now I come to think of it!

Regards,

Kim Siddorn

- who wishes you and yours all the very best for the New Year.

Screen wash has methanol is to stop it freezing up, but engine anti-freeze is Ethylene Glycol based. At running temperatures alcohols would be too prone to evaporate.

"Bob Spowart" wrote

Ethylene Glycol used in antifreeze *raises* the boiling point of the water to which it is added. At 100% it has a boiling point of 387ºF (198ºC) and a freezing point: of 8.6ºF (-13ºC).

So the working temperature of an IC engine won't reach that high.

So (I'm sure I've missed something ;o)) ) - why not use antifreeze in the oilers?

Regards,

Kim Siddorn

- who wishes you and yours all the very best for the New Year.

Because its blue and would clash horribly with a green engine? ttfn Roland

Perhaps oil and glycol are miscible (sp?) or glycol has a lower specific gravity than oil (don't know but would be quite easy to find out) in either case it wouldn't work.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- See

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Available in a range of colours and clear. See beloow

I presume the colours were chosen by the web designer :-) yeuch! ttfn Roland

"Peter A Forbes" wrote (snip):-

Clearly too wealthy by half, I have to settle for LBV or 'vintage character' ;-)

Antifreeze attacks most paintwork....

Peter

Attacking a pile of mince pies and a nice vintage Port as he types..... :-))

-- Peter & Rita Forbes snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk Engine pages for preservation info: