My son was given an old 1977 Miller Big 20 300 Amp welder with a 4cylinder Continental F163 motor. It was given to us because it had been sitting for a couple of years and nobody could get it running.
I put a set of points in it and rebuilt the carburetor and it starts first turn and runs like watch at a steady 1800RPM. I guess we where lucky because when it started up I found that the exhaust intake manifold was full of water because the exhaust pipe was rusted through at the manifold . After it ran for about 20 minutes the fresh oil started to foam, so I shut it down and did a pressure test etc. but found no water leaks. I'm not finding water in the oil now so all I can conclude is that rain water got into the crankcase through the exhaust manifold leak
I have tried selling the unit because the welder still works great but from what we have been told welder assy. parts are hard to find and the newer units are much smaller and fuel efficient.
I'm toying with removing the welder unit and keeping the motor for use with a generator/hydraulic pump etc., so if anyone out there has any opinions on the economics or practicallity of saving the engine for other uses it would be appreciated.
I'm also very interested in learning about small single cylinder 2 and 4 strock diesel engines. If anyone out there can help me source some real good beginner books/web sites etc. on the subject it would be very much appreciated. I woudls also like some expert advise on what models of deisel would be best to learn on.
Sorry for such a long post but I was really excited to find this newsgroup and I have so many unanswered question.
Thanks in advance
Zack Ontario,Canada