Just bought this

Oops sorry for pushing the bidding up by a tenner or so - had I known it was going to 'one of the gang' I'd have kept my rather half-hearted interest at bay ;-) You should have bought this as well which shows your engine in an exotic location:-

Nick H

i'm curious, is this the same douglas company that made the early motorcycles? sam in washington, pa.

Indeed, located in Kingswood near Bristol. In later life they built the Vespa scooter under licence from Piagio.

Like the man said, the very same company - compare this with the engine on their later motorcycles and the similarities are obvious. The question I'd like to ask is which came first; was Douglas already developing the engine for its post-war motorcycle range and pressed it into service for stationary duties or vice-versa?

Nick H.

Looks a bit like the Dragonfly 350 twin cylinders and heads. Peter

-- Peter A Forbes Prepair Ltd, Rushden, UK snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk

The Dragonfly was itself a development of the T35 - the similarities with the FT35 stationary engine are even clearer in the earlier model.

Nick H

"Nick H" wrote (snip):-

CF

Nick H

The stationary engine version is tantalisingly similar, but I believe that only the rocker box lids, conn rods, pistons & barrels are of use to owners of T35 motorcycles - this would explain why there are still so many of them about in complete condition!

They have a reputation for being difficult to start and certainly the complete one that I have has no measurable compression, although I must admit to not having looked inside yet ;o))

Offhand, I don't recall ever having seen one at an event in the eight years that I've been interested. Other flat twins have a reputation for being thirsty beasts - might the Douggie share this trait?

BTW, the one that CRN (sorry, you don't sign your name - no disrespect intended) bought on e-bay went for about the right price in my view.

regards,

Kim Siddorn

Collected it yesterday - so far I have discovered that it has no spark and negligable compression. I suspect that this is all due to having been sat under a bench for 20 years so the first job will be to give the magneto and carb a good cleanout. Lapping the valves and freeing up the rings should fix the compression.

The bikes are known for being reasonably frugal if ridden sensibly so probably not a problem. My Velocette LE, also a flat twin, manages around

65 mpg despite being ridden wide open most of the time to wring some speed out of the claimed 8 bhp. Time will tell, it has no fuel tank so starting is probably a week or 2 away. They seem to have come with no silencers, just open curved pipes, so I suspect that running one at an event may not be too popular.

We have met several times at Wessex events, think green minibus with a tail lift. The last time we met we both took Chore Horses to a very wet morning.

(snip) KS> The stationary engine version is tantalisingly similar, but I believe KS> that only the rocker box lids, conn rods, pistons & barrels are of use KS> to owners of T35 motorcycles - this would explain why there are still KS> so many of them about in complete condition!

Can still be the 'same' engine without necessarily sharing a single componant. Key thing is that when it was on the drawing board, enough 'meat' was left in the basic design to enable a two or theefold increase in power without altering certain key dimensional relationships. For instance, I can't see the otherwise admirable Norman T300 being amenable to the same treatment. It certainly wouldn't have been the only time an ostensibly military requirement was fulfilled with more than an eye to future civilian use. Who said Heathrow airport - ash your mouth out ;-)

nickh=== Posted with Qusnetsoft NewsReader 2.2.0.8

Interesting point Nick. The C-V MC2 is perhaps a third heavier than the T300 & although their nominal rated output is virtually the same, if I was going to pick one from which to coax a little more power, it would be the Coventry Victor.

I once saw a blueprint for a Vincent "B" Rapide crankcase. There is a flat face behind the magneto, which, like most post war mags was drive end mounted off a three stud flange. In the blueprint, you could clearly see the original drawing showed a base mounted magneto as most were affixed before the Second Lot.

regards,

Kim Siddorn

"nickh" said ....................

"Kim Siddorn" wrote

According to A-Z FT35 was rated at 4-8hp depending on speed. The 80 plus and

90 plus versions of the T35 motorcycle produced around 25hp (legend has it that standard T35 engines were specially prepared for the sporting models and then dyno tested. Anything over 25hp and it went into a '90' - all very scientific!)

Just the sort of little trace of history that really fascinates me.

Nick H

Pictures now at

The tinware is missing, does anyone have a spare lurking ?. I will also need to contrapt a fuel tank and silencer, those open pipes will probably make a lot of noise.

Email sent, thanks.