I know guys who have pulled tractors out of barns that sat there for many years and when given new fuel and battery, fire right up. Regards Rob
Rob, I'm one of those guy's, I restored a 1948 Farmall Cub; I made a list of reasons why an old tractor unless it was full of water wouldn't seize; some of this pertains to cars built before the 30's but not sure about the motorcycles.
1. Cast iron made before the 40's was very porous which held a lot of oil in the side wall of the cylinder, one of the reasons they could get away with splash lubrication, this oil helps them last setting out in the weather.
2. they were water cooled with thick water chamber castings and massive blocks for the size of the engine.
3. Long stroke engines, lots of iron to cool off the piston.
4. Had low compression and magneto ignition with enough amps to blow thru oily spark plugs and keep firing ( also enough to numb the side of your body if you touched a plug: back in the '60s my dad asked me to hold on to an old '37 farmall tractors hot lead to see if it worked---he laughed his head off when I about hit the ground---he was a very cruel father;-(
So they seldom quit from over heating; if they didn't throw a rod the engines were almost indestructible: I started helping my dad at 13 in the woods of northern Minnesota and one of the jobs I could do was drive the 1937 farmall tractor with double steel wheels (no rubber) which were very light and would float across the bogs swamps of Minn pulling a small pulp trailer. Many times the thing would over-heat from the humid summer heat but it never seized; just quit running as the carburetor would boil the gas.
What stopped most old farm and woods tractors was not the engine but all the equipment and attachments, transmissions were a weak point. So you park a high porosity running engine, embalmed in thick oil (standard oil was 40wt if they started burning oil they used 50wt--in the winter time dad would add a quart of kerosene; in a 10qt engine) with cast Iron pistons so no electrolysis between aluminum and iron. With small valves and long intake and exhaust manifolds; it's no wonder they last better than a air cooled, oil pumped, aluminum piston and cylinder, big valved, large bored, close tolerance Honda.
Clarence
engines sieze from sitting ,Why?
Rob
Re: engine seizureWhat a coincidence! lol Did he live near Pittsburgh? Clarence,great post! That's pretty much what I was wondering about.The differences between the real old engines and the later ones. Still another question though. Do motors in very dry climates like Ariz. seize from sitting? Regarding the stuck engine question, are the Cl and Cb engines more prone to sticking than the CA's ?
I've probably owned around 30 Scrambler and Superhawk parts bikes and engines over the years, of which at least 90% have been stuck. I've only owned a half a dozen or so Dream parts bikes of which 0% were stuck. Just a thought and a very un-scientific observation on my part. Mark stuck enginesMy first Dream sat unused since 1971 in a dry garage and had a free motor with good compression.
All I had to do was steam it and rebuild the carb. The Dream I have now was stuck when I got it. The spark plugs were in it along with air filter and snout. It look like is was stored outdoors for a length of time and hadn't been on the road since 1973. I had one tough time getting the pistons out,they were destroyed along with the cylinders.
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