My First Engine
I started visiting the antique power shows in our area a couple
of years ago. I enjoyed looking at the old engines and tractors,
but wasn't really ready to get serious about buying an engine. I
was about midway through a two year restoration of a 1968
Volkswagen Beetle and all of my resources were tied up in it.
But I got to talk to a lot of people and met a few key
individuals at the shows.
After finishing my VW, I decided to get serious about an engine.
Little did I know how difficult it would be to find one. I
talked with a number of different people, visited with other
enthusiasts, and put feelers out every chance I got. After six
months I still hadn't located an engine. Then in April of 1994 I
went to a show in Longville, Louisiana, about twenty miles north
of where I live. While there I met Nicholas Bettevy. He lives
in Marksville, Louisiana, about a three hour drive from me. He
told me he had an old engine that was real rough that he would
sell for $75. He also mentioned that he had a pair of much older
6 HP Fairbanks-Morse engines, one he was restoring, a 1925 model,
and one he was using for parts, a 1917 model. Both engines were
complete, but the 1917 model was busted up pretty bad. Water had
been left in it one winter and it froze, busting out most of the
water jackets around the cylinder. He was using the best parts
from both engines to make one good engine. He told me that if
someone was really interested, they could probably weld up the
broken cast iron and restore the engine. I didn't think I would
be interested in such an aggressive restoration project,
especially for my first engine.
The next weekend was a three day weekend, Good Friday. My wife
and I decided to take a trip to Marksville. My primary interest
was the engine that he wanted to sell for $75, simply because the
price was right. Well, I was real excited, but when we got
there, my excitement quickly faded. The engine was in real bad
shape. I knew right away that it was not the kind of engine I
really wanted. I also knew that I would not want to put a lot of
resources into restoring it, since it really wasn't what I
wanted. So I asked about the two 6 HP Fairbanks-Morse engines
that he had told me about.
We went out into an outside shed and there they were. We looked
over them briefly. The newer one, the 1925 model was complete.
He started it up. Now this was the kind of engine I was looking
for. Although it was bigger than what I thought my first engine
would be, it was the right style, two large flywheels, open
crank, etc. We then shifted our attention to the other engine,
the 1917 model. Although it was pretty rough, it wasn't stuck.
The water jacket under the cylinder was broken out into three
large pieces. He had all of the pieces and showed me how they
fit. The water jacket was also broke in two other places and had
flared away from the crankcase about a quarter of an inch. There
was crusted rust inside the water hopper and around the remaining
water jackets literally inches thick. We removed the head to see
if there were any cracks in the cylinder. There didn't appear to
be any. After a short period of negotiating, he agreed to sell
me the engine. An interesting irony is that he had bought both
of the engines from another enthusiast right here in Lake
Charles. I had missed out on buying them myself by just one
week. When I called the original owner inquiring about an
engine, he told me he had sold two engines just the previous
week. These were those engines. Well it was several months
later now and one of those engines was returning to Lake Charles.
The next problem was getting the engine back home as I hadn't
come prepared to haul anything that large. Turns out there was a
power show the very next weekend in Lake Charles that Nicholas
was planning on attending. He agreed to deliver the engine to
me. We headed back home anticipating the next weekend.
The next Saturday, about 10:00 in the morning, Nicholas delivered
the engine to my house. I could hardly believe it. He had
installed the carburetor and magneto, and actually had the engine
in running condition. He started it up for me. Of course, we
couldn't let it run very long since it wouldn't hold water, but
at least I knew it would run.
So began four months of tender loving care restoring the old
engine. I brought the crankcase to a local automotive machine
shop to have part of the water jackets rewelded. The rest I cold
welded in place with JB weld. I discovered a small crack in the
cylinder. It was in the combustion chamber above the travel of
the piston though so I just had it welded up. I had a valve
guide installed for the exhaust valve and the valves ground and
reseated. There was a large piece of the water jacket broken out
of the head. The piece was missing. I molded and built up the
missing piece with JB weld. The rest was mostly cleanup and
painting. I bought an old cart from a local junk yard, an
incredible find, and restored it to match the engine. I ended up
with a beautiful engine that starts up every time, usually on the
first turn, and runs really fine.
I decided right away to retire the engine. No more work for it.
I just like to start it up every once in a while and watch it
run.
This article was originally published in the November,
1996, issue of Gas Engine Magazine.
It has been updated and modified slightly for this web page.
September, 2000
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