Treven,
Thanks for the compliment but no, the video was taken by my nephew with a hand held, Sanyo camera. As practise makes better, he managed to follow the plane more closely compared to the flight in the summer. Yes, I am as well, looking forward to flying in the winter on various, experimental mixes. See below. [X(]
Greg,
Well, your statement about running just vegetable oil as fuel was a challenge I couldn't refuse.
As you rightly pointed out about the run on Soya oil and ether, it could have been JUST the ether that was burning. Well, burning on to YouTube right now is a clip which contains the following text.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++++++++
Here we have the Norvel .15 rebuilt with a custom made rod, brass bushed both ends. The crank has also been fitted with brass bushings on both ends. We now have a machine with zero slop in the system.
A prior experiment using Soya oil and ether as the fuel was met with the justified criticism that perhaps it was just the ether that was burning. The clue was the heavy white smoke generated by the engine at full throttle.
So this time, I made up a mix of
6 oz of Sunflower oil straight from the fridge.
2/3rd oz of kerosene - (11%)
2/3rd oz of Camp stove fuel (naphtha) - (11%)
25 drops of Amsoil cetane booster - (1%)
Much reading on biodiesel and SVO (straight vegetable oil) lead me to this formula. Special thanks to Kelly for the tip on using naphtha in a diesel fuel.
And as you see, it runs. Note that this time, we have MOST of the mix composed of oil as the fuel. On top of that,,,, note that we have no added oil for lubrication. As a two stroke, the Norvel normally requires an oil to be added to the fuel for lubrication. However, as the oil IS the fuel, it serves double duty as in burning for the go and oiling for the keep it from blowing up. Neat.
The idle is smooth and reliable and on this run was a tad higher than normal. Further tweaking got it down to 3K. Top end is down from a stock, kero/ether based fuel at 9K.
The main needle had to be turned OUT some six turns. The compression screw had to be backed off one full turn.
Starts required a high ether prime. Six or more prime bursts were needed to get a run but even then, it took a lot of coaxing to get the engine to run long enough to get hot enough for the run you see. The engine gets far hotter than with a stock, kero/ether fuel.
The sunflower oil along with the other ingredients had a higher viscosity compared to standard fuel. This likely accounts for the extremely rich needle setting.
Yes, lots of white smoke and we DO have oil coming out of the exhaust. But that's normal. Evidently, most of the oil IS being burned and SOME is still doing duty as lubrication.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ +++++++++++++++
Another run was with 50% Sunflower oil and 50% Naphtha along with 2% Amsoil cetane booster. In that case, the compression screw had to be backed off another half turn or so. Top end was down another 500 RPM. Idle was good but with ROUGH acceleration. My thinking is that various combinations of oil, kero and naphtha may give us a good, no ether fuel that anyone can make at home. Cost is another matter, I haven't taken the time to evaluate that, yet.
Pictured below are some of the ingredients.
Also pictured is the mysterious, MotoMaster cetane booster. It finally came in. The bottle reads that it contains mineral spirits and 1,2,4-trimethylbenzene. Sounds nasty and look, a skull and crossbones on the bottle. Didn't check the MSDS but I WAS very careful with handling.
A full afternoon of testing has confirmed that it pretty much works as well as the Amsoil which is octyl nitrate. The 350 mL bottle cost 10 dollars $anadian and at 2% concentration, that'll make 4 1/2 gallons of fuel.
So, straight vegetable oil, or SVO, WILL run in at least, a dieselized Norvel. Viscosity is an issue, as you correctly point out and that may be just a matter of more kero and/or naphtha. The question that comes to mind for me, is that, how does the engine know how much oil to burn and how much to retain as a lubricant? And how do the other ingredients contribute to this unusual situation.