Sexton R975-C1 a mess

[Bob Phillips]

Ah the good old days!!
When I first started playing with radial engines a friend and I would start them in his garage with a separate fuel and oil tank. After starting and running the first one we quickly learned that it needed to be attached at the top to a ceiling joist - because that engine just about took off as we cranked on the carb fuel supply before the governor kicked in ! Lots of torque and with magneto ignition a runaway engine would be hard to shut down until it ran out of fuel. By the way all the engines I ever ran had high oil pressure in the 60-70 pounds region while running. We also learned to prime the dry sump oil system thoroughly before running the engine so that we had oil in those weak - link bearings and didn't unintentionally wreck something.

[LRDG]

Just to close the loop on this thread, the R975-C1 engine with its 5 broken connecting rods is now a display engine at the museum. The Sexton remains engineless.
A restorable Centurion is now my focus. The ironic thing is we have four Rolls-Royce Meteor engines in various states of repair here, leading one to assume we could make a good one from all the parts for a reasonable cost. But in reality, the cheapest option seems to be to buy a rebuilt one one from these guys for $10,000. And it comes loaded with all the accessories.

http://www.newenglandboatandmotor.co...gines-for-sale

[chris vickery]

Call them up and offer on trade all the surplus engines and components you have. Might be an easy trade or a minimal investment with little to no work.
If they are in the business of rebuilding and re-using these engines, would be a lot less headaches than trying to rebuild what you have on hand.

[Bob Phillips]

Not to belabour the point -either the Sexton vehicle itself is worth fixing or its not, engines aside. While it is rough and has much armor missing itsall flat steel and could be rebuilt. Options for engines are many, 6-71 detroits`seem the popular choice. With respect to radials you can get a complete core and OH parts for10K, when you havefinished overhauling it the market value is about 25k, not a bad return for your investment of money and time!

[LRDG]

Originally Posted by Bob Phillips

Not to belabour the point -either the Sexton vehicle itself is worth fixing or its not, engines aside. While it is rough and has much armor missing itsall flat steel and could be rebuilt. Options for engines are many, 6-71 detroits`seem the popular choice. With respect to radials you can get a complete core and OH parts for10K, when you havefinished overhauling it the market value is about 25k, not a bad return for your investment of money and time!

I hear you, Bob. But I'm a very junior grunt at the museum, and I have been told quite forcefully that money is tight.

[Bob Phillips]

I understand about limited funds for many projects.You have plenty to look after there I know! There is material out there. At the Littlefield auction (California) today, what appears to have been a clean overhauled, complete Rolls Royce Meteor V12 sold for US $3500. By the time you add taxes, commissions shipping off the estate etc it probably closer to $4500 CDN but thats not too bad. (still got to get it home) A clean (rebuilt??) centurion differential went for $200. Most expensive bid of the day was a whopping $17,000 for five baskets of used, rusty and rough looking parts (including a radiator) for a Chrysler multibank engine.

[LRDG]

Originally Posted by chris vickery

Call them up and offer on trade all the surplus engines and components you have. Might be an easy trade or a minimal investment with little to no work.
If they are in the business of rebuilding and re-using these engines, would be a lot less headaches than trying to rebuild what you have on hand.

Chris, they're a boat building company who picked up a bunch of these engines from a Scottish aviation company quite a few years ago. Since a) they are offering a discount for buying them in bulk(!), and b) the pics they sent me show they are all covered in the type of dust that indicates a few years in storage, I think they are "priced to sell". So offering them the ones we have which are in very doubtful condition will probably fall on stony ground. But I'll give it a shot.