National 3D Rebuild

NB Ocelot

2008-08-25T05:49:00.000-07:00

I now have muliple Blogs

My new Blog will be about the tours of the waterways on NB Ocelot. Reporting on the events, incidents and people I meet along the way.

http://nbocelot.blogspot.com/

I will, of course, continue to report on progress of the National. But there are a few things that need doing to Ocelot before the winter.

A Slight Pause

2008-08-25T01:34:00.000-07:00

My last entry said that I was a bit short of funds.

Its now time to confess why!

I have to admit that I've gone over to the dark side. As a fellow blogger put it, "...been seduced by the sirens of Dursley".

In plain terms, I've bought a Lister JP3. The up side was that it is wrapped in a 56' Steve Hudson shell (and interior).

I couldn't help it. I fell in love:

Oh.... It's got a bed, bathroom, kitchen and lounge to!

So what will happen to the National. Simple.... work will continue. All be it at a slightly slower pace. To be fair, it will probably become a winter project.

I suppose I'll have to start an 'Ocelot' blog now.

Dry Build

2008-07-19T02:19:00.000-07:00

Lack of funds are holding up the engineering work on the crank, bearings, pistons and liners; but that is not stopping progress at the moment.

When you get an engine as a box of bits (all be it a big box! - well actually a 7x5 trailer and back of an estate car sized box), there is always that feeling in the back of your mind.... have I got all of the bits?

In fairness to Lionel, he had stripped it down and meticulously labeled almost everything, even putting nuts and bolts in little bags with labels on them.

When I did the first sort of inventory of bits, the only obvious thing I found missing was a pushrod. I did of course miss the fact that the crankshaft counter weights had gone AWOL http://d3national.blogspot.com/2008/01/new-year.html but this was a minor oversight.

What I had never done, was to open up all of those small packets of nuts and bolts.

Another task (bear with me) is to make all of the joints for the various components.

With these two tasks in mind, I came to a decision. The best way to check on the nut and bolt inventory and assess what joints were needed where would be to carryout a 'dry build'.

The result:

Now, it's not time to get to excited as its all got to come apart again, but it does give an impression of the finished article.

I also now know of a few studs that need to be replaced and a couple of nuts that are missing. Additionally it has helped me find a few places (on the machines surfaces of the castings) that need to be painted before final assembly as they will be virtually impossible to get too once assembled.

A useful exercise and it does raise the level of hope!

Engine Mounting and Bugger!

2008-07-05T16:13:00.000-07:00

A while back I posted an entry about the construction of the engine bed and the fun and games had with drilling the engine mounting holes.

Well…. I made a decision about the mounting method and have gone for a modern product call ‘TICO S’. A "High performance machinery mounting pad", according to the manufacturers.

http://tiflex.co.uk/tico_s/tico-on-line/tico-on-line.html

It comes in various guises, but I bought a strip of the stuff 100mm wide (4" in old money) by the standard 12.5mm deep. I also bought some of their TICO S washers.

The engine is to be mounted on the TICO strip and the bolts have TICO washers at the top of the engine. This has effectively cushioned the engine between the TICO material and should absorb a lot of the vibration but still hold it firmly to the engine bed.

The ‘Bugger’ bit?

Well… Whilst carrying out this exercise I noticed an error in the engine bed manufacturing process.

I welded the cross members between the longitudinal members at the engine mounting points. This would give the frame the most strength/rigidity at the mounting points. Fine at the front (this will be effectively covered by the flywheel overhang). A problem at the rear though.

The National has a sump that is separate to the crankcase. The clearance from the bottom of the crankcase to the top of the rear cross member is 4.1/4". What’s the depth of the sump?… 5.1/4" ……. Bugger!

I’ve now got to ‘notch’ out at least 1" from the top of the rear cross member. A bit of an exercise if the engine bed had been built of wood, but its not. It’s built from 6mm structural steel!

It’s been a while since I’ve used a gas axe. Man the fire extinguishers!

Still, at least I’m dealing with these problems in the comfort(?) of the garage. Imagine trying to do it having just lowered the engine in through the roof of your boat on to an engine bed that had just been welded to the bottom plate of your Narrowboat!

Happy days!

Flywheel

2008-07-05T05:56:00.000-07:00

'Flywheel'

It's quiet a boring heading I know, but I have finally attacked the flywheel.

Originally the engine had an industrial flywheel (as can be seen on the blog header). This would have been a problem as it did not have any teeth for an electric starter (the engine being hand start only). However, a suitable toothed marine flywheel that matched the crankshaft mounting was supplied with the engine.

So, as per usual, the task in hand was to remove all of the paint back to bare metal.

How much paint can a flywheel have on it! There were layers of the stuff!

There's a lot more surface area to a flywheel than you think. Several tins of paint stripper and many hours with a wire brush and the thing was cleaned up.

One thing it did reveal on the inner boss was the stamping 49909. Could this have been the engine number of the 'donor' engine? If it is; thank you 49909, because your flywheel is now going to be well and truly bolted to the front of 56214. And long may it remain there (mainly because its to blood heavy to get off!).

Of course, once you get all of the old paint off and get the metalwork cleaned up, you've got to put the new stuff on. The result is:

A nice big black shiny flywheel!

Oh........ and another thing. The previous entry was with regard to the water pump. Well, here's a picci of the finished item assembled in full. I think it looks great against the black of the engine (the picci doesn't do it justice and it looks better in the flesh)

Water Pump

2008-06-19T13:01:00.000-07:00

Really sorry for the lack of updates. I know its been the best part of a month. Unfortunately things like w##k and maintenance on the home have been taking a bit of a priority of late. I know its not good enough - but that's the fact's.

Anyway, what have I been up to. Not a great deal, but there has been a little tinkering hear and there when the opportunity arises.

The current semi project has been the water pump drive unit.

The water pump is a plunger type unit that is powered via the fuel pump cam shaft.

A set of skew gears turns the drive through 90 degrees and operates a brass plunger via an eccentric cam.

All very simple but, hopefully, very effective.

Obviously the first thing to do was to break it down in to its component parts so that every thing can be inspected and cleaned up.

In fairness, it was all in pretty good nick, so it then followed on with the usual (you know the score).

At the end of the task, another semi component is ready and wait for the great assembly process

I love the cam lubrication process. Remove cover by undoing brass wing nut, open the spring loaded reservoir cap and fill reservoir with oil. A wick feed then drips the oil down on the the 'big-end' of the plunger and trough via an oil way to the 'little-end' of the plunger.

Another little pre-start up job.

Once coupled up to the cylinder body, it will look the mutt's nutt's bolted to the side of the black beast.

I do need to make some new leather washers for the plunger. Anyone got any spare laderhosen?

Next up, I intend to attack the flywheel. It shouldn't be to much trouble apart from the many layers of paint and the sheer weight of the thing and the associated problems that that brings with it.

Watch this space!

Governor Case Re-build

2008-05-26T00:57:00.000-07:00

Well, I've talked about it enough, so now it was time to actually do some work on the governor.

It's quite a lumpy bit of casing with a vertical shaft run direct from the crankshaft up through one side.

The large section at the top housed a set of spring loaded centrifugal weights and the shaft drives the oil pump at the bottom.

Obviously the first job was to strip it down in to its component parts. Then the usual cleaning up, etc, etc. Eventually it turns in to this:

The oil pump was in good condition and just needed a thorough clean up.

Once everything was cleaned up, all of the various component part that required painting had an initial coat of paint. Then it was time to put everything back together.

Ensuring the oil pump had the correct thickness of cover plate joint took a while. To thin and the gears were tight against the cover plate. To thick and there would be to much clearance between the cover plate and the gears which would result in a noisy and inefficient pump. The task was done by trial and error with multiple 0.5mm joints (all hand cut) until the correct thickness was achieved.

New joints where made for all of the other mating faces and, after a bit of fiddling around the final result:

Another bit ready to fit come the time of the great re-assembly.

Photo's

2008-05-25T11:46:00.000-07:00

Any regular views may notice that there are a few more photo links.

I had a bit of a sort out of the photo's and have put them in to 10 basic categories.

Ignore the Photo Bucket cr#p and feel free to have a look.

Please let me know if any of the links don't work.

Engine porn at its best!

Edited to add:

A gentle slap on the hand from Sarah (see comments). There are a couple of acknowledgements I should really add.

The photos of the 'National Works' are courtesy of Sarah (NB Warrior). See: http://d3national.blogspot.com/2007/12/national-works-aston-under-lyne.html

The 'Engine Pre strip down' and 'Initial strip down' are courtesy of Lionel Knight: http://d3national.blogspot.com/2007/12/well-i-think-i-may-have-added-some.html

I think the rest are mine.

End Bed

2008-05-21T10:03:00.000-07:00

Well, it was a weekend of cutting, grinding and welding. A bit of a change from degreasing, cleaning, stripping and wire brushing!

The result - an engine bed all fabricated up and ready for the re-build.

Its basically fabricated out of 75mm x 150mm channel (that's 6" x 3" in old money). The ultimate plan is to rebuild the engine from the bottom up, direct on to the bed plate. Get the gear box setup and aligned and once all finished and tested, the whole shooting match get transported up to the boat builder and welded in to place direct to the base plate.

Once fabricated, it was time to drill the holes for the mounting bolts. 21" apart and 20" along, 3/4" holes. Using the old adage of measure several times and drill only once, checking the diagonals to ensure they where all perfectly aligned, it drilled some 4mm pilot holes.

Before stepping up to eventually drill the full 3/4" holes; I 'dropped' the bottom end with the mounting legs on to the frame. Theoretically, the pilot holes should have been right in the centre of existing 3/4" leg holes.

Were they buggery!

Remove the bottom end, double check all of the measurements on the bed. Yes, everything was true and square. 21" x 20" with equal diagonals.

Check the engine legs (not an easy task with 2/3 cwt of engine bed floating in mid air on the hoist). Hole centres are 21" x 20". Equal diagonals - NO! The engine legs are pi##ed.

Take the legs off the Crankcase. Yep, they're fine. All of the original locating dowels are in place and true and the legs cannot be put on the 'wrong side' because the dowel won't allow it.

Put the legs back on, bolt them all. Re-check the measurements. Still askew!

Because the pilot holes have been drilled, the only answer now is to get a 3/4" hole saw and (after clamping the engine base to the bed) drill down through the leg holes and straight in to the base.

So much for the science of measuring and drilling as per the 'factory measurements'.

Hey Ho!

Governor and speed control

2008-05-12T10:21:00.000-07:00

One of the big outstanding issues is the governor arrangement on the engine. The majority of Nationals and Russell Newbery engines have horizontal governors. Not the case in my engine.

It has its own casing that is mounted on the end of the timing casing and is a vertical arrangement. The centrifugal governor weights are at the top of a vertical shaft (with the connections to the speed controller and the fuel pump), whilst the oil pump is at the bottom.

To be fair, at the moment its a bit of an 'un-known' as to how well it will control engine speed throughout the required range of 250 - 1,000 rpm.

If the engine originated from a generating set, it is almost certainly set up to run at constant speed. The governor then adjusts the fuel rack to ensure a constant speed irrespect of load on the alternator.

On my linkage from the governor to the fuel pump there is a lever and cam arrangement. From what I can work out, this appears to be a rudimentary speed control. But how redamentary is it?

One school of thought is that it may be a speed controller to slightly adjust the 'constant running speed' for frequency control. Say +/- 20 rpm. If that is the case, it may prove difficult to control the lower speed ranges required (but not impossible!).

The other school of though is that it is full range speed controller. This is the one I like because it will work perfectly - forever the optimist! A few clues have revealed themselves:

1. All of the industrial generator sets that I have seen usually have the engine plate marked up as: '##hp at ####rpm' or 'operating speed: ####rpm', etc. My engine plate just gives Engine Type and Engine Number.

2. When I cleaned up the cam linkage it had two marks on it with arrows to a fixed mark. One said 'WORK', the other was unmarked (but why have it?). I'm hoping the unmarked arrow is 'idle'.

To be honest, until the Black Beast is fired up, I'll not know (unless anyone else knows differently??). Even if it is a constant speed unit, a bit a playing with the spring tension and cam profiles should be able to sort it (there goes the optimist again!).

Needless to say, it is now subject if stripping down, degreasing, cleaning, wire brushing, painting etc, etc.

Work and Play

2008-05-06T12:48:00.000-07:00

The bank holiday weekend saw a little more progress on the engine combined with a bit of engine orientated socialising.

Sunday saw me pottering up to the Russell Newbery Works open day at Daventry. I wont bore you with to much detail, but rest assured that most of the talk was around RN's, but the National owners (3 of us I think) were present too!

Sarah on NB Warrior has more detail on her blog:

http://nbwarrior.blogspot.com/2008/05/i-can-not-believe-this.html

Note the cock up on the hand over of the pistons and liners - DOH!

What of the engine?

My previous post was about the template for the engine bed. Whilst I was thinking about ordering steel, I also thought about how I would eventually mount the starter motor and fabricate a suitable mounting bracket. The engine was originally hand start only and had a large industrial flywheel with no ring gear. Not to much of a problem as the engine came with a 'marine flywheel that should fit'.

One thing I had never done was check to see if it did. Probably because both of the two mating components (flywheel & crankshaft) were so damn heavy to shift around.

Whilst talking about this, anyone reading ye olde blogg who is considering rebuilding any engine of this ilk, please take in to account the weight of components that you will have to 'move around'. The flywheel is about 2 cwt, the block 2.75cwt, the crank is over 4' long and even things like timing covers make you grunt when you lift them. Every thing takes 3 times as long and twice as much effort!

Don't be put off though, its great fun (in a fairly masochistic sense).

Anyway, The sunshine saw me wheeling out the engine, putting together the 2 tonne engine hoist and lift up the flywheel to offer it up to the crank. Did it fit? Like a glove! The shoulder on the crank matched the recess of the flywheel, as did the bolt holes and diameters.

I then took various photograph and measurements so that I could look at working out how to mount the starter motor bracket (once it was fabricated - which is another job!).

Looking at the above photo you would expect the paint to be in fairly poor condition. Over about 30% of the area it was, the remaining 70% it was stuck like poo to a blanket. I spent a whole day stripping several layers of paint off the flywheel ready for the usual wirebrushing etc, etc. Again a job complicated by having to move a 2 cwt lump of metal around.

Engine Bed

2008-04-27T00:54:00.000-07:00

I've stopped procrastinating and made a decision.

I’m going to mount the engine: flywheel at the forward end and the gearbox at the rear. If I took the propshaft of off the flywheel end, I had a 4" stub of crankshaft at the non-flywheel end to mount any drive pulleys for alternator(s), water pumps etc. Where as the flywheel has numerous holes to through mount an extension shaft to run anything.

Flange of off the 4" stub, flexible coupling, then into the gearbox. The gearbox mounted in its own frame just behind the engine and all bolted to the same engine bed.

I’ve also decided to wait for the new PRM 260 with a 1:1 ratio as well. Its currently being tested (still no timeframes for ‘launch to the market’) but it will be ideal for my requirements. 21" standard prop and 1 ½" shaft/stern gear.

Now that the decision is made, my thoughts turned to an engine bed.

My plan is to set up whole engine up on an engine bed as part of the rebuild process. Everything would then be bolted down and aligned etc before the whole thing was supplied to the boat builder. All that would then be required would be to weld the engine bed to the base plate.

The engine is sitting on a 2 tonne trolley during the rebuild and it has an excellent flat surface. I wanted to make a template so that I could confirm all of the dimensions, hole centres and crank alignment dimensions.

First thing was to get every thing of off the trolley and give it a good clean. Next I stuck sheets of A3 paper all over it and then carefully placed the engine back on it. It was then a case of marking around the engine feet and the mounting holes.

The next thing was marking the ends of the crankshaft to get the centreline. I did this by carefully ‘plumb-lining’ from the ends of the crank.

Lift everything off, and hey presto, one engine bed template.

Knowing the gearbox dimensions and allowing some space for the coupling in between, I have estimated the engine bed to be approximately 5’ long. In practice it may be a bit shorter, but its easy to cut a bit off!

The engine bed will now be constructed out of 3 x 6 ‘C’ section (75mm x 150mm in new money). A quick call to my local steel stockist confirmed 13’ of channel would be a shade over £100.

Covers etc

2008-04-14T13:21:00.000-07:00

Although I haven't been blogging much of late, things have been happening (apart from liner measuring)

I thought that I had better show a little bit more of the progress.

The next string of shots are really before and after shots. Before being, various components wire brushes and cleaned ready for painting. The after being similar shots of the same components with paint on them.

First up is the 'Airbox'. This sits on the side of the block and is the common air filter box for all three cylinders. The individual intakes for each cylinder draw air out of one of the three elongated slots. The multiple slots face downward toward the bottom of the engine. The Airbox is another component which I found the engine number stamped on it. Each of the outlets were also stamped 1, 2 & 3 respectively as well. The two studs sticking out of the side of the box are for mounting the fuel filter on.

The frame below is located inside the Airbox and (allegedly) holds the wad of horse hair together.

I think I'll cheat and use moderns synthetic filter material.

Next up is a few cover plates. Top left in the photo is the crank end cover for the non flywheel end. Top right is an inspection plate for the governor casing. The bottom two are blanking plates for cylinders 1 & 3, waterside of the block.

Next up are a series of pictures showing the cylinder block inspection doors. Obviously one door on either side of the engine. One having the oil filler point.

At some point in time I'm going to have to make joints for all of these various covers. Break out the Klingerite and wad punches!

The Liner Wars (and Pistons)

2008-04-12T06:11:00.000-07:00

Not so much a war - but I had to make a decision about the liners for the re-build.

NB Warrior kindly donated their old liners and pistons to see if they were better than mine. Now it was time to see which ones where the best.

There is no real alternative but to use good old fashioned measuring. And the measuring device – an internal micrometer of course.

Along came the evening when I had the house to myself. The liners duly found themselves on the kitchen table (hence the house to myself) all in a nice neat row.

Now I know, there’s only 5. The left hand three being mine the right hand two being ex’ Warrior (one never made it http://nbwarrior.blogspot.com/2008/03/even-goldfish-can-count-to-three.html)

The first measurement was the very top and very bottom of a liner. This confirms the original (non worn) diameter. Measurements are taken at 90 deg’ at each point to check to see how oval the bore is.

The reference measurements on my original liners was 4.125" (4.1/8th"). All three were spot-on.
Next was measuring the ‘worn area’. I was pleasantly surprised to find each liner gave the same readings of wear:
Longitudinally: 4.128 (3 thou wear). Transverse: 4.130 (5 thou wear) at the top of the stroke and slowly tapering out down to the original diameter as you went down the stroke. A max of 5 thou wear and 2 thou oval. Not a bad result.

Next up was the two (of three) liners from Warrior. The first difference was the original diameter. 4.135" top and bottom. They were both 10 thou oversize. The remaining measurements confirmed that the overall wear was of a similar pattern to mine but 1 thou less on each measurement.

The original factory spec was 4.1/8th" bore and 6" stroke. It would appear the Warriors liners, although slightly less worn than mine, have had a 10 thou re-bore in a previous part of their life.

Which ones to use – well, mine of course. I’ll have a chat with the machine shop, but I think a 5 thou hone from the original diameter to remove the oval bore and "the jobs a good un".

An examination of the pistons found them all to be of a similar condition. Mine have got the oil rings well and truly jammed in and are yet to be eased out. Both sets of pistons have slightly scuffed skirts, but nothing much to worry about. The ring groves are still tight and true. Overall, either set could be recycled with no problems.

All its going to take now is a trip over to Warrior to re-unite them with their 'bits'. Any excuse to see another National will do!

A useful exercise - and thanks to Jim & Sarah for the offer of their old liners and pistons.

A view of things to come

2008-03-27T13:26:00.000-07:00

Well the block is finally painted with its couple of initial coats of paint.

I need to check the amount of 'free' crankshaft at the non-flywheel end of the engine. This will either be used to drive alternators etc or be coupled to a gearbox (the jury is still out on this one).

The only way to be sure was to assemble the timing cases on the end of the engine and break out the ruler. It was a nice day to day so I wheeled the engine out in to the freash air and:

A view of things to come?

It was then a case of bolt on the timing case and then the governer/oil pump casing.

The result? 4 inches. It doesn't sound much, but as the Actress said to the Bishop, "4 inches can make all the difference!"

Mmmm...... what to do?

Loads of Pistons!

2008-03-26T08:10:00.000-07:00

It’s been over 10 days since the last entry. Sorry.

It's not that I haven’t been doing anything either. I’ve been doing bits here and there, plus a bit of socialising. I can’t spend all my time in the garage being "Billy –no mates".

The main thing of note is ‘pistons and liners’.

I want to try to keep the engine as original as possible (I may have mentioned this before - yawn). Anyway – to cut a long story short, Jim and Sarah of NB Warrior fame very kindly offered me Warrior’s old pistons and liners if theirs were better than mine (they had all of theirs replaced with new shiny alloy ones when RN re-built their engine).

Plans were made and we decided to attend a CWF Banter at Napton (last Monday). Pistons would be compared and exchanged there. As it happen, I went to the boat gathering at Stoke Bruerne on the Sunday, so did Jim & Sarah, and the exchange took place in the Museum car park.

In the end I’ve kept all of the pistons and liners so that I can measure them and decide what are best. On the face of it, Warriors liners appear to be hardly worn at all and I think they could easily be recycled after a slight hone. The pistons also look better and again. I think these can be re-used.

A few other bits finished off now are the rocker covers and the cylinder head air intakes.

They where a real pain to clean up and paint, but they look nice now.

Hopefully I’ll hear back from PRM soon about the gearbox and coupling arrangements, I can then get the crank etc sent off for machining. It’s sat in the garage at the moment ready to go.

Still... plenty of other things to do in the mean time. I really do want to attack the cylinder heads soon!

Inspiration

2008-03-16T08:48:00.000-07:00

Half past three on a Friday afternoon and the mobile goes beep.

Its Keith and Jo on ‘NB Hadar’. "We’re at Thrupp, just up from the Jolly Boatman. We’ll be around for a couple of days if you want to meet."

Well, all of the household were out that night, so there was no time like the present. A few text’s later and we arranged to meet that night on the boat and then retire to the pub. It seemed like a good plan.

It ended up as a very pleasant evening in the company of Keith and Jo, plus fellow bloggers; Bones http://mortimerbones.blogspot.com/ and Maffi http://www.narrowboater.blogspot.com/.

Being as it was dark and all that, I returned the following morning to talk engines and stuff with Keith.

Keith and Jo are justifiably proud of Hadar. Built by Roger Fuller, she’s as good a replica (little) Northwich as you’ll ever see. At her heart beats a National DA 2.

The National DA is very different to the D engine, but is every bit as nice. Keith went through the normal priming procedures and, with a couple of seconds prod on the starter button, she fired up and settled down to a deep sounding rhythm. Very nice. Keith and Jo have had their own problems with their DA and these are well documented on their blog. That said, I don’t think they’d want anything else in the engine room.

The tittle of the post – ‘Inspiration’. A couple of hours with fellow Narrowboaters and vintage engine enthusiasts does help now and then. The sound of their DA makes you want to come back and get on with your own project.

Onwards and upwards!

Engine Number(s)

2008-03-08T02:15:00.001-08:00

Sarah (nb Warrior blog) recently posted about some recently acquired injectors http://nbwarrior.blogspot.com/2008/03/if-youre-going-to-mug-me.html

Amongs't the ramblings of an excited woman ;-) she bought up the subject of the number(s) stamped on them (check out the comments).

Well, my injectors are all stamped with:
5mm
NATIONAL
56214
No1

6mm
NATIONAL
56214
No2

4mm
NATIONAL
53514
No4

56214 is my engine number, so:

Two of the original injectors for No's 1 & 2 cylinders and a replacement for No 3 (of off engine number 53514?). So where is engine number 53514 (was it a 4 cylinder?), and who's got my injector for No 3 cylinder?

So, there I am - out in the garage doing guess what? - cleaning, wire brushing, painting!

This time its the rocker covers. And guess what - on the flat machine end of the cover is stamped 56214 -1. Before you can say "boo to a goose", the remaining 5 have the machined ends cleaned up. Each are stamped 56214 - 1, 56214 - 2 & 56214 - 3. Three for the inlet and three for the exhaust.

I don't think you can see it very well in the photos, but its on the 'flat bits' at the front of each one.

Why did National take the time to stamp up individual components with the engine number and sub numbers for each of the cylinders? Surely a rocker cover is a rocker cover? It wouldn't be individually machined and made to measure for each cylinder etc - or would it?.

The only other place I know that the engine number is stamped is on the block at the flywheel end

So - where else is it going to turn up?

Edited to add - Jim, put your spanners down. Don't let Sarah make you take it apart, "just to see". ;-)

Pistons n things

2008-03-02T09:55:00.000-08:00

I think in an earlier entry I said that the strip down was complete. I have to say, I lied. There are a couple of 'sub-components' (not sure if I like that word - sounds a bit to american'ised to me) that still need to be attended to. One of those is the pistons (the other is the governor assembly).

I remember many years ago an old engineer (before I became an old('ish) engineer) telling me, "a piston will tell you what an engine has been doing and how its been looked after".

So, I present my piston(s) - well one of them (but the other two look very similar).

The piston assembly consists of a separate housing for the big end bearing. This in turn is bolted to the bottom of the connecting rod with the piston at the top.

From the next photo, you can see that the rings are badly gummed up and tight in the grooves. The residue is quite sticky. The problem with this is that the rings are not/have not been doing their job properly. They should be free to allow them to expand out and make proper contact with the wall of the liner. Judging by the state of the pistons, I expect that the engine had been difficult to start and would have been quite smokey. The lower and upper oil rings wouldn’t have been doing their job and I sure some lub oil would have been finding its way in to the combustion chamber and some of the products of combustion finding their way in to the crankcase.

Although its not very clear, the bottom of the piston crowns are also very carbonised and sludgy. This would indicate that the pistons were not getting very hot ‘in use’.

So what would the ‘old engineer’ make of this. A typical cause of this type of problem is lack of use, only being used for short periods of time or the engine never reaching its working temperature/lightly loaded.
A scenario that meets this? A standby generator? Spends a lot of its time idle. When it is run, it’s only for relatively short periods of time (‘on test’). Light load – standby generators are rarely loaded when being test run (bad practice). All of which lead to the engine never reaching its proper operating temperature.
So, is that what the engine was used for? It ties in well with the four groove ‘V’ belt pulley that was bolted to the original flywheel. The engine was hand start only, so if it was a ‘standby power generator’, it wasn’t for critical plant. I’ll probably never know for sure, but it’s a bit of engineering forensics!

Next will be to de-gum the rings and clean up all of the grooves. I would really like to be able to reuse them as the alternative would be RN's alloy units and that has a whole load of other knock on requirements.

A start on the block

2008-02-17T09:14:00.000-08:00

I sometimes sit and think - I must write something on the blog. But what to write? Even when I've 'pottered' in the garage, its not alway easy to see a tangible result.

Not so true this week as I've a little to report and some tangible results. The title sort of gives it away, I've made a start on the inside of the block (well, finished it really).

Below are a string of photographs going through the process from start to finish. When you look at the final result (a bit of half painted casting), its difficult to see why it took you 10's of man hours to do (but it did).

The first picture (previously published) shows the underside of the block after it was steam cleaned but with the liners still in place, along with the cam followers and liner bottom collars.

The next one is the same view (but 180 degrees round). All of the components have been removed and the casting degreased.

The next stage after de-greasing - attacking it with the wire brush(es). Most of this is done using a variety of rotary brushes to get in to all of those important little places.

Isn't it shiny!

The final stage - painting! Now it's a case of making sure that all of those nooks and cranies get painted. The other side is making sure that you don't fill/get paint in to some of the holes (the cam follower and cylinder head oil drain holes in this case)

The final result is a painted (internally) block.

What next? A fair guess would be more: cleaning, wire brushing, painting!

Bottom end ready?

2008-02-09T02:17:00.000-08:00

A little more progress to report (work does get in the way!)

The bottom end is now ready for delivery to the machine shop!

All of the internals have been painted with Glyptal enamal. Aparantly it seals castings and aids with the smooth flow of oil. From my point of view, it will make long term maintenance easier with regard to oil changes as the sludge will be easier to wipe out. This will be aided by the newly finished sump:

While I'm posting a few picci's, here's a close up of the front crank journal and big end bearing:

You can see why it needs a re-grind and new white metal bearings.

A bit of news on the gearbox front as well. Just when you think you've got it sorted in your mind, a fellow rebuilder contacts me and say's that he's heard a rumour that PRM are currently developing a 260 gearbox with a 1:1 ratio.

Not backward in coming forward, I contact PRM who do indeed confirm this to be the case. Currently, they do not know time scales. It is in its final stages of development but will require extensive testing before being released to the market place.

This would be an ideal solution for me. It can handle the torque and would mean a 21" prop with 1.5" shaft and stern gear. I wonder if they want to give me one to test?

"The Black Beast"

2008-02-03T01:10:00.000-08:00

Sorry I've been away for a while. Had a fight with the old flu virus. Unfortunately it won. I knew I must have been ill because I couldn't even drag myself in to the garage. Still, back in the land of the living now.

As per all rebuilds, there is always that boring stage of cleaning, stripping (paint, that is) wire brushing, cleaning, stripping, wire brushing, that seems to go on forever. I think I may have mentioned this before! Well........ its still going on.

However, hears a little taster of what it may look like in the future:

The observant amongst you may have noticed that its black! Not the traditional colour I hear people say (if indeed there is such a thing) and I am half expecting to be strung up for such heresy, but I think it will look the biz when finished. The daughter has already nick-named it "The Black Beast".

I've just got the internals of the crankcase to finish off (cleaning, stripping, wire brushing - you know the form!) and then the whole bottom end, crank and conrods is to be shipped off for a re-grind and new bearings.

A couple of other bits 'finished' are the water pump casing and the Auto-Klean disc strainer (a posh and very effective oil filter).

Hopefully you can see the contrast between the black and the brass/bronze fittings. I have an image in my mind of the black castings set off by all of the brass/bronze and copper fittings. Hopefully it should all come together.

Props, gearboxes and final drive ratios

2008-01-23T07:24:00.000-08:00

I'm nearly there as far as a decision about gearboxes etc.

Crowthers got back to me:
Have now carried out calculations for you and have the following recommendation:-
Based on a direct drive gearbox 1:1 the propeller would be 21" diameter.
1:5:1 the correct propeller would be 28" diameter but we note you would be unable to swing this and therefore put forward one of our compensated range of propellers which would be 24" but with a larger blade area ratio to give the equivalent of the 28" required.
Obviously it would not be possible for you to have 2:1 reduction as even with our compensated range you would not be able to accommodate a big enough diameter.

That leaves me with two options for a prm gearbox:
A prm 500 or prm 750 with 1.5:1 reduction throwing a 24" compensated prop
A prm 750 with a 1:1 reduction throwing a 21" standard prop

Both gearboxes are an expensive choice! About par for the course

I now hunt for a gearbox. There's not much call for the bigger prm units on the inland waterways. I'll have trawl the marine breakers on the coast.

The positive side is that the mounting dimensions for both the 500 & the 750 are identical, which means that I can make a mounting plate up ready for the gearbox to connect to the engine.

If any of you have a 500 or 750 at the back of the garage - let me know!

A Three Pot National

2008-01-21T01:06:00.000-08:00

For those of you who have missed Sarah's comment on the last post - Here is Warriors National 3DM in glorious sound and vision.

http://nbwarrior.blogspot.com/2007/09/sound-and-vision.html

Are there any more three pot units out there?

Nationals in Action

2008-01-20T06:05:00.000-08:00

Progress on the engine is currently consisting of cleaning, wire brushing, cleaning, wire brushing and more cleaning. A slow and laborious task that has to be done before any real painting and restoration work can take place. Not very exciting and certainly not good blog reading. Still, it has to be done.

During those times that I've not been cleaning, wire........etc etc, various searches for info and connections for National engines have thrown up a few video clips. If you've got a few minutes spare have a look (and listen):
The first three are of the Stewarts & Lloyds Tug No3 'Vesta' (2DM)
http://i173.photobucket.com/albums/w67/gusickle/?action=view&current=MOV01370.flv
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHzKAC5uxTU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Shli2k_HFC8
The next two are MB Swallow and her 2DM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBG48nnGqUk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xweaeC1PKAo
and finishing off with the small woolwich Alcor with her 2DM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tOjTY5n5wU

I don't think I'm contravening any copyright by publishing the links as they're all out in the public domain. If anyone has any objections or would like some recognition for them, let me know.

Enjoy

Thoughts on gearboxes etc

2008-01-18T10:12:00.000-08:00

Its been a funny week, this week.

My parents have been over from 'Europe' (they live on a Dutch Barge - of no fixed abode) so I have been entertaining and talking boats/engines etc.

Mini and Vix - you'll be glad to know that this entry is not about rushing in with hammer and spanner, but thinking about engineering solutions for the future.

Long discussions took place about how to connect the engine to a gearbox/prop.

It sounds simple enough, but, as the 3D is an industrial engine the non flywheel end of the engine had the hand start dog fitted to it. A large triple vee belt pulley was bolted to the flywheel which was the power end of the engine.

Obviously, a genuine marine engine (see Warriors 3DM) had a different configuration at the non flywheel end of the crankshaft to allow the coupling of a gear box. So what to do?

The first decision has to be which way round to face the engine. The most common configuration for 'traditional' marine engines is to have the flywheel at the bow end and the gearbox connected to the non flywheel end. That said, as the years progressed and the basic engine block for both marine/automotive and stationary use became common, the flywheel often found its way to the gearbox end of the engine (often found on Gardners). In modern engines this is almost now the standard configuration.

Many marinised 'stationary' vintage engines have the gearbox at the flywheel end as this is usually the easiest engineering solution. It also protects the engine should the prop suddenly strike an object and stop suddenly. Something has to 'give' to absorb the stored energy in the flywheel. Better a bent prop blade/stripped gear/bent shaft rather than snapping the crank in your prized vintage engine!

The other decision has to be gearbox/prop shaft arrangements.

A close coupled prm type gearbox
A remote gearbox with double propshafts (as fitted to NB 'Hadar').
Pure hydraulic drive system (hyd' pump bolted to the engine - hyd' motor down by the stern gland)

Above are NB Hadar's 'remote gearbox, using two shorter shafts reduces shaft torque 'wind up' and vibration

I'm fairly sure that current DM2 RN's use a prm 150 gearbox (not sure of the reduction ratio). I contacted prm and they advised that a prm 260 should be used due to the additional power/torque of the 3 cylinder engine.

If I use a prm 260 it would be a 2:1 reduction ratio. That would mean prop speeds of 125 to 500 rpm, which in turn will need a large diameter/pitch prop. If I went up to a prm 500, I could get it in 1.5:1 reduction. This would mean prop speeds of 167 to 667 rpm, thereby needing a smaller diameter/pitch prop.

A prm 260 is £1,200, a prm 500 is £1,800. Cheaper gearbox - bigger prop/shaft etc. More expensive gearbox - smaller prop etc.

I've emailed Crowthers with my dilemma, to see what they can advise regarding ratios, props, shafts and stern gear. No response yet, I'll give it a week and then follow it up with a phone call.

Why am I worrying about this now you may ask? Well, I have a plan that may see a close coupled gearbox on the non-flywheel end of the engine (trad' configuration), but it will need the non flywheel end of the crankshaft machining and an output flange fitting. If I adopt this plan, the work needs to be done when the crank is sent away for its regrind.

Of course - If one uses the pure hydraulic drive system all of the above is solved. Basic systems start from around £2,500 though. I'm not sure about the efficiency of the hydraulic drive system as well.

I am now going to sit back and await detailed comments from you blogger's with regard to the best solution........ Please?

Doh!

2008-01-12T04:45:00.000-08:00

You know.... there are some times when you can be such a plank. In fairness, I've been a 'plank' so often I could probably board out a house!

I've just found out that I've been a plank again.

'Mini' left a comment on the last posting...."you seem to know what you are doing"......

It was of course the kiss of 'plank-dome'.

As you will know, I struggled like hell to get the liners out. In the end though, out they came.

Last night, I found a good web site: http://mbswallow.freehostia.com/index.php?page=engine-national-2dm

Swallow has a magnificent National 2DM. The web site also illustrates the manual and some other documentation. The last two pages show the RN liner puller. What's the first operation that you should do:

1. (at the bottom of the liner) Unscrew nuts & remove gland.

What gland? What nuts? It was all hidden under oil sludge. I though there would be 'O' rings at the bottom - not a stuffing box!

I wonder how much blood, sweat and tears would been necessary if I had..."unscrewed nuts & removed glands".

Guess what the next job is?....

....Unscrewing nuts and removing glands... At least it will be easy to remove the packing material. Lets hope I haven't cracked any of the collars in my session of brute force and ignorance!

Mini - do you want to put in a revised post?

Bottom end rebuild starts!

2008-01-04T15:21:00.000-08:00

Not a lot to report due to having to return to work. However, a bit of a milestone I suppose - I've actually started putting some bits back together. After attacking various bits with the steam cleaner, I wanted to put a bit of paint on some bits. More to protect the 'de-greased' castings from further oil and grease than anything else.

Working on the principal of re-assembling from the bottom upwards, The legs, crankcase and sump got a couple of coats of etcher primer/undercoat.

Once painted, I couldn't resist putting a couple of bits back together. So without further ado, the legs went back on the the crankcase (they'll probably have to come off at some time in the future, but for now - who cares!).

A New Year!

2008-01-01T01:24:00.000-08:00

A happy new year to one and all. I hope everything you wish for comes your way.

Will 2008 see National 3D 56214 running? Will the boat be built? Will my family ever understand me? Only the last one I can say for sure - the answers a big resounding NO. Here's a little tale which probably sum it up:

How did you spend New Years Eve? I went to Tesco's car park in Banbury and met a very pretty young woman by the recycling bins. Why? Engine bits of course!

I get an email from Lionel (the engines previous custodian). "In the process of garage sort-out have found the National balance weights, can you ring me ASAP".

Phone call duly ensues. His daughter is going to party the night away in Banbury and, to save a trip up to the Welsh/Shropshire borders, she could meet me and hand over the missing items. Arrangements are made and, when the rest of my household are getting ready to go out for the evening, I'm heading for Banbury.

The meeting takes place and the goods transferred from one boot to another. I wish her a happy new year and get that knowing smile back. Its the one my daughter often gives me....'Dad, your sad'....

Thank you Catherine, for meeting a strange man in Tesco's car park.

As it turns out, I get back in plenty of time to get showered, put the glad rags on and join in the festivities!

A win-win situation all round. They still don't understand me though!

Have a good 2008

The Liner Battle is Over!

2007-12-31T13:27:00.000-08:00

Well the battle of the liners is over!

Eventually, with the help of good old Dr Diesel and a fair bit of grunting (they hung on until the last!), all three of them are out.

Even the cam followers have succumbed to Diesels charms! They’re all out too. Unfortunately they’re not in the best of health. Most of the chrome is missing. I think I’ll need to try to source some replacements.

There was a fair bit of rusty scale sat in the bottom of the water spaces, but most of it appeared to be mineral based rather than flakes of rust.

It was a case of load the last bits in to the back of the car and off to fight the good fight with the steam cleaner. A couple of hours later and all are cleaned up and looking good. The inside walls of the water space look pretty sound with not to much sign of corrosion.

I’ve put a link to the liner photo’s if you want to have a look. There’s some good, before/after ones of the internals of the block.

One thing that the steam cleaner bought to light was some figures on the crankcase.

I would imagine that is a part or casting number. It was hidden under the powdery paint and is usually behind the legs so you would see it anyway. I though I had better take a picture for the record as its soon to be painted over again (maybe someone else will find it in 65 years time when the engine is rebuilt again by another idiot!)

The next plan is to put a bit of protective paint on the legs and crankcase. Once that is done, I’ll re-assemble the crank and big ends ready to send off to the machine shop.

The great clean up

2007-12-28T06:31:00.000-08:00

Well, Christmas has come and gone for another year.

I note from Sarah's blog, that Warrior's National 3DM has been working for its living over the Christmas break. Wot no T!

In between the socialising bit, I have managed to do a few odd jobs on the engine. The other two cylinder liners are on the move. Unfortunately the 'withdrawal' came to a natural conclusion when the bottom plate of the home-made extractor came up against the bottom of the block. I now have three liners standing proud by about 4". There they will stay until I can get the 1" plate cut to 4.7/8" diameter so that it will follow the liner up in to the block (if you get what I mean).

Another problem I have encountered is the cam followers. They are stuck in the block and are not currently moving. Dr diesel is now doing his work.

You can see the six round followers to the left of the bores.

In the mean time, I took various bit in to work to use the steam cleaner. After a few hours toil, all of the major parts have been well and truly cleaned. I think most of the dirt ended up on me though! I could even be looking at putting a few bits back together in the not to distant future.

The plan is to get the crankcase sorted out so that it, the crankshaft and main/big end bearing shells can be sent of to the machine shop for a grind and re-white metaling in January. While its away I can tinker with a few of the ancillary components (as well as getting the last few bits out of the main block!)

I think it will be a busy 2008!

National Works, Aston-under Lyne

2007-12-23T04:59:00.000-08:00

My thanks to Sarah & Jim of NB Warrior

The virtual postman sent me some pictures of the 'old' National Works at Aston-under Lyne. I'll let Sarah explain......

...."having just read your last post I thought you might like to see these photos I took of the National works at Ashton-under-Lyne in August 2006. Please feel free to use them on the blog if you like. The works site is now an industrial estate but it is built around at least some of the original buildings. The words 'National Gas and Oil Engine Co.' can be seen in the brickwork under the later, painted, 'Mirrlees National'. In the interior shot you can just about make out the green roof beams that inspired our choice of paint for Warrior's engine. I've found it quite hard to discover much about the company's history.
I have heard that Trinity House had giant 12 cylinder National diesels to power the compressors for the lighthouses' foghorns, and that when these were replaced by electricity, the engines were just thrown out into the sea...."

Many thanks for sharing these Sarah.

Trinity House 'disposed of many of their engines in this way. One of the other popular installations were Kelvin's K2's and K3's. Many went the same way - over the cliff edge!

See the photo link - 'National Works' to have a look at Sarah's photo's

The Anson Engine Museum web site has a bit on the National Gas & Oil Engine Company: http://www.enginemuseum.org/natcomp.html . Surprisingly, it does not mention the tie up with Russell Newbery.

If I don't get back to the computer tomorrow: Have a good Christmas one and all. The project continues in to 2008! When will it end?

Engine Information

2007-12-21T09:45:00.000-08:00

I've just been to see a mate and told him about me blog. "Great", was his comment, "what is it?". By that he meant: I know its an engine that your 'playing' with, but to someone who doesn't know what a 'National' is, what's the significance?

A good point - well presented!

I will try to rectify:

The National Oil & Gas Engine Company (to give them their full tittle) was a renowned and well known engine manufacturer of the late 1800's and early/mid 1900's.

Back in the early 1930's, Russell Newbery where building an engine with a marine variant called the DM2 (the 2 was for two cylinders - other numbers of cylinders where available). This was a very successful engine and had been widely fitted in many boats. Due to its success, in the early 1930's, the Grand Union Canal Carrying Co awarded RN a major contract for the supply of DM2's for its new Narrowboat fleet. This left RN with a problem, as they couldn't supply enough engines in the required timeframes. This problem was solved by National. They constructed engines, under licence, to meet Russell Newbery's demand.

Of the total GUCCC engines supplied, some 141 where built by National, with Russell Newbery supplying 38.

National continued to build variants of the engine for general and military use. Eventually, the National Oil & Gas Engine Company merged with Mirrlees in 1955.

The Russell Newbery Register has loads of info on RN's on their web site: http://www.russellnewbery.co.uk/Register/index.html

So where does that leave me and my engine?

Well, first off, its not marine engine. It was built as an 'industrial' stationary engine. It could have been used for a multitude of applications. Driving a generator, running layshafts in a small factory, standby for a mill, etc, etc. I'm not 100% sure what its background is.

What I can tell you is that its a 3 cylinder engine (hence 3D), rate at 27 hp @1000 rpm. Its about 3,940 cc (1300cc per cylinder). Bore is 4. 1/8" x stroke of 6". Weight is bl##dy heavy - somewhere around 3/4 tonne.

Type: 3D Engine No: 56214

Date stamped on the crankshaft is: 6/2/41. So I think 1941 is a fair date assessment.

So is the engine worth saving and marinising? - Yes, I believe it is.

In closing - if anyone wants to challenge/rectify the above, please feel free. I'm no expert and I'm sure there's a lot more people out there with a better knowledge than mine.

Victory on liner number 1!

2007-12-19T12:36:00.000-08:00

One of the major things outstanding when Lionel 'handed' the engine over to me was the removal of the liners.

Lionel had made an 'extractor' rig, but had not been able to budge them.

As we (?) all know, when restoring an engine, patients is a virtue!

Lionel had left the rig in the number two cylinder and that's how it made its journey back from Shropshire.

Once home, over the last three weeks I had built a Plasticine 'dam' around the top of the cylinder liner and had been feeding diesel on a regular basis.

An old faithful 1. 7/16" had been placed on the 36mm nut (I don't do metric that big) and pressure had been applied. Last night, the eureka moment!

A bl##dy big bang and it moved! Additional packing in the form of die's and it is now being jacked out with a fair bit of ease.

One down, two to go.

Good old diesel - the best penetrating fluid ever devised!

The first assessment

2007-12-15T07:34:00.000-08:00

Why the first assessment?

Probably because mind(s) will be changed as I go on. Its early days yet!

With everything in bits a course of action has to be decided on. Obviously its not in tablets of stone because (hopefully) as things progress and I develop an insight to the engine/receive advice from other sources, things may change.

The first thing to do is sort out the bottom end. All four main bearings need attention, as do the big ends. A full crank regrind and new white metal bearings seems like a good place to start. A good local company to me 'Paynes' can't cope with the size of crank - they sold their big grinder to 'Custom Cranks'. I got all of the dimensions together and spent an evening researching and emailing people.
The crankshaft dimensions are:
Overall length: 43.5"
Stroke: 6"
Main bearings: end (two off) 4.25"long x 2.375" diameter + intermediate (two off) 2.75 long x 2.375 diameter
Big end journals (3 off) 2.125" long x 2.375" diameter
and its damn heavy!

Let's see what the virtual postman comes up with.

The next question is the pistons. Sarah & Jim (Warrior) changed their original cast iron ones to alloy units. I want to try to keep as much of the engine as original as possible. Initial investigations have revealed that the ring grooves appear to be good. Lionel supplied a full set of replacement compression and scraper rings with the engine. If I keep the original pistons, I can use the original connecting rods and big end bearing housings. At this stage I'll keep an open mind.

One thing that does need sorting is the liners. All three have a lip at the top of the swept length. I've been told that the Russell Newbery liners are slightly different to the National ones. I need to talk to RN to ascertain what needs to be done to make them fit. Maybe this will drive the 'piston' scenario as well?

The other things to think about (even at this stage) is:

The gearbox/output arrangements. The current plan is to fit a prm style gear box. Probably with a 1.5:1 ratio throwing a fairly big prop - 24". The big question is which end to drive it from? A traditional arrangement with the flywheel at the bow end and of the engine and the gearbox at the back or a shaft off the the flywheel end to a gearbox. I will need to ponder both the engineering requirements and the the cost!

Speed control/governor arrangements. Currently the engine appears to have a vertical variable speed governor. How it works in practice I still need to understand. If anyone out there has any suggestions? Have a look at the photo links there's quite a few of the governor.

Engine cooling. Now here's one that always causes debate. I would like to keep the original plunger type circulating pump. This rules out skin tank cooling due to the coolant additives attacking the pump seals. That said, I've nothing against raw water cooling direct from the cut. There is always something very reassuring about seeing a spurt of water coming out of the side! If I go with skin tanks, I'll need a Jabsco and some way of driving it. mmmmm........

I think these are all questions I need to ponder over the Christmas/new year break.

Photo links

2007-12-13T13:47:00.000-08:00

Well - I think I may have added some links to 'Photobucket' that show some photographs of the engine.

The initial one are views of the engine prior to stripdown. Credit for the photo's is courtesy of Lionel Knight.

The second link are a batch of photo's from the initial stripdown. Also courtesy of Lionel.

The third one (also courtesy of Lionel) is of an injector.

As its all now sat in the garage - any more photo's will be from me(?)

The story so far

2007-12-09T05:18:00.000-08:00

Apologies first - this may be very basic at first as its the first time I've ever done this.

I suppose the first posting should be a back ground of why the blog is here and why I'm doing it.

The long and the short of it is because I have a 'National D3' engine that I intend to rebuild and marinise to put in a 62 foot narrowboat (yet to be built).

There may be others out there that wish to follow this insanity and mock the afflicted - namely me!

So how did it all start? The Narrowboat has been in the planning for a long time. All the interior layout is decided (in our minds), builder selected, but the key thing was it had to have a vintage engine - slow reving - thump, thump, thump. Where to find an engine?

Many months of phone calls, emails, searching the internet etc, etc and I found something. An Ailsa Craig RFR4 - 40hp @ 1200 rpm. Off I went to Wales to look at the engine and see if I could do a deal. Success! not only did I come back with one engine, I came back with two! A pair was available so I had them both.

On returning home I was met with the obvious "why do you need two?" etc. They just don't understand.

So there I am, happy with my Ailsa Craigs, doing some research and having a little tinker but not getting heavily in to stripping down yet. All was well in my world.

One evening I find myself on ebay. What do I come across - a listing for a National D3 engine. Its an industrial unit but, hey its gorgeous! It would look just the part in an engine room. Loads of Torque, smooth 3 cylinder running and would sound/look just the part!

How things can change with a click of a mouse button. A bit of last minute bidding and its mine! The date is 23 Nov 2007.

That Sunday saw me heading up to Shropshire armed with me trusty trailer, a 2 tonne engine crane and a boot full of strops and shackles!

Three hours later and I was in the company of the engines previous owner and pouring over a vast array of parts that had been carefully stripped down and, for the most part, cleaned and packed in to various boxes and containers.

A real mans jigsaw! I think the picture on the front of the box has a National D3 on it!

My thanks to Lionel and his wife for their hospitality. A few hours loading the various bits (in fairness - as much time was spent talking narrowboats and engines) in to the trailer and I was on my way back to Oxfordshire.

So where am I now - The Ailsa Craigs are currently residing in a lockup and the National has taken pride of place in the garage. A decision on the future of the Ailsa Craigs is yet to be made. They are safe and sound for now.

Several evenings have now been spent going through the boxes of carefully wrapped up bits. I have contacted Russell Newbery (the National was a RN built under licence from RN to meet the demand in engines from the Grand Union Canal Co back in the 30's). I have joined the RN register. I have contacted Sarah and Jim of the NB Warrior http://nbwarrior.blogspot.com/ as they have a National 3DM in their boat.

The next steps: watch this space!