Happy Valentine's Day (Valentine Speed Bee II)

I read my camera's manual. That thing will do everything but make me breakfast. The engine just came with a little paper talking about Ronald Valentine and saying that the engine is fragile. Maybe if I read the engine's slip I might not have run it, or at least not run it over 20K RPM.

fit90 wrote:I read my camera's manual. That thing will do everything but make me breakfast. The engine just came with a little paper talking about Ronald Valentine and saying that the engine is fragile. Maybe if I read the engine's slip I might not have run it, or at least not run it over 20K RPM.

I tink you were right to run it.
And would be right to talk Ron about it.

It's not looking like I will get the parts to repair this engine before Thanks Giving so I decided to run a Speed Bee I disc valve. Since things were coming loose on the Mk II I decided to open up and inspect the Mk I. I found that King Kong attached the back plate with all his might and someone was either very proud of their precision machine work or they forgot to install a backplate gasket. Any how, after installing the gasket and reassembling everything it was off to the test stand. I had to enlarge the mounting holes for the #2 hardware I use. After all the fussing I got the little beast up and running. Sig Champion 25% with one ounce castor added per quart and Cox 5X3 grey stiff competition prop, all else as the engine came. The engine was prone to easy flooding. Once that was figured out it was a truly user friendly engine. After two ounces of fuel it would hold a steady needle setting at 15K RPM. I think it has a little more oomph in it but may need a couple more ounces of fuel to loosen it up. The cylinder has two transfer and two booster ports, but they are shallow. Since this is such a pretty and user friendly little engine I can nt bring myself to modify it so I will probably switch it to a Galbreath head and Nelson plug and run a few more ounces of fuel through it and hopefully get it up to 16K ROM or so. It doesn't just look pretty, it also runs very nicely.

Bob

Got some parts! My machinist friend got sick over Thanks Giving. I am glad he is much better now. Any how, after he came back to work we took a look at the engine's part's, especially the disk, and decided that there was not enough material to safely install a bushing in the disk. Instead, we dicided to do a larger diameter pin. The pics hopefully tell the story. I have reassembled the engine using medium strength loctite to hold the venturi in place and high strenght loctite to hold the pin in place. With any luck I will be able to reassemble the whole engine this weekend and run it. When I do I will post results.

Bob[img]https://i.servimg.com/u/f48/16/98/72/35/dscn0426.jpg[url=https://servimg.com/view/16987235/54][/img][/url]

The second pic didn't work. Here it is, I hope.

I had to ream the disk for the new pin to work. If everything worked as hoped for the hole is no more than .001" larger than the pin and well centered too. I will find out when I get to run it.

Bob

Here's the pic that didn't work.

Very nice Bob and I am glad it al worked
Out for you.

Hopefully this thing will even better than before.
Indra

Indra,

Thank you. That is much appreciated.

Bob

IT"S ALIVE!!!

I put it all back toghether and gave it a little run. With a cox 5X3 grey stiff comp prop, Sig Champion %25 with a little extra castor and all else as sent from Valentine the engine ultimately came back to life and did very well. I initially started to lean it out as though it was still broken in. This resulted in a sudden and abrupt stop after about about 30 seconds of not so great running. After taking the engine's hint I ran it through another break in. After the break in it tached as high as 17.7K RPM and after backing the needle off about 1/4 turn it ran at a super steady 17.4-17.5K RPM through the entire one ounce tank. By the way, at this speed the engine ran really well for 6 min 45 sec + or - a second or two on one ounce of fuel.

I'll take it. This isn't quite what I had in mind for this little engine but at least I hope I finally got where I wanted to be with it.

Bob

I just had the pleasure of talking to Mr. Valentine via email. Apparently my previous emails did not get through to him. He very generously offered to repair the engine and have it back to me in less than two weeks. I don't think there is any better than that. He also offered some kind advice regarding handling, fuel, etc... All in all, it is obvious he stands behind his products and customers 100%

Bob