Stirlingengineforum.com

Bogan, Maybe a bit of a rest, don't give up altogether. Yes 4mm is on the small side for bearings, for good wear think a little big rather than small. main bearings could be needle rollers direct on the shaft. Good bronze bearings of the Oillite type are good also. One thing with the stainless hot ...

haha, yes that sounds like a much more intelligent way of doing it, think I basically overestimated the power output, and underestimated the heat required. Will probably get onto it again at some point, however I have a few motorbike mods to attend to atm :D

no room for any ball races on the crank, and not really up for all that other machining. The main goal was to make up a mini v8, and i figured it'd be cool to have it run in some configuration, went with stirling cos it sounded the easiest, now I'm thinking compressed air or steam is gonna be signif...

hmmm, looks like its only gonna be an awesome paperweight then, rather than an awesome stirling! The ally is only good for 600deg then it melts, anywhere close to that and I would be worried about leaving the torch flame on too long and melting little bits. And no to bearings, the crank is machined ...

not sure what grade plastic they are, only heated it to about 150degrees centigrade so far, then the grease on all the bushings starts smoking.

4040 steel pistons with aluminium bores, no crowns, heat/cool is applied to the side of the blocks, was gonna figure out what sorta temp it need to be to run then bolt on appropriate equipment, water baths, or heatsink and thermal mass etc... except I haven't been able to get it running yet!

it does generate a bit of a temperature difference, bout 15-20deg after a few min at 1000rpm. Will try and find a little dc motor to belt drive to the flywheel then get some proper measurements, that way even if it doesn't work as a stirling it'll still spin (decided steam is way too difficult with ...

will try giving it a good run soon and see what sort temperature differential it can generate, guess that'll let me know for certain whether its a friction issue or sealing issue.

Tried that but no go. Did some checking of various things today, getting bout 15psi compression on each of the cylinders when spun up with a cordless drill, but also takes 3A @15.5V to spin it up to around 400rpm when the hoses are connected (and temperature differential applied), 2.6A when not, obv...

Machined up a v8 block and crank, decided to try and make it into a stirling engine. Alpha type with the pistons on each shared crankpin also sharing the working fluid. It's a standard crossplane 90degree V8 design, will heat one bank and cool the other. No rings on the piston or oiling, just a prec...