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No kidding Major? Heard "of" them a zillion times - hell stood by them and never thought of it. John Deer made those Gosh what were they "one cycle" engines with huge flywheels and such - I just saw one in operation last year making ice-cream! I truly wanted to inquire about that thing erratically popping here and there (missing more than anything else - no faster than a pop a second either; assuming it actually fired!)

Amazing, so those Stream-liners were Detroit Diesels - Wow. Learn something new every day. I live in a small farming community - I am 100% certain I can learn a lot from several guys here that did nothing but service those. At any rate, I'm still not convinced that was where the OP was headed, but maybe??? He was talking spark - a diesel as we both know DON'T have spark at all or they would not be a diesel anymore... lol High compression is their source of ignition - one could say they were full of hot air... I was sort of wondering as well when the word "injector" was used above - that sounded diesel all the way. (obviously not today where everything is injected, but you know what I mean...)

Thanks for that, I always enjoy learning new things and I am way behind I am afraid...

dwire wrote:John Deer made those Gosh what were they "one cycle" engines with huge flywheels and such - I just saw one in operation last year making ice-cream! I truly wanted to esquire about that thing erratically popping here and there (missing more than anything else - no faster than a pop a second either; assuming it actually fired!)

Those are generically known as "hit & miss" engines. They run mostly on flywheel and only fire a spark when the governer senses the engine slowing down.
If you put on a load, it will "hit" much more often. (Duane would not like that! )

If you will excuse the Wikipedia reference... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hit-and-miss_engine

In fact, they had one at the 2005 MOA national in Lima, running the ice cream churner.

Here is a good video explaining the theory of hit & miss engines. Warning, there is a commercial.
http://videos.howstuffworks.com/howstuf ... -video.htm

Yes, not only are we speaking of the exact same John Deer device (forgot the hitt and miss business - my implement friend mentioned it afterward, but I must be getting too old to remember things well...) Not only that, but THAT WAS THE SAME hit and miss John Deer engine you are speaking of you saw in Lima, OH at the 2005 MOA - making ice cream by/for the same people.

I'm only 14 miles from where you saw it operating. - It comes here to town once a year minimum and usually twice a year anymore due to the other festival they devised some years back. - I'd just not been "here in town" for many years. Those folks have been around for some time in this region, but honestly I don't think I had seen one of those hit or miss engines since Bluffton used to bring in all the old implements like that and steam powered tractors many of which were shear insanity. I was pretty sure one of the fellas actually was a local whose family I likely knew, but being away from a place for over 20 years, well those things seem to somehow dissolve in my mind. I'll ask, but it would not be relevant here...

I think the important topic was, if you have an engine that sparks adequately to fire as a two cycle, can it just be converted? - Ah, not likely any easier than turning a boxer into a Wankel - they are birds of a different feather altogether. All things are "possible" but the nature of our BMW engine's spark would most assuredly be the easiest least time consuming part of the conversion process of a BMW boxer engine to run as a two stroke; or there is no question in my mind about it, at least...

Re Diesels, strokes, railroads ...

Actually the two-stroke GM (they bought both Electro Motive and Winton Engines to get into the business in the '30s) was a successful Roots-blown two-stroke design.

However, they (GM/EM) were not the only player and are not today, either. The ALCO/GE locomotives were all four-stroke and the very successful General Electric locomotives which today command the largest market share are all four-stroke.

Interestingly, the most modern of these locomotives now offer alternating current to their traction motors, a fairly recent innovation, where all diesel-electric traction motors were previously DC current devices.

John Falconer wrote: Interestingly, the most modern of these locomotives now offer alternating current to their traction motors, a fairly recent innovation, where all diesel-electric traction motors were previously DC current devices.

I didn't know about that. I was only familiar with the (apparently archaic) DC locomotives.

Major Softie wrote:

John Falconer wrote: Interestingly, the most modern of these locomotives now offer alternating current to their traction motors, a fairly recent innovation, where all diesel-electric traction motors were previously DC current devices.

I didn't know about that. I was only familiar with the (apparently archaic) DC locomotives.

Glad you said something - I always thought they were three-phase AC and as a boy touring one of CONRAIL/PennCentral's diesel-electrics thought sure that is what I was seeing from trucks clear up to the dynamic braking. I could have been a rich fool just in my youth by making a grave design error... lol

Dang it GE!

OSSA mortor cycles just showed a 2013 -2 stroke that passed emiesions in the UK on a F.I. 2 stroke 250and 300cc bikes

I believe that, and... Diesels lapped Le Mans a couple of years back too; stranger things have happened... But your username is So Cal Charlie; so, can you walk into any of your local dirt bike shops and buy a brand new 2-stoke bikes still with a 2012/13 model tag on them? Maybe that stuff was all lies, but two years ago, I think at an entire event, I saw one stunt kid running an older grandfathered bike that was 2-stroke; everyone else had made the switch to 4-cycle (albeit likely not too happily, but it will enhance the development of the 4-cycles and it truly already has, so that is a good thing!)

justoneoftheguys wrote:

dwire wrote:John Deer made those Gosh what were they "one cycle" engines with huge flywheels and such - I just saw one in operation last year making ice-cream! I truly wanted to esquire about that thing erratically popping here and there (missing more than anything else - no faster than a pop a second either; assuming it actually fired!)

Those are generically known as "hit & miss" engines. They run mostly on flywheel and only fire a spark when the governer senses the engine slowing down.
If you put on a load, it will "hit" much more often. (Duane would not like that! )

If you will excuse the Wikipedia reference... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hit-and-miss_engine

In fact, they had one at the 2005 MOA national in Lima, running the ice cream churner.

Here is a good video explaining the theory of hit & miss engines. Warning, there is a commercial.
http://videos.howstuffworks.com/howstuf ... -video.htm

As y'all may know, Youtube has a ton of old machinery clips of about everything under the sun.
Here's a large hit and miss really 'singing its song'....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_0xifuT ... plpp_video

Log splitter hit and miss...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c88nTbjH ... re=related

Yep... Now that's what I'm talking about! (first video) I can only recall that insanity as a really young kid when they had "a big one" (show that is...) but they had steam and yes those mammoth machines such as that. I recall being amazed, terrified and confused - the confusion was how the Hell a great deal of that stuff ever got in there! Think in those days it was a several week event and would gather they spent a week with cranes and other crap dragging it in. Pretty sure, I'd have to ask but thought that was just up the street from me here; Bluffton - don't think it was clear up in Bowling Green where everyone thinks tractors, tractor pulls and crazy crap like that as I am 99% sure I've never been to any of BG's events...

Lots of that stuff came and went around here when I was a little boy - like the "Firemen s Jamboree" -->This meant thousands of drunk fireman from all over the country riding around town in, on, and off fire trucks, sirens blaring 24/7 for 3 or 4 days piss full of beer. The town was rather displeased to say the least. Funny thing was, while you could hardly walk through all the beer cans, they were all there for a day thereafter and there was no evidence otherwise of their giant party - accept the sour taste left in the town's mind over the deal. lol They would never return...

Thanks for posting that engine; the one described making ice-cream was about the size of a car wash vacuum sweeper; quite similar to the log splitter.