What to do with a 20/26HP, 2500RPM Farymann?

tosoutherncars

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Hey all,

I have agreed to purchase an abandoned project - a Farymann (German, later bought by Briggs & Stratton) R30 marine diesel that came in 70s sailboats, 25-34' approx. It's a V2, 2500 redline, raw water cooled engine.

The previous owner got it for free, threw a lot of new parts at it (and zinc-plated and painted everything) before losing interest. Turns over nicely; sounds like it's only getting compression on one side. I'm guessing something simple like valves out of adjustment, but we'll see.

Assuming I can get it up and running; I don't currently have a boat to stick it in!! Short of selling it... has anyone seen interesting projects done with mid-size marine diesels? I was thinking maybe an off-grid generator, or stationary PTO, or homebuilt tractor, or...?

Figured some of you must have seen projects done with similar Volvo / Yanmar powerplants, etc. Suggestions most welcome, however crazy they may be!
 

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Scott Danforth

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the problem with off-the-wall one-off or low volume motors is that they are more of a museum piece than something you want to rely on.

A friend of mine has a dozen hit-n-miss motors that he has mounted to a trailer to take to shows. other than show fodder, being a dust magnet and something to tinker with, they have no practical use.

Then again, if you get it running, you may find a '70's vintage blow boat that needs a reman'd motor
 

tosoutherncars

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Hi Scott,

Thanks for the reply! I know that they're not as common in NA... but Farymann were fairly common, moreso in Europe. I'm told that parts (from gasket sets all the way up to complete heads) are still available through B&S / Farymann dealers. (!)

Being a low-revving diesel, I would hope it's not a parts monster... But I'd agree, not something I'd want to rely on daily, without an adequate source of parts.

Now, pardon my ignorance... but what is a "blow boat"? I'm not familiar with the term.
 

Scott Danforth

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blow boat = sail boat. if the wind dont blow, you dont sail
 

Grub54891

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Well, ya could build a butt buggy,or doodlebug of sorts with it. That would require a radiator and possibly changing out the exhaust manifold. Your buddy with the hit and miss motors may come up with some good ideas,he's probaly a member of a website called -smokstak.com I visit there all the time as I have an old engine myself.
 

Scott Danforth

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remember, with a 4-pole genny, you need to have your RPM locked in at 1800 for 60 hz (1500 for 50 hz). you will need to pick up a frequency control for the motor as well (I would recommend Woodward or Governors America Corp.). do you know what % of droop the fuel pump governor has? if the droop is too high of a percentage, you may want to relegate the motor to pump duty vs gen duty.
 

tosoutherncars

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Scott,

I thought droop was a function of the governor - that is, of how close to 'fast idle' RPM it regulated to. On a motor with a 1800 fast idle, for ex., if (under load) the governor brings the idle back to 1740 RPM (96.66% of fast idle) then droop is 3.3%.

There's droop related to the fuel pump linkage as well? Could you suggest a link or manual that would explain it to me in small words, as though I was a rather dense child? ;)

-Duncan
 

Scott Danforth

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droop will depend on the mechanical governor. most mechanical power gen engines have a really low percentage of droop (under 2%), These are also dedicated 1500 or 1800 RPM engines. where the electronic motors have nearly imperceivable droop. most automotive engines have a huge droop (some as high as 50%). you are correct on your perception of droop - the difference in RPM between 0 load and 100% load. with a genset, you want as close to zero droop as the load varies all over the place and you are trying to hold frequency (at 50 or 60 hz)

for smaller mechanical fuel pump diesels with a large droop, most are fitted with an external electronic frequency governor and actuator
http://www.governors-america.com/products/governors/Analog/ECC-Series/ECC328-12 and http://www.governors-america.com/products/actuators/Universal/104-series/add104-12 as an example. the add-on governor makes the appropriate throttle adjustments to hold RPM. depending on the governor selected, you can also get phase control for paralleling the gennies.
 

tosoutherncars

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Well, it's here! First step, get it running right, *then* decide what to do with it.

One side sounds like it's getting good compression; the PO tells me that the valve seat on one side was pitted. Will investigate; might try to get away with lapping, if not then valve seats.
 

HT32BSX115

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Well, it's here! First step, get it running right, *then* decide what to do with it.

One side sounds like it's getting good compression; the PO tells me that the valve seat on one side was pitted. Will investigate; might try to get away with lapping, if not then valve seats.

Farymann! I have one of those!! mine is a single cyl model, aircooled.

Pretty cool engine..........but since it's a 60's vintage model, I couldn't find many parts for it. (someone left it sitting out in the rain so the cyl was full of water and frozen) I had a machinist (Harley-Davidson) friend re-do the valves for me. Since I couldn't buy valves, he adapted HD valves, guides and seats and sleeved the cyl back to "standard"..............

Can't buy rings either so I'll have to have someone make a set of custom rings for it........and I actually found people on the internet that can make rings

Yours is obviously newer, so parts may be easier to find. If it's really 26hp, It would make a pretty good generator but you'd need a radiator (It wouldn't be hard to adapt a Yanmar/Kubota etc rad) 26hp equals approx 19kw (with 100% efficiency) so you could probably easily use a 15kw generator.....

I would pull the head and valves and replace the bad one. lapping usually cannot "fix" a "notch" in a burned valve. (I doubt you have a burned valve.......small N/A diesels don't usually burn valves) If that engine sat for a long period of time, it may have the same problem mine has! You'll know when you get the head off.....

Regards,


Rick
 

tosoutherncars

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Hey Rick,

Thanks for the note! Got the first head off... this is an interesting engine! No head gasket, just a copper ring to seal the head to the block! (I doubt the PO annealed it, so that's on the list before reassembly.)

The intake side is fairly clean. The exh side, the valve itself was heavily corroded, the seat is pretty ugly, and the valve shaft showed wear and spalling. Worse, there was considerable slop side-to-side, so I'll need to do (at least) valves and valve guides. Hopefully I can get away without doing valve seat inserts; we'll see.

I like to do as much for myself as possible. So following the steps on the linked video, I tapped the inside of the brass valve guide for 3/8" NC, and used a piece of threaded rod, some washers and a piece of pipe to pull out the guides. It's not a method I've used before, but it worked beautifully.

The guides appear to be 13mm with an interference fit (so 13.005ish) and the valves are 36mm, so I think I'll probably end up using VW Type 4 / Porsche 914 parts, unless Farymann gets back to me with a better option. Stock is 9mm valve stems, but 8mm seems a lot more common; I may 'upgrade' to lighter valves.

I think I've found a local guy who can do the machine work. (I don't know whether the Porsche guides need reaming or resizing after installation. If they don't, I may throw the block in the oven, throw the guides in the freezer and see if I can't install them myself, but I'm not going to attempt grinding the seat.)
 

HT32BSX115

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Yeah. Mine has that copper head "gasket" also...... I know I cannot buy one so I'll just anneal it too.

Mine had swallowed some water I presume so there was a LOT of corrosion from sitting like that The guy that did my valves/seats/guides etc had a complete machine shop and was able to do everything quite easily! They're fairly simple engines but I would suggest letting the machine-shop guy do the guides (reaming/fit etc) since he's got the lathe, reamer, and seat grinding tools to get it all right. After the guides in, the seat grinding will be perfect.....

Mine is only a 3-5hp 1-cyl........your 2cyl engine will be pretty neet when you get it running!

Post lots of pictures!
 

tosoutherncars

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I sure will... here's the open head, and a better shot of the engine [link below]. I'll probably create a build thread, but not until I've wrapped up my Evinrude 18HP build (which has taken me way too long; now in final reassembly).
 
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