Santos Dumont No. 18 Hydroplane 1907 by Greg Davis - Scale 1:16

[iMustBeCrazy]

10 minutes ago, Greg Davis said:

The engine that you are examining here looks different to me, in how fuel is delivered. I was under the assumption that there were two carbonators on the No18's engine that were fed by the rear portion of the conical tank. I thought the air/fuel mixture was then delivered through the spider-shaped manifolds. The engine you are showing here appears to have air intakes for each cylinder with fuel being injected separately.

I certainly can't say for certain, they could have changed anything.

 

The engine was designed with 'fuel injection' I put that in quotes as it was a continuous spray system spraying all cylinders at once, when the inlet valves were sucked open fuel and air were drawn in. I assume throttle was by controlling the amount of air.

 

[Keith Black]

17 minutes ago, Greg Davis said:

If so 10 min of run time should be quite sufficient! But again - all conjectural!

 This is why I'm having trouble with a water pump being thrown into the mix, early water pumps were sketchy at best. I know those 16 cylinders are going to produce heat but the designer is adding a sketchy pump for a ten minute ride? As long as there was enough external water and room for expansion ten minutes is nothing. It's a whole other kettle of fish if we're talking hours but ten minutes? I just can't see trying to invent the wheel for ten minutes. I've seen guys run V-8's without any water (testing after a rebuild not wanting to add coolant in case they had to pull the heads etc etc) for almost ten minutes. You guys say water pump, okay, but I gotta tell ya I'm a bit skeptical. 

[iMustBeCrazy]

13 minutes ago, Greg Davis said:

made it appear the coolant pipes go below that long tube

You can see that in the shot above.

I think William nailed it.

 

Now, the only other shot of the tube I can find appears to have a narrower tube coming out the front then up.

Tilting the head to the left when viewing helps.

[iMustBeCrazy]

Ok, lets try this again:

 

In this photo we see lots of oil pipes, we see the oil pump (or is that pumps?) at the rear of the engine with pipes coming out the top and bottom, we see an oil line running under and going into the front of the engine and into the prop shaft.

 

In this photo we see a crankcase vent (fuzzy closest to the camera) and a junction block (mid engine) connecting a fuel line, coming from the rear of the engine, with the fuel lines going to the cylinders.

 

This photo showing the crankcase vent tied it all together.

 

This photo shows the oil pump (rear right, note the wide belt) better and a water pump (front right).

 

EDIT: I think it shows the oil pump and fuel pump (together) and the water pump.

Edited 21 hours ago by iMustBeCrazy