ABC Bee engine

Fascinated to hear about the V4 engine and hoping for more !

Kim's engine is alive and well and living in Wales at the Internal Fire museum. Unfortunately the generator has gone missing at some point so if anybody trips over one we would be very interested!

The RAF Reserve Collection at Stafford has a brand new unit in a box hiding on the racking along with a display mounted unit, several twins as well. Another collector in Wales has a very low hour Bee in lovely original condition.

Paul

Internal Fire still have this engine on display. They are a great museum.   

My V4 Bee engine, has no oil in it, has no carbon in exhaust I’m guessing it has never been run? 
certainly previous owner who had for 30 years or so never ran it And he recons previous owner to that had not run it….
well I an going to fill it , fuel it, wire it up and give it a chance to run, turning over with pull start it sparks on two and gives me shock on other two so not far away, just need to complete my ongoing bike project before getting to this one.

"Bee Musings" ("Meditation" would be too grand a title)...
The 19 BHP (@3900 RPM) rating of these engines equates to 14 kVA, but their generator-rating (28 V, 200A direct current) is only 5.6 kVA.
 - This engine was destined to lead a lazy life!
I wonder what the original MoD Invitation/Call to Tender looked like. There would have been stipulations on weight and size for sure, plus vibration levels, noise, fire-hazard, speed-regulation, servicing/serviceability, weather-resistance, instrumentation and durability, apart from actual performance. Cost would have been requested, but not limited.
One can imagine the ABC engineers licking their chops with glee at the prospect of designing this baby! And they had an absolute ball! With four cylinders in 90* vee-4 formation, twin magnetos driven via bevel gears and Vernier couplings, a cooling fan and an oil pump driven via more bevel gears, twin carbies, fancy one-shot cylinder-head attachments, a rev-limiter, and dials and gauges and enough pipes and cables for a cats cradle...
Compare all this with the commercial geny's of today...powered by a single-cylinder 400 cc. engine with magnetic-module ignition, producing 7 BHP, absorption-rubber mounted in a cage.
Boys, you are the owners of true mechanical treasures! Enjoy!
    

Musings Part II...
Whilst it might seem minor sacrilege to put such an iconic device as the Bee into service, surely it deserves a better future than to remain simply an exhibit.
A bit of a snag to using it for almost any other purpose, however, is its very specialised plumbing...I refer here to its inlet and exhaust manifolds, which are totally alien to any automotive application I've ever seen.
So, has anyone considered the feasibility of switching the carbs to a position between the cylinders, and the exhausts to the exterior? Food for thought? It has to be possible!