nasty knock for the ABC at Brooklands

Please find attached the interesting casting stamps mentioned in the last post. There is certainly an S; however not sure about the other parts of the symbol? Also finally got the bearing spares we needed this week, so assembled the crank into the crankcase.

I think there was an army of inspectors in the Sopwith works, each with his own little hammer and set of stamps. Here and there, even nuts and washers have been inspected and passed! I suspect that the stamps identify the individual inspectors and perhaps the nature of the inspection (dimension: hardness: weight: roughness). My crankcase-halves also bore identification marks, to indicate joint-machining. "Lots and lots of stamps"!
Paul.

Good progress has been made in recent weeks, the engine rebuild is virtually complete and we are looking to reinstate it into the rolling chassis in the next few weeks. Working towards starting it up first week in the New Year - and finding out how good a job we have done! We are using the old rocker assembly to check all is working and then if all is fine do the necessary manufacturing to use a more robust design, which has kindly been donated.

Ian and Graham have done a great job, engine now back where it belongs !

We started the ABC for the first time after the rebuild - hurray. The excess oil soon burnt off and the engine sounded much healthier than before. I believe I may have made a mistake on the timing or we have a carburation issue - however I am sure we can get those sorted next week.

Yes, well done Ian, and Graham. I posted a video clip on the FB site, one person commented 'What fuel are you using?'. Perhaps we need to be careful what we put in the tanks at the museum, I know we usually just use a can from the store, but going forward a more scientific approach may be better, especially for some of the more 'fussy' machines !
I know it certainly had a rather 'sharp' sound to it, John did comment it sounded a bit like an old 2-stroke !