Lykamobile Superheater

 After some searching on the internet and from some prior discussions with Jim Trotta, I decided to try and make a superheater for the Lyka Series 2. I found some inspiration from a Locomobile modification posted December 2016 (click on this for the link). I only wish I could bend pipe as smoothly as shown from the link. First task was to figure out a bending configuration. I approximated the diameter of the boiler and laid this out on a piece of cardboard and by using some string I had, I played around with the loops of the superheater. 

Yes it looks a little silly, but I needed to get an approximation of the length of pipe I would need. From other research on the internet I found that 3/8 inch stainless steel 304 pipe was recommended. I sourced this from www.zoro.com a 6 foot length for about $40 including the shipping charge. Additionally I decided to make a fixture to bend the pipe around a radius of pipe attached to my work top with a couple of pipe flanges. I used 2.5 inch pipe x 3 inch nipple (again sourced by Zoro.com). To bend the pipe I filled the pipe with dry sand and capped off both ends. The sand's purpose is to support the pipe internally to prevent the pipe from collapsing. 

But before going any further with pipe bending I had to finalize the pipe bend layout. This necessitated taking the bottom burner tray off the boiler. This is a major undertaking. You just about have to strip everything to do this and lift the boiler up to clear the burner tray for removal. If only Steam Traction World had made the parking brake bracket a bolt on assembly this work would have been MUCH simpler. The bracket prevents the dropping of the burner tray, so the boiler has to be lifted!

Once the burner tray is out, I could estimate the pipe fittings on the underside of the boiler using the burner tray. See below.

Steam Traction World actually had cutouts on the outer cladding for a superheater (I believe) and all I had to do was to cutout the inner sheet metal. As you can see in the above cardboard layout, I have drawn in the pipe fittings of the boiler to avoid. 

Next the bending of the pipe. You will need most likely an Oxy-Acetylene setup.

You will need to heat the pipe to a medium red color and with the assistance of a friend help you bend the pipe. Below is my bending fixture mounted to my bench. The threaded bolt is used to hold the pipe and by pulling on the pipe while heated to a red color will bend fairly easily. We did get better as we went along. I'm sure if I were to do a second superheater it would be more consistent in regard to the bend radiuses.

The pipe length was cut on the left side of the above picture, and I had to purchase a 3/8 NPT die to cut new threads.

Cutting the threads was a bit tricky trying to align the die straight. My threads were a bit skewed, but I was able to get full engagement with the 90-degree fitting. I used 9 inch and a 12 inch stainless steel 304 pipe nipples and pre-assembled these onto the superheater. I have learned that when tightening these pipe fittings for use on the Lykamobile, when you think it is tight enough - go ahead and tighten some more! Nothing worse than having to go back and tighten for steam leaks!

Below the green strap is the incoming steam from the throttle.

The pipe above is the exit for the steam from the superheater.

Flare fittings

From the Throttle to the brass flare fittings on the superheater I will bend and use 1/4 inch copper pipe (3/8 inch OD) to reroute the steam to the superheater. The steam will then travel from the superheater back up to the other flared brass fitting through a newly bent 1/4 inch copper pipe to the piston manifold. In addition, I felt like the superheater needed to be supported, so using some rods and some scrap metal I had, I fashioned a way to suspend the superheater through the boiler tubes. Much like how Steam Traction World did to support the burner tray. The pictures below explains this.

Below is a picture showing the boiler lifted by my engine hoist - again if that parking brake bracket was a bolt on, this would not have been necessary.

Pictures of the superheater underneath the boiler.

While I had everything apart, I decided to once again try to seal the throttle from leaking. It is a minor leak with a small amount of moisture, but it bothers me that I can't get it sealed. So I took everything apart, the special steam gasket I used was useless with a chunk of it blown out. But what was most important, I noticed some machining chips stuck in the throttle that I must have missed originally. Possibly the chips also "migrated or flowed" their way to the throttle and got stuck. About half my throttle holes were plugged. See below pictures.

Anyway, I reassembled the throttle and tried some high heat RTV (orange) to seal the assembly. (note this didn't work long either - still have that very small leak)

Below shows the two copper pipes I bent and covered with insulation for the superheater.

The following picture shows the fittings and pipe that the steam exits from the superheater to the piston manifold.

I have steamed the car twice so far. I feel like the amount of condensation is greatly reduced coming out of the exhaust pipes. I did a crude temperature measurement of the outgoing steam pipe from the throttle to the superheater and another measurement of the steam pipe after the superheater going to the piston manifold. I see a better than 100 degree F temperature rise. 

I also believe that acceleration is greater, and my speed is greater, however due to the machining chips I cleared out of the throttle I have confounded this result - so I don't know for sure what contributed to the increase speed and pep. But I'm happy to be more "steam efficient" with the higher dryer steam which should translate into going further on a tank of water.

Happy Steaming :)

Water Water Everywhere Water !

I have had two issues over the past year with the Lyka. One day I discovered a puddle under my Lyka that shouldn't have been there. Now this replica of the 1899-1903 Locomobile is prone to dripping water, oil and even some diesel fuel if everything isn't tight, but this puddle was different. Upon further investigation I could see that my tanks were dripping from a few weldments. After discussing with Steam Traction World, they were as perplexed and me. I use well water and my only thoughts are that these tanks do not like my water. I also discovered that the pipe threads had deteriorated too. My only solution was to clean the tanks as best as I could and seal the tanks with POR 15 fuel tank sealer. I also had to use thread inserts to fix the pipe threads. Below are a few pictures showing the issue. Everything is all back together with no leaking. 

My Second issue just happened this week. I was preparing the Lyka for our annual Town's Christmas Parade. Steamed her up, drove her around a bit, then loaded her onto my trailer to transport to the parade a couple of days earlier for the parade. I have a place to store the Lyka close to the parade. The Lyka ran just fine going up on the trailer, however when I arrived where I was going to store the Lyka, she began to buck just a bit and run rough. I had a feeling that the timing somehow was a little off. I loaded the Lyka back up and took her back to my shop. Did a re-timing and still she was bucking a bit. I jacked up one wheel and ran the engine trying to listen and see if anything to explain the rough running. Then all of a sudden, the engine smoothed out - that was odd I thought, until I realized the Lyka was spilling water out the back. I burst the copper tubing that goes from the hand pump to the feed pump.

Now what caused that! I decided to disassemble the feed pump to see if I could find a blockage. What I discovered is that the two ball check valve stops had become loose and were not in their proper 1.5mm distant from the ball.

You can see the jam nut has loosen and the other M6 hex head screw has loosened away too. This is not good. Below is a diagram I drew up of how the feed pump should be. When the pump piston goes up the left ball will close and the right ball will rise, opening up for water to be drawn in from the tanks. Once the pump piston starts to transverse down the right ball will seat itself closing off the tanks and the left ball will rise allowing the water to go to the boiler or bypass circuit. The hand pump prevents water from escaping in that direction too - basically a dead end.

In the next diagram you see the left ball has been jammed shut by the M6 screw loosening up and resting on top of the ball. This prevents the water from exiting out the feed pump to the boiler or bypass circuit. Water is not very compressible so when the pump piston goes down it is pressuring the hand pipe tubing and causing the engine to buck like hitting a brick wall. The copper tubing actually expanded over much of its length going from about 3/8 inch diameter to close to 1/2 inch diameter (about 0.45 in places). Finally, the copper tube burst open.

I have put in a request to STW to purchase a new LK1556 copper pipe. Hopefully they can make one up for me soon.

So for any other Lyka builder reading this....Use Loctite or some type of thread lock to fix the adjustable M6 screws in place. The instructions don't say anything in this regard, but knowing now what has happened, thread locker is required.

Basket (to hide the burner)

Finally received the very last item from Steam Traction World to finish my Lykamobile Series 2. Not that the red burner was an eyesore, and actually it did kind of fit in with my paint scheme, I'm glad to finally get it installed.

Well, the instructions from STW say to screw the wooden wedges from the inside surface of the rear panel, this would necessitate me taking apart my rear brake light and license plate bracket. I didn't think it matters much which way you screw the wooden wedges onto the surface of the rear panel, so I opted to use some small pan head screws. Now mind you the rear panel is thin, and this may pose a problem if there isn't enough "bite" to keep the wedges secure by the wood screws. But I really believe it will be just fine. If it does become I problem, I can always screw them onto the rear panel per STW's instructions.

The first task is to mount the right wooden wedge along the edge of the right side of the cut-out for the burner. I temporarily used some C-Clamps for positioning.

Before securing this piece to the rear panel, I went ahead and temporarily mounted all of the wooden wedges to see how these pieces fit up.

All the pieces are now screwed into the rear panel which allows me the ability to see how well the basket align with the wooden wedges. What I discovered is that the basket (being handmade) is not exactly square and actually is about 1 inch narrower at the bottom. Therefor I realigned the pieces to better match up to the basket.

The right-side piece I moved over to better align with the basket.

I also sanded down the edge some to better fit the angle.

All repositioned.

I loosely placed the basket in its final position before drilling the mounting holes for the metal bracket.

All mounted up, the next step will be to take it all apart and paint the wooden wedges and metal bracket black and do a final assembly.