February and the beginning of March 2021 has been a very wet and cold spell which brings a lot of idle time to think about the Lykamobile. This has brought me to wanting to create a oiling system for parts of the steam engine that will need periodic oiling. Now you might say what's the big deal, just squirt some oil here and there and all will be good. That's no fun! (at least for a mechanical engineer). So having seen modifications of similar rigs on the Series 1 Lykamobile, I embarked on adding this "accessory". Below is a reproduction of a Lunkenheimer oiler. This oiler operates by metering a slow drip of oil and is adjustable. It also has a cut-off so that oil can be stopped.
Next I decided to use 1/8 copper tubing and 1/16 NPT fittings - all of which is a bit difficult to find due to its small size. Mostly when you go down to this size it is a specialty for instrumentation etc. First I need to drill and tap the 1/16 npt holes on the engine.
I repeated this on the opposing side of the guide block and also on the second cylinder (4 places). I procured from McMaster-Carr a three port distribution block, made a bracket that is mounted with two of the top cylinder head bolts.
The next few pictures shows the routing of the 1/8 inch tubing. I also routed some tubing to the front bronze bushings that guide the valve stems.
The engine is now back in the Lykamobile ready for some good weather to steam it up. I envision only turning on the oiler as part of the steaming up process and turning it off once underway.
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