Grayling - John Maltby
Here is my fathers boat: Its got a Taylor Compound engine and horizontal water tube boiler.

Nice engine, are those little hoses used to oil the bearings? Is there an oil pump too?

Yep, there is a belt-driven pump for the oil pipe system which is a lot more complicated than it first looks. There is a 2nd pump for the main steam line. The pump is driven via a worm gear and works two cams for the pumps.

2 more pictures:

Con rod lubrication system
Hello, My name is David Piper. This is my first post,Glad to be here! :) I am very intriqued by the lubrication system on your Taylor compound, could you possibly provide some detail? I am struggling with how best to lubricate the business end of the rods at 600-700 rpm reliabily, and this looks like "just the ticket" Warm regards, Dave

Hi. The system on my dads engine uses plastic tubes all fed from 1 pump. It works very well and doesn't leak at all. All the areas which need oiling are done so via plastic pipes ecxept for the main steam line which is via a copper pipe on its own pump. I can't remember where he got the parts from, but I know the 1st attempt at a pump wasn't the best. I thought of using a worm gear drive so we didn't have the ratchet clicking noise which works brilliantly. A simple one-way clutch bearing means we can also manually turn the pump cam shaft by hand.

lube system
David, Hi the lube system on Grayling uses parts designed for truck chassis/industrial lube systems by Tecalemit of Plymouth although I believe the company making these is now called Interlube systems see www.interlubesystems.co.uk there is a single pump (0.040cc) for all the bearing lube points which has a manifold with a "flow unit" for each line, this controls the amount to each bearing. the pump is a "pumping unit" from the truck chassis auto lube systems and are available as a spare see the multi-line manual on the website. pumping units are from .010 to .100cc per stroke. (large engines can use 1 pump per lube point but its expensive). there is a seperate pump (.010cc) for cylinder oil and they are in a common tank as I only use steam oil for all. I used nylon tubes to the conn rod bearings and crossheads as they are flexible. pumps run at 1/40 of the engine speed and can be driven by the conventional ratchet system, or roller clutches or as mine is now via a minature tooth belt and worm gear.

oil pipe plumbing
Thank you! I considered entering throught the back of the column into the cross head bearing and then pick up the oil on the cross head with flexable hose to feed the big end of the bearing. That way both get lubricated A closer picture would be great if you have one? Regards, Dave

lube system
here (hopefully) are two closups of the crossheads, the first shows an elbow which is the supply to the top end bearing (one each side) these incidently are needle roller bearings. the tubesabove the elbows are guides for the other pipes. the second pic shows the supply going into the centre of the crosshead, this is for the slide bearing, the lower connection going into the conn-rod goes to the bottom end bearing via a drilling in the conn rod. I would not recommend sharing a supply with the crosshead and the bottom end, with this system there is no point as you can have as many lube points as you like. hope this is useful.

sorry about the rusty engine it was taken out the boat a few weeks ago and I have not had time to clean it!

Hi Jack! Thanks for the pictures.....very ingenious! as to the rust ..not at all!...we are all victims of insideous red beast! :) My brass lagging is currently...."lagging" in regards to polish at the moment... :roll: We may want to continue this conversation in the engine technical section, but What is the bore and stroke of the Taylor Compound? My compound is a 1.5 x 3.0 x 2.5" with about 2HP @600 RPM If I put together a lubrication scheme such as this, it would be nice to under stand any limitations. It appears as though the nylon performs very well in this situation though! I have needle bearings on my cross head also. But I grease those currently with a chainsaw style grease gun. Thanks for the response...this looks alot easier than cross drilling the crank shaft, that's for sure! Regards, Dave

Hello John, I wanted to talk to you and say that I built a connecting rod forced lube system based on your design and it functions beautifully! Here is a video of her running here. http://neme-s.org/Mystic_Seaport_2008/antique_marine_engine_show.htm Dave