Piston ring help

[sid pileski]

May need some help making piston rings for this…..

[nickel-city-fab]

Curious which engine? EMD or Cat?
Brian probably can help, he knows more than anyone about rings at this point.

[sid pileski]

Curious which engine? EMD or Cat?
Brian probably can help, he knows more than anyone about rings at this point.

Nether. Alco engine, Auburn NY. Picked it up at the factory!

[nickel-city-fab]

Nether. Alco engine, Auburn NY. Picked it up at the factory!

Curious, I haven't heard of them. What is their primary application? EDIT never mind, it seems the Alco replaced the EMD but not the Cat. Locomotive engine and standby generator applications. Mfd by Fairbanks-Morse, whom I had thought were long gone.

[sid pileski]

Yup. But, Alco in Auburn is long gone!
My brother got it years ago. He has a piston collection.
I’m going to use it for my booth I set up for my business at the Syracuse Nationals in two weeks.

Sid

[Beazld]

Maybe Brian can make you some

[nickel-city-fab]

Sure, build a Top Fueler with one cylinder.

[PStechPaul]

Are you going to mate this with a cylinder for a working engine? Or do you need the rings just for show? In that case, you can probably just get some steel (or even aluminum) pipe or tubing and bore/turn it to size, part off rings, cut a slot, clean up, and pop them on (using some sort of expander). Or maybe you can find rings for something else, that would be close enough.

[sid pileski]

Paul- I’m being facetious. Given Brian’s post, i thought I’d joke around a little bit with this huge piston.

[JoeLee]

May need some help making piston rings for this…..

Hey Sid..... when you find rings for yours see if you can find some for mine.

The two on the left are used and are close in size to yours. I'm not sure what engine the one on the left was for. That one has never been used. I have a couple valves somewhere for it.

The small piston in the front came out of a 12 HP Briggs.



I have the rod to one of them.



JL..............

[sid pileski]

Hey Joe, I was waiting for you to comment. I figured you’d be able to relate if anyone. That one in the right looks to be the same as mine. Funny, my brother has a rod like yours too.

[JoeLee]

Hey Joe, I was waiting for you to comment. I figured you’d be able to relate if anyone. That one in the right looks to be the same as mine. Funny, my brother has a rod like yours too.

Hey Sid, They look pretty close but yours has something sticking out of the top where mine doesn't. Unless yours was unfinished. Mines is dished and does have like a 3/4" threaded hole in the center. The piston measures 18" x about 12 1/4" in dia. I wish I had the wrist pin for it, it would have made a great cylindrical square if it was finished as nicely as teh new ones are.

JL..............

[sid pileski]

The spud on top I assume I part of the casting process. This one was not finished. It had two 5/8 threaded holes on top.

[Willy]

The threaded holes on top of these large pistons is there to accept an eye bolt used to pull the piston and con-rod assembly out through the top of the engine.

[CarlByrns]

Curious, I haven't heard of them. What is their primary application? EDIT never mind, it seems the Alco replaced the EMD but not the Cat. Locomotive engine and standby generator applications. Mfd by Fairbanks-Morse, whom I had thought were long gone.

Alco bought Mcintosh and Seymour (builders of marine and stationary power) located in Auburn, NY. Alco built diesel engines for their locomotives (with mixed results). Bombardier later bought the factory and at some point Fairbanks-Morse bought the rights (and probably some of the tooling) to the Alco 251 diesel- widely considered one of the best large diesels ever built.
I went to a tool auction at the Auburn plant and spent a lot time spelunking in the offices and dyno cells. Neat place.