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We can't buy a
diesel motorcycle engine cos they aint for sale. So I will
use a diesel generator. A diesel motorcycle will have to be
around for a few years before it's sold second hand.
The bike gearbox can come from any bike, mostly old Brit
bike stuff, but my insurance company did tell me that they
like you to have the original gearbox and primary that
came with the frame etc. Well I guess that's just
tuff tit aint it. I must add that Ruggerini, now owned by Lombardini is not helpful in the slightest, they either tell you to ask elsewhere, passing the buck or just don't reply to emails. I have been told by Lombardini UK to ask Diesel Power the UK distributor for any help. |
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to offer repair and service information to owners or
potential owners of this make and model, and later other
makes and models. |
| Engine: Ruggerini 954cc: Sourced 03-Jan-05 from eBay £92 + £78 delivery | ||||||||
| This is a 954cc Ruggerini twin cylinder (23hp @3600 rpm) worth £250-£300, and should give 100+mpg. It's designed to run for long periods at 3600rpm, but by opening up the throttle stops it will run at 4200rpm which is all this engine should be allowed to run at, I regard this as the red line. I'm aiming to get the top speeds of up to 90mph by changing the gear box ratios (including overdrive) and drive sprockets to suit. The Centaurus 850 Ruggerini achieves 78mph, so this engine should do 80mph, but I doubt that Centaurus opened up the throttle stops and changed the gear ratios as I will. At 4200rpm it should kick out 24-25hp which is enough power for the overdrive gear to run the bike at 85-90mph flat out down the motorway. Cruseing speed will be 70-75mph. I may well use butane gas fumigation on motorway runs for help with getting up steep hills, but not to achieve a higher max speed. | ||||||||
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| The cylinder fins have been revealed now the fan box (above right) and covers are gone, making it look more like a motorbike engine. Now it has been removed I can see a very big and heavy cast iron fan / fly wheel which is also the starter gear wheel for the electric start. I did expect the hp to go up if I opened up the air ways, but now that the air inlet manifold and exhaust manifold have been removed, I can see that there is not a lot of metal there to do this. | ||||||||
 
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I used a big set of 3 leg pullers on the fly wheel
and gave it a tap with a lump hammer, and off it came. Behind the fly
wheel I have discovered an alternator for charging up a battery, this will
kick out alternating current so a rectifier (changing alternating current
to direct current) regulator (limits out put of volts etc) must be fitted.
I have been informed that this alternator will produce more than enough
juice for the job. I will still be using led lights and indicators to keep
the battery tip top. Fly wheels on engines are designed to give the engine
'momentum' in order to carry the crankshaft from one power stroke to the
other. As the fly wheel has been balanced I will not modify it, as this
will cause vibrations. Lightening the fly wheel will make it rev quicker
to it's top revs, faster off the mark, but it will loose it's torque which
is needed for the overdrive gear . |
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The bell housing
(above left) had a very big bolt, so big it would of cost me £30 for a socket
and a further £60 for an impact drill to get it off , so I hit it with a
lump hammer and bolster chisel. It turns out that it is a right hand
thread, made a bit of a mess but saved a packet of dosh. I used the large
pullers again on what looks like a part of an old clutch. The bell housing
it's self has 5 big hex bolts and 4 big nuts on studs. All fixings were on
very tight and I had to use a breaker bar to free them.
Time to inspect the engine condition. Click on a pic to enlarge. A spray down with wd40 cleared the loose dirt and crud and hence stopped contamination of the internals, and what was left stayed stuck until wiped with a cloth later on. Removal of the rocker boxes gave better access to the banjo fixings of the pipe work on top of the engine. There are two fuel lines (red / blue) which connect at the bottom of the barrels at the front of the engine, and attach to the injectors to the rear of each cylinder head. Also a black plastic pipe attached to both injectors via banjo bolts (copper washer each side of), this also runs from the front where the fuel goes in. This is the injector fuel / lube run off, and should be returned to the top of the fuel tank or spare tank, as it may contain air bubbles and hence needs to settle before returning to the engine as fuel. And finely a lube oil pipe (blue) that goes from the bottom of the right barrel, up to a clip, and on to two banjo bolts that feed the rockers. Looking at the front of the engine, half way down to the right of the middle picture bellow, we can see an oil pressure switch. This can be used for the oil warning light, or even removed if you don't want to use one. |
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| With the pipes now removed, it's time to remove the cylinder head. There are two separate heads which makes it a lot easier to work on. Each attached by four nuts which are torqued to 5kgm or 36.2 ft.lb, undo each nut a quarter of a turn a time. | ||||||||
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Now the cylinder head has been removed we can see a giant of a piston. Checking the con rod for play up and down revealed that it was in very good condition, a tight slow roll back and forth. This means the big ends are ok. The main bearings seem ok no up and down movement of the crank shaft, and 1/2 mm end float. Taking a look past the con rod using a pen light, I could see the cam shaft, in perfect condition with no marks on the lobes at all. The cylinders had no signs of wear, still showing honing marks, and only a carbon ring at the top. Replacing the worn rings is very important, not only will power drop off with worn rings, but air will pass down the piston and put a lot of pressure inside the crank air space. What happens now is engine oil will shoot up the engine breather tube, and as this is attached to the air inlet manifold you may not even know you are burning precious engine oil. Darker than usual or blue exhaust fumes when the engine is warm is an indication of this problem. I have now finished work on the cylinder heads I can safely say that this is an easy engine to work on. The valves can be taken out and replaced without the use of a valve spring compressor. Using my thumbs to push down the springs, the collets dropped out with some jiggling. The valve seats were in perfect condition and didn't need grinding in, other than using Auto sol polish to take away a few very minor black marks. The cylinder head gaskets are solid copper, so they can be heated cherry red with a blow lamp, this will make them soft and can then be reused. Don't be tempted to leaver them off the head with a knife tip you will just damage the soft alloy, rather use the wide part of a none pointed blade to ease it off bit by bit. The engine is set at the factory to turn at 3600rpm, but will run at 4200. An 850cc outboard motor version of this engine is factory set to rev at 4000rpm, still a low rever by petrol standards though, which is why the valve springs seem week compared to a petrol engine springs. If the engines revs were any higher than 4200rpm I think it would need A) stronger springs to keep the valves from bouncing, B) up rated the pushrods C) change the fly wheel for a steel version as it is likely the iron one will fly apart at very high revs. If you want an engine to run better than this then a car engine is designed to rev higher and accelerate faster.
http://www.fptgroup.com/index/index.asp http://www.gates.com/index.cfm The engine now rebuilt, and yes I did replace the piston rings (£70) as I found a lot of oil crud behind the air intake valves. This could of been from the air filter which had way too much oil in it to work properly, or it could of been from the crank case breather pipe, see the passage in red above about this.
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The crankshaft is a 1:5 keyway taper, this was a major worry as I didn't
know of a motorbike sprocket that would fit it.
