Williams Bus Engine and Boiler

 

Engine

   
     

Tom with the Williams 265 c.i.d. bus engine, four cylinder, cross-head, single acting, uniflow, poppet valve with sliding camshaft, auxiliary poppet exhaust valves for use at long cutoff.

  Williams Bus 265 c.i.d.
     

Williams Steam Bus Engine, Williams Bus engine, automobile engines

Williams 265 c.i.d. bus engine taken apart for CADing.  This is the standard and final Williams design, single acting cross head, sliding camshaft, poppet valved, uniflow with a pressure relief valve in the head, in-line 4 cylinder.  There is significant and measurable thermal expansion at the head end of the cylinder Williams Steam Bus Engine, Williams Bus engine, automobile enginesblock because of the heat of steam at that end and the coolness at the exhaust port end of the cylinder block.  Purportedly this engine would produce close to 500 hp, and it should because of its displacement and robust design.  Piston ring oiling is through a small hole drilled into the side of the cylinder at just above BDC.  At one time this engine was installed in a Bluebird bus.  We donot know what steam generator went with that installation.Williams Steam Bus Engine, Williams Bus engine, automobile engines

 

There appear to be a couple of potential problems with this engine.  The crankshaft does not have counter-balances with balancing being done with a weight at the end of the crankshaft.  That is not pictured.  Secondly the cam and cam followers are under high loads.  The camshaft is assembled with a long key way machined into the relatively small diameter camshaft.  A long Williams Steam Bus Engine, Williams Bus engine, automobile engineskey lays in this key way and then the many individually machinedcams are slid over the key.  Because of the large forces thesecams tend to wear and they shift one way as they push the cam follower up and shift the other way when the cam followerpushes things down.  This little bit of play will tend to effectively lessen the valve opening. We think that the top two cam grinds are way too small to let in enough steam to overcome internal friction.  The Williams were attempting to get high efficiency and they ended up with a low powered engine. 

     
Williams Steam Bus Engine photos   Williams Steam Bus Engine photos
Manzel oiler for the engine.  Oil is injected into the side of the cylinder to oil the rings near bottom dead center.   Williams 265 c.i.d. bus engine showing the crossheads for the single acting pistons and the valve train.  The sliding cams are down in the block.
     
Williams Steam Bus Engine photos   Williams Steam Bus Engine photos

Photos of the intake valve camshaft and cam grinds for the bus engine.  At each end are very long cutoff cams for starting out forwards and reverse.  The cam grinds in between appear to me to be far too short to be practical.  It seems that the Williams brothers were trying for the ultimate in efficiency, with little practical success.  The other problem with this camshaft design is that the shaft itself is too small.  There is a keyway cut the length of it with a long key that keeps the cam lobes lined up.  When this wears a little the cams will shift during the rotation due to the strong valve spring pressure.  This very slight shifting effectively shortens the cutoff even more. 

Williams Steam Bus Engine photos   Williams Steam Bus Engine, Williams Bus engine, automobile engines
     
Williams Steam Bus Engine photos   Williams Steam Bus Engine photos

Heart shaped casting for the end of the block with openings for the two sliding camshafts.

  Flywheel showing balancing weights.  The crankshaft appears to be machined from a billet and there are no counter-weights.
     
Williams Steam Bus Photos    
A.C. powered oil pump.  After scoring the crankshaft and two connecting rod big ends this oil pressure pump was added.  It was turned on before the engine was turned over thus providing 100 p.s.i. oil pressure to the crankshaft bearings.

 

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Boiler Photos:

     

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Williams Steam Bus Engine

 

Peter Nuskey and the Green Monster boiler showing the end with the blower fan.  This is a Babcock & Wilcox type of a boiler made by the famous Harry Peterson for Howard Landon’s Green Monster car, the one with a Doble “F” engine in it.  It is being used as a shop boiler here to run dyno tests on the Williams bus engine.

     
Williams Steam Bus Engine photos   Williams Steam Bus Engine photos
Water pump for the boiler   Peter Nuskey and the smoke stack end of the boiler with two helical coils for economizers.
     
Williams Steam Bus Engine photos   Williams Steam Bus Engine photos

Top water/steam separator drum for the B & W boiler with insulated line taking steam over and down to the superheater.

 

D.C. powered squirrel cage blower for the Green Monster boiler, 20 g.p.h. fuel oil burner.

     
Williams Steam Bus Engine photos   Williams Steam Bus Engine photos
Fuel pump end of the Green Monster boiler.   Water level control end of boiler.
     
Green Monster Car   Williams Steam Bus Engine photos
The Green Monster Car   Bourdon tube pressure control switch for the boiler

 

 

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