New Way Stationary Engines

Aim - To serve and support the New Way Stationary Engine restoration community.
There was a New Way Stationary Motor inclined to Hit and Miss. It was designed that way but intermittently it would missfire and this in the confines of the beekeepers shed fired my imagination, grabbing my senses. I just loved the sound of the New Way 3.5Hp working - likely fuelled by a too rich mixture.
With each missfire came the tell tale puff of blue smoke and via the old sawbench, the beekeeping manufacturing business was underway, alive and well. Alf was in his element. Romance, nah, hard work but Hoots the New Way went a long way in firing the imagination of times past running in the present. The present, after all, that's where life is, it's not in the past, but romancing the past, that's the present if you're living it.
The priveledge of life. Present and past is now!!! - alive.

Ye Olde Sawbench & New Way Motor kept company by Howard Rotary Hoes

Friday, November 19, 2021

New Way - Auxiliary Exhaust - Ported Engines

 NEW WAY ENGINE RANGE

New Way was one of a small number of companies that introduced Auxiliary Exhaust Port on some of their engines.

New Way Motor Company produced engines ranging from 1Hp to 12Hp in a variety of configurations that obviously suited different applications. These were horizontals or verticals in either single or twin cylinder format. The auxiliary exhaust port had a key function of reducing the operating temperature of the cylinder and exhaust valve in particular and as such was only fitted to New Way Motor Company's  largest cylinder engines. 

Volumes of hot gasses were diverted into the auxiliary exhaust port instead of being exposed to the cylinder on the exhaust stroke and being expelled via the exhaust valve. An engine with far less exposure to volumes of hot gasses ran cooler overall along with a cooler exhaust valve.

NEW WAY AUXILIARY EXHAUST PORTED ENGINES

  • Single Cylinder Horizontal - Standard heavy duty engine - "S" Series Engine
    • Model H Type C
    • 6 HP
    • Apx Bore 6.25 inch x Stroke 8 inch

    • Twin Cylinder Horizontal engine - Standard heavy duty engine - "S" Series Engine
      • Model L Type C
      • 12 HP
      • Bore 6.25 inch x Stroke 8 inch
    The Auxiliary Exhaust Ported Engines were first patented in 1904 around the same time New Way engines were first produced although New Way did not produce any engines with this function until some years later.

    PATENT -(utilizing auxiliary exhaust port) - filed and listed as 
    • VALVE GEAR FOR EXPLOSIVE ENGINES
    • By F. Hardenbrook and W. Rice
    • Patent granted 17 May 1904
    • Patent No. 760333 
    The patented idea for the auxiliary exhaust port was actually very quickly used in 1904 by Gade Bros. Manufacturing Company of Iowa Falls, Iowa in their Gade Engine. 
    Other manufactures followed suit in utilising this patented design. The key driver behind the design was an air cooled engine that ran cooler. 

    BASIC OPERATION
    In it's rudimentary form the auxilary port is little more than a hole in the cylinder wall just before the bottom or end of the piston's stroke. The hole is sized and positioned to vent the cylinder which varies in effectiveness in accordance with engine RPM and cylinder variables like stroke and bore. Most of the general information here has been gleaned from the patent notes. The description and functionality contained in the patent is quite exhaustive.

    Download a copy- PATENT
    In the following I have tried to precis general operation with New Way specifics.
    • POWER STROKE
      • at the end of the power stroke the piston passes and exposes the dual open port momentarily allowing hot exhaust to escape. A cooling effect is achieved because the cylinder is exposed to lesser volumes of very hot gasses.
    • EXHAUST STROKE
      •  Reduced volume of hot exhaust gases exposed to the cylinder is then forced out of the usual exhaust valve setup.
    • INTAKE STROKE
      • Little difference, mixture is drawn in as usual, except the port is open at the bottom of the stroke which because the cylinder is less than atmospheric draws in additional gases or air if exposed directly to outside air.
        • NOTE - New Way used a connected exhaust port where the port is connected by manifold to the usual exhaust setup. This means any gases in the exhaust at the time would tend to be drawn into the lower cylinder. 
          • Possibly an early form of anti-polution device to reburn some exhaust gas.
    • COMPRESSION STROKE
      • With correct mixture no real difference in operation. As soon as the piston passes the port the fuel /air mixture starts to compress in the usual manner.
    ANCILIARY COOLING EFFECTS
    • Engines like those produced by New Way with their so called Automatic atmospheric intake, utilize a governor to hold the exhaust valve open producing over-run with "miss" for rev. control. With the exhaust valve held open on the engine reaching governed RPM, with the exhaust valve held open, there is no suction to draw open the atmospheric intake valve.
      • Overruns do not draw mixture but with the port and exhaust valve both open, with piston movement, they also provide a rudimentary mechanism for cooling by circulation.
      • Early New Way twin cylinder engines had a common muffler. Later engines had totally separate exhaust systems. It is likely single muffler setups also would not be ideal for the ported engines as hot exhaust gases from the other cylinder might at times feed into the auxiliary port thereby disturbing the circulation cooling on overrun.
    AUX. PORTED ENGINE LAYOUT

    PATENT DRAWING
    Patent No. 76033 Drawing extract depicting the location of the auxiliary port (cropped photo)


    Diagram shows the small port [90] which is uncovered and exposed to the hot cylinder gases when the piston travels to the right and reaches near the bottom of it's stroke. Allowing, on the end of the power stroke, much of the hot exhaust gasses to escape resulting in a cooler running engine as the hot gasses are not retained until expelled at the top of the exhaust stroke. Meaning too that the exhaust valve can operate much cooler.

     

    NEW WAY AUX. PORTED ENGINES

    PHOTO 1

    PHOTO 1 - Shows the general configuration and overview of the exhaust manifold setup used. Note New Way used a connected or combined exhaust, channeling exhaust from both the exhaust valve outlet and the Auxiliary port into the one muffler. 

    New Way maintained this same setup on their twin cylinder engines using dual mufflers and keeping the exhaust setup of each cylinder totally separate.
    [Likely prevented auxiliary exhaust port gas pressure problems between cylinders if they were interconnected.]



     





    PHOTO 2

    PHOTO 2 Shows in detail the connection of the Aux. port manifold toward the bottom end of the cylinder [RHS of photo] just near the extreme end of the cooling fins.
    Exhaust gases from the exhaust valve are channeled in the usual manner for New Way - via pipe fittings connected directly into the cooling fin area of the cylinder.    



    PHOTO 3

    PHOTO 3
    -
    Showing the casting between the cylinder and the Aux. manifold. It should be noted that 2 small holes are used in the New Way design including in the cylinder. This allows removel of a greater volume of hot gasses at the same time ensures that the rings do not catch as they pass over the holes as they might if a larger single hole were utilised. 


    A larger single hole would not provide the intermediate support to rings, as given by the cylinder wall between the 2 small holes.


    Note how the casting is shaped for gas flow into the oval shaped manifold ensuring better flow of gasses once expelled by explosion gas pressure from the cylinder.







    PHOTO 4

    PHOTO 4
    - Showing the set up used on NEW WAY engines where the Aux. port is not used. The plate merely blanks off the 2 auxiliary exhaust ports on the lower end of the cylinder.
    The engine then functions like a standard engine without any Aux. exhaust ports 












    NEW WAY CATALOGING 
    Engines were listed in the New Way Motor Company D14 catalog of 1914 as operating with the auxiliary port functionality. Ported engines were actually in production c1913. The early 12HP engines of 1911 were fitted with a cylinder of different design and did not have the ported engine. 


    D14 Catalog - STANDARD 6 HP Engine
    Clearly showing the cylinder with auxiliary ported exhaust  



    D14 Catalog - STANDARD 12 HP Double Cylinder Engine again clearly showing the manifold from the auxiliary ported exhaust feeding directly into the standard muffler along with the feed via the normal exhaust valve. 

    NOTE:- the engine in the D11 Catalog of 1911, [12 HP] did not have the radial fins on the top of the cylinder head and are not shown as being fitted out with ported exhausts.






    Trust this has been informative
    George