Titan 60

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Way back, George Genervo (Salem, OR), designed the Titan .60 as a glow engine suitable for home construction by the relative beginner with minimal workshop equipment. George provided castings and plans, the builder supplied the rest. The Titan is a very straight-forward engine to make, though rather large compared to the average beginner project. In some ways, this simplifies matters as turning components at watch-making scale is more demanding than those for the Titan. On the other hand, mistakes at .60 scale are more costly. None of this however has stopped many model engineers completing well running examples of the engine, some using their own castings.

The example seen at the top of this page was made by Ron Jenkins (Australia). I especially like the way Rob has blasted his case, then brought out the very lip of the venturi with a little skim around the rim. As you can see, the Titan is a bit unusual in being a three-point, bulkhead-mounting design. This simplifies construction somewhat as mo milling is required. In all other aspects, the Titan a quite conventional Front Rotary Valve (FRV), cross-flow ported two-stroke with a lapped bore and plain bearings. In all aspects apart from size, the Titan satisfies the MEN criteria for a beginner's engine project.

You will need a lathe with a swing over the bed of around 3-1/2" (7" swing in US parlance) to tackle the Titan; tabletop machines may manage the round bits, but not the crankcase machining. Plans and instructions for the engine appeared many years ago in the Home Shop Machinist magazine, from whom I believe reprints are still available. The Engine Collectors' Journal also carried a multi-part construction series on the engine by Roger J Schroeder. Roger's series also include reprints of the full plans, together with his observations on set-ups and things to watch for. Again, you can order the issues involved direct from ECJ.

 


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