SubSystems Part 1

Breaking the Lyka down to its SubSystems 

When I look at the internal components of the Lyka,  I see a few SubSystems that work internally to support the car.   Over the last years, I have concentrated on the electrical system, mostly because the other systems were yet to be delivered.  They are:

Steam System

Drain System

Feedwater System

Oiler System 

Burner System

Each subsystem has a number of components that must be sourced and laid out to study the interconnections.  Then I will build each system "offline" so to speak. The goal is to be able to work on the pieces up to the pint where the boiler must be installed.  Then the systems will be disconnected if needed in order install the boiler and burner shielding.  Finally the system will be re-attached if needed. 

Steam System

The Steam System is comprised of the Boiler, Burner, Sheetmetal shielding, and piping into the engine.  I can not install the actual piping before the boiler, but I can stage the pieces in preparation. 

These are the boiler and shield components.  I covered the boiler preparation in the last episode. 

The primary connection for steam is the 3/8 inch piping coming off the top/center of the boiler.  This connects to an elbow and then travels thru the regulator into the engine.  Branching off is the Safety Valve and associated blowdown spout. 

The output of the regulator is linked thru a short pipe to the Steam Inlet Manifold.  This piece will distribute the steam to the top of each valve chest.  There is an additional small pipe connection to inject steam oil into the flow a little at a time. 

Other parts of the Steam System pertain to managing the water level in the boiler and distributing steam for the Pressure Gauge and the Pressure Switch.  A lot of this stuff will need to be placed after the boiler is in place.  But first I need to stage the parts to be sure all is ready. 

Because we have lost the Lyka "Champion",  no one is verifying the drawings to check for reality.  As a result, there are pieces missing in some of them. 

 Not that we can't figure things out, right? 

All the pieces are here, but I have to be careful not to get too impatient, and make a fundamental mistake that will come back and bite my butt in the future.  So once again I lay everything out on the table first. 

I won't be able to attach the Reflex Glass until later, but I want to fit the elbows to it first.  One thing I noticed was that the threads on the glass back plate were very shallow.  When I asked STW about them, I was told that it was a difficult task to cut them due to the need to align to the holes in the chassis and the cut-off valves.  

These views show the pipework staged in the chassis about as far along as we can go.   You can see the drain down valves in place as well.  All these will be stored for the moment until the boiler is in place. 

Drain System

In the engine, when it first starts up and is getting warm, thee will be a collection of water.  This is the condensation caused when the hot, wet steam makes contact with cold cast iron metal in the cylinders. 

At the bottom of each slide valve chest there is a drain connection.  This allows the water to be dumped thru pipes and a valve out on to the ground. 

The first issue encountered is that there is a clearance issue on the initial drain connection.  Where the elbows screw in, there is only partial clearance into the hole on the cover.  In addition,  there is a small bracket that holds the lubricators and it is interfered with.  I had to rework the hole for the elbows in order to get them to screwall the way in. Then I ground the protruding part down to the plane of the face-plate. This allows the bracket to fit as well.  I used X-Pando to solidify the connection. 

After prepping the face plates,  I cleaned the face of the steam chest and applied a coat of X-Pando.   Then the face plates were re-attached and bolted down tight.  The whole thing was left overnight to set up.  Finally the Flare Adapters are tightened in place with SteamSeal.

Once the SteamSeal on the flare adapters has set up,  it is time to link up the individual drains.  The pipework is simple, the drains connect to a tee that then passes the steamy water to the valve.   STW has temporarily shorted me on the valve bodies, so I have picked up some as placeholders.   These will allow me to bring up the boiler and test most of the connections and the engine. 

I pulled together some of the parts for the drain.  Of course you also need to stage the other systems so you can see how the pipes route around each other. 

I temporarily hooked up parts of the feedwater system to establish the placement relationships. The pipes coming up from the pumps have to share space with the drains going down.

Removing the feedwater pipes gives better access.

I pulled the fuel tank, in advance of working in the fuel piping,  this allowed greater access to the drain pipes.  

Because STW was somewhat disorganized, when I got Kit 19, the valve bodies were missing.  I communicated to the shop floor that mine were not to be found, and they checked the other boxed sets on the shelf that were waiting to go out.  No valve bodies there either.  So we can see yet another effect of not having a product "champion". There is no one there at really understands the Lyka.  No one has actually built one of these.   Luckily,  we are past the really difficult parts, like the engine,  and the remaining pipework is rather straightforward.  

Where this leaves me is having so source three alternative valves, two for the boiler blow down, and one for the drain system.   The internet yielded a couple of choices, and the replacements were ordered.  The three blow downs are in fact "right angled needle valves"  and they are directional. 

The drain valve needs t be accessible from the driver's seat.  The shaft extends up at an angle so you can reach it while driving.  This valve is mounted on a bracket.  In the original design, you were expected to mount the bracket to the wood of the floor pan.   That is fine if you never need to move the floor.  However, since access to the batteries, brakes, and a lot of other parts requires moving the floor. 

I opted to add an additional horizontal bar for mounting things. 

I confirmed the placement by temporarily placing the lower reflex glass valves in place,  The pipewok is getting close, but everything clears.  I will have to build one piece of pipework.  That is because the orientation of the new valve is different from the original STW model.  

Feed-water System

The feed-water system exists to get water back into the boiler so you can keep driving along.  There are two tanks located on the sides of the boiler.  Pipes traveling under the boiler connect the two tanks, and then water is drawn into each mechanical pump located in he lower parts of the engine.  There is also a hand pump that allows for the initial filling of the boiler.  

A fellow Lyka builder, Grier Fleischhauer (his blog is linked in the sidebar), produced full diagrams of the Feed-water system.  He has graciously allowed me to show them here: 

 

Feed-Water system with bypass valve open.

 

Feed-Water system with bypass valve closed.

The bypass valve is controlled from a small lever mounted with the gear and brake levers.  When open, it allows the pumps to circulate the water back to the tanks,  when closed it forces the water against the check valve, back into the boiler.   

In the electronics section of this blog, I designed a circuit to control an electronic bypass valve.  I have sourced a valve that is "normally open" - this means that the valve is open, and then closes when a voltage is applied.  It opens again when the voltage is removed.   I mounted the valve on the "downward"side of the  manual one.   

The majority of the Feed-water system is in the area below the boiler and burner shield.  In order to lower the amount of time I spend on my back under the car, I am staging all the pipework in advance.  Then I will remove the tanks and have everything ready up to the connection for the boiler check valve. 

One of the items that were not sent by STW was the Hand Pump.  From what I can tell, there was an effort to build these in-house rather than source externally. Initially I received some parts but not a complete pump.  Back in an early kit, there was a bracket sent that was pre-drilled.  The pump base I received did not fit these holes.  Since I am impatient, I found a source for the original pumps,  John Rex Engineering.  The pump I got from them was an exact match.   I only needed to swap out the straight handle for the bent one from STW and everything dropped into line.  The pipework needed bent and flared, but all is now in place. 

Another First! - Making a flare for the connections.   Never done that before. Now I have.   I di discover that regardsless of the tube type, hard or soft,  it all goes better if you "anneal" the ends first.  Heat them up with a torch and let them cool.  Saves on the elbow grease. 

Everything is getting close quarters,  but the pipework is in, and while clearances are tight, so are the connections. 

I am going to end this installment here, and continue with the Oiler system and Burner installation in the next two.

 

Thanks for reading,

Jim Pope

Denver, Colorado USA

 

All the parts + A.D.D. = Lots to do and time to plan.

A departure from the Kit Centric approach

Let me explain.  Steam Traction World (STW) has developed an approach to vehicle building that allows the hobbyist to cruise along at a steady pace, spending time on each kit until the vehicle is complete.  In general this works because the kits all build upon each other.  First you have the frame and you put the wheels on followed by the engine and finishing up with the body.  

Makes sense, right?  

Well this approach does work because the persons breaking the overall project into kits understand how each part fits with all the rest.  Except perhaps with the Lyka. 

I have had an advantage over the other Lyka builders.  Over the last couple of years I have had the friendship of Dean, the Director of Steam Traction World.  He put up with my frustrations over delays, and communicated a lot on his side of the story over his departure from STW.  Dean also made me aware of the kit status beyond the "Where the hell is my boiler?" conversations we had.  As a result, I have the inventory lists for all the kits, and knew in advance what parts might be delayed when I got my shipment.  

I found that the individual content lists for Kits 21 and 22 were a best taken as a combination.  So I combined them.  Then I looked at the process of assembly from a slightly different perspective. 

I know that the work on the Lyka will get more and more tight and difficult once the boiler and sheet metal are installed.  So I have started to work on the prep of the pipe runs by attaching the various elbows and flare adapters on the engine first.   Then I will stage the pipe work while it easy to lean into the chassis.  Once I get a chance to stage the parts, I will disassemble to allow the insertion of the boiler, heat shield, smoke hood and burner.  Then hook things up again and move on.  

FLITTING FROM TASK TO TASK

Steps

One thing missing were the steps.  There is a step on each side of the Lyka.  The mounting holes are provided in the frame.  

I picked up a couple of 1/2 inch mild steel rods.  I wanted to thread one end first before any other operations were performed. 

Then I went over to my favorite metal fabricator, "Hardy and Fuller, a metal space" they are located in an industrial area near me and have most any metalworking tools I might need if I do not have them already.  

My grandson, Miles, was in town visiting, so he came along to supervise.  Safety First, have to get suited up to get close to Plasma Cutters and  observe welding. 

 

Ashe, the owner and fabricator, cuts the plate using a CNC Plasma cutter. 

Welding the posts to the plates.  My hands are not steady enough, so back to the experts.

And the final results on the Lyka.

With the non-slip diamond plate glued on.

The Heat Shield and Smoke Hood

One of the first steps is to fit the pipework to the boiler and then pre-fit the lower heat shield.  Once the lower bits are in place and aligned, the assembled lower shield can be set aside for the moment. 

 

Starting on the bottom of the boiler I fit the appropriate Ells (elbows) to the pre-tapped holes.  There was some leftover goop from the plugs used during the pressure testing, so I used a tap to clean the threads. 

Then I fit each ell in place, using the inner shield to position the attached nipples.  As this was going to be permanent once aligned, then fit the inner and outer shield to make sure once more before the cement hardens.  I am using X-Pando, a slightly more aggressive steam and thread sealer, to lock everything in place.  I had to grind a bit out of the slots to tweak the fit, but it is now stable.  

Next I need to fit the top and bottom heat shield together with insulating superwool between the pieces. There are small spacers to keep the 1/2 shells apart. 

However STW forgot to drill the holes for the spacers.

 

When clamping the two parts together I found that the bend was slightly out of wack.

Ended up with some superwool sandwiched between the pieces, no flame leaks.

 

Here is the final assembly of the bottom flame shield.  All ready to go into the frame.

The Smoke Hood

The Smoke Hood is just two assemblies that fit one inside the other.  There is a layer of superwool between them and they are held apart by spacers.  

In the same manner as the boiler bottom, the top gets fitted with elbows.  There are 4.  

The long pipe out the center is the main steam outlet.  It will be routed to the steam regulator (accelerator) and the safety valve. The others are for the sight glass, water in-fill and the steam switch and pressure gauge.  

Planning for the installation.  

In preparation for the boiler installation, I have to give some thought to the fact that the boiler is over 150lbs.   Not something you can just heft up and drop into the car chassis.  So a lifting mechanism will be needed.  I chose a chain hoist, I showed it back when I installed the engine, to lift the boiler while I roll the car back under the hoist.  To lift it, I fashioned a "T" from black pipe.  This will screw into the center port.  I will attache the exit pipe after the boiler is in and stable. 

But first, finish up the smoke hood.

The inner hood gets fitted tight against the barrel of the boiler.  There are slots for the protruding pipe pieces.

 

There was a little widening of some of the slots.  Then the two parts fitted together.   I switched the black bolts out for stainless and added some washers.

So the boiler is staged and ready to drop into the chassis.  However, before I do that, I am going to stage each subsystem.  Making sure I have all the pieces, adjusting for parts I have swapped out, and making sure I can see how things will attach. 

That's all for now,

Thanks for reading,

 

Jim Pope

Denver, CO USA