John Meredith's Howell V-Four SN-009

Here's an e-mail I received from John
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Hi Allen

I have completed my V4 (no.9) and thought you might like some photos of the finished product.

With any of these little engines one has start up problems. The biggest problem was the exhaust oil.
It was as bad as a 2 cycle glow plug model airplane engine. I had heard about the empty groove in the piston as an oil control means but didn't know the design details so I built the piston per the drawings. I really don't understand how it works. So my solution to the problem was to make new pistons with an oil control ring and that works well.

The next problem, I could not lean the carb. out properly. So, I did the initially runs with a Perry
model airplane carb.  It ran ok but would not operate at all rpms without mixture adjustments. My answer to that problem was to install a Perry type drum throttle and jet with a mixture enriching feature when the throttle is advanced. I also removed the idle jet.

On the distributor I did not see the magnet spacing problem your dad had. I used 45 degrees and statically the mag. switch fired at the 45 degrees. Dynamically, that may not have been the case but the  engine runs fine at all rpms. However, I was not using a Carter type ignition system. I used Mike Neal's CDI system.

It's a cool looking and a great running engine and the use of o-rings sure makes it easy  to work on ( no gaskets to mess with). Other neat design features are the mag. drive on the water pump and the oil pressure relief system.

A neat project!

Regards,

John Meredith
Livermore CA