RIVERS DIESELS

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RIVERS DIESELS

Postby alan c » Thu Jan 20, 2011 12:20 pm

HI GUYS, first post on here after a admiring the site, club mate pointed me here, i am rejuvinating a rivers motor, and have a couple of questions, 1st, who made them? and where, 2nd, does anyone know the threads for the head bolts, and type, i have tried gauges, and taps in them, but nothing goes near, i am an engineer, making bolts is no problem, this was my fathers motor, and i want to run it, i am experianced with motors of all types, been flying for many years, thanks for any help given
Alan
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Postby gossie » Thu Jan 20, 2011 2:35 pm

I guess 'River's made them in the UK.....whoever they were????

Just a guess, but a chance the head bolts are BA......many British motors of the '50s era were.

From memory they used very tricky needle bearings.
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THANKS,

Postby alan c » Thu Jan 20, 2011 4:39 pm

i wasnt aware they where brit motors, i could not get a 4ba tap down the holes, i will take a bolt into work from home, and try again, motor is at work
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Postby Jim Thomerson » Thu Jan 20, 2011 7:07 pm

Rivers was British; a machinery manufacturing company, I think. They produced two diesel engines, the 2.5 cc Silver Streak, and the 3.5 cc Silver Arrow. I have flown the Silver Arrow and it is a quite powerful motor.

Rivers produced some engines for the USA market, including a 19 cubic inch size (@ 3.2 cc) Silver Arrow. I heard that Rivers was never paid for the engines shipped to America, and subsequently quit making model airplane engines. Both Silver Streaks and Silver Arrows come up on eBay from time to time, and there is a Chinese replica of the Silver Streak.

There are two sets of roller bearings on the crank shaft. I forgot that when disassembling my Silver Arrow, and had rollers and spacers all over the bench. I used Vaseline to hold them in place when I reassembled the engine.
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Re: THANKS,

Postby gossie » Thu Jan 20, 2011 8:31 pm

alan c wrote:i wasnt aware they where brit motors, i could not get a 4ba tap down the holes, i will take a bolt into work from home, and try again, motor is at work


As I said, I don't know what the head bolts are, but I should think 4BA would be too thick.......try 6BA.
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that thread

Postby alan c » Fri Jan 21, 2011 7:50 am

akward S.O.B seems to be 5BA, Found an old die covered in dust in the archive stores, (we never throw anything away) will get some made next week, and report back, i would imagine they would be slotted pan head screws, unless anyone has a picture of the cylinder head??
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