An Original Mogul Kerosene Engine

By Staff
Published on August 1, 2001
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This kerosene engine is a throttle-governed 6 HP IHC Mogul sideshaft.
This kerosene engine is a throttle-governed 6 HP IHC Mogul sideshaft.
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This kerosene engine is a throttle-governed 6 HP IHC Mogul sideshaft.
This kerosene engine is a throttle-governed 6 HP IHC Mogul sideshaft.
3 / 8
This kerosene engine is a throttle-governed 6 HP IHC Mogul sideshaft.
This kerosene engine is a throttle-governed 6 HP IHC Mogul sideshaft.
4 / 8
This kerosene engine is a throttle-governed 6 HP IHC Mogul sideshaft.
This kerosene engine is a throttle-governed 6 HP IHC Mogul sideshaft.
5 / 8
This kerosene engine is a throttle-governed 6 HP IHC Mogul sideshaft.
This kerosene engine is a throttle-governed 6 HP IHC Mogul sideshaft.
6 / 8
This kerosene engine is a throttle-governed 6 HP IHC Mogul sideshaft.
This kerosene engine is a throttle-governed 6 HP IHC Mogul sideshaft.
7 / 8
This kerosene engine is a throttle-governed 6 HP IHC Mogul sideshaft.
This kerosene engine is a throttle-governed 6 HP IHC Mogul sideshaft.
8 / 8
This kerosene engine is a throttle-governed 6 HP IHC Mogul sideshaft.
This kerosene engine is a throttle-governed 6 HP IHC Mogul sideshaft.

3755 Mason Rd. Oneida, New York 13421-3512

A year or so ago I was made aware of a kerosene engine sitting locked up in a pump house owned by the state of New York not far from my home. I was in the area one day, and went to see if the rumors were true; sure enough, looking through holes in the building I could make out an engine. I was also told that others had tried to buy the engine from the state, without success. I made a few inquiries, and after many visits to the proper offices and some phone calls to Albany, I discovered that the engine indeed was not available. The state has a nice restored upright Novo in Utica, inside a meeting room that the employees use there; the state also has indefinite plans (apparently) to rescue and restore this engine as well.

So since the Mogul wasn’t to be had, I sort of wrote it off mentally, but during the winter, I got to thinking, hey, even though it’s not for sale per se, maybe they’d let me take photos of it for an article in GEM. I mean, I’m a photographer and all, so I thought, why not. Go for it!! So back to more phone calls, and visits to the right people, and lo and behold, permission was granted.

Two weeks ago Monday, I invited my friend Woody Sins along, and at 9:00 a.m. we met the man with the key to the pump house and were let in to take the accompanying photographs.

The engine is a 6 HP IHC Mogul sideshaft kerosene throttle-governed engine. It turns over okay. As you can see in the photos, it has a trip mag on the front of the engine, and an igniter in the head. It has two butterfly valves on top of the head, one to divert air down to the muffler to preheat the air before it’s mixed with kerosene. The engine was to be started on gas, and later switched over to run on kerosene or distillate (and a bit of water as well, to help the kero/distillate burn properly).

The engine is in remarkably good condition, complete, original, and ‘barn-fresh,’ for lack of a better term. It has all its little parts and pieces intact. At my suggestion, Woody brought along some old rags and an oil-can and we spent some time lubing up the old girl with a protective coating. I dug out about a bushel of mouse nest material (50% nesting, 50% feces, yuck!) from the water hopper, and wished for a vacuum to do better. I placed a flat board over the hopper to keep future mice colonies out. We moved and lubed everything that we could, given the limited amount of time we had available.

In one of the photos you can see the length of the building and the shafting to the pumps, with the old dead flat belt lying by the motor. I think the engine hasn’t been started nor run for probably 60-70 years. It probably has very few hours on it. Brand new, so to speak (in terms of usage). It was installed about 1912 when the dam was put in, and was kept as a backup-only source of power in case the electric went down and they had to open and/or close the gates for some reason. Walking around the engine was really tricky, because you had to be careful not to step into an open space, or you’d fall seven or eight feet down into water that who knows how deep it was. We were careful, believe you me! We didn’t drop anything into the water, either, as I have learned long ago that things like camera, tools, fish-poles, etc., do not float when dropped into waternot even briefly!

The exhaust pipe can be seen running from the engine over to the far wall, where it used to exit the building. The last 12 inches is rusted off, where it went to the outdoors. The Mogul has a force-feed oiler on top of the crankcase, the glass of which was broken out at some previous date. The clutch pulley is nice to behold. I don’t think we tried it, to see if it would move or not, but it probably would have moved had we pulled and pushed on it a bit. (Next time we’ll oil the clutch, too!) When I took the photos, I didn’t realize the green color was so visible, but it is. The engine number is KZ595, apparently an early one.! It produces 6 HP at 425rpm. The other info on the name-plate says ‘Mogul Engine, manufactured by International-Harvester-Corp., tractor-works, Chicago, USA [not Chicago, Illinoisgo figure!, Patents pending. Distillate-kerosene….gasolene….gas.’ The ‘type number’ is unreadable.

In one of the photos, Woody can be seen inspecting the engine, which is as ‘nice and unrestored’ as they come. We realize that for now the engine isn’t available, but I fully intend to keep in touch with the powers that be, and who knows, someday someone in the state capitol in Albany may say ‘Let’s let the gas engine collectors have the old Mogul, because we know that they have the motivation, time, energy, and talent to not only restore the old engine to working condition, but also to have it out as a running display for people to see at shows, meets, fairs, and the like.’ Besides, it seems a shame to see it cooped up and languishing away in a dark building. It needs lots of TLC and sunshine!

Stay tuned for the next chapter in the saga of Mogul #KZ595. God bless.

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