Edwards Two Cylinder Engine

By Staff
Published on September 1, 1988
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Little Pine Route, Box 4 Aitkin, Minnesota, 56431

I was fortunate to purchase parts of two Edwards engines with
enough parts to complete one engine and leave a lot of spare parts
for future use. I would like to give some information to other
collectors and Edwards fans.

The workmanship on the engines looks good, but the engineering
is not much to be desired.

Restoring was the normal process: soaking in solvent and driving
the pistons out, sandblasting, etc. The rings I got from
Starbolt.

The engine is lubricated by two drip oilers. They are adjusted
to drop 20 drops of oil while the engine is running. This oils the
pistons, the wrist pin and also the connecting rod bearing. This is
done by oil dripping from the oiler through a hole in top of the
piston, into a small cup built in the connecting rod, from there to
the rod bearing through a brass tube. This works most of the time.
The rest of the time there are some very worn rod bearings. I
installed a grease cup on each rod bearing and left the original
lube system intact. The cam gear came with a grease cup.

The main bearings are also inserts. The main bearing caps have
only a 3/16 inch hole which the operator is supposed to oil with an
oil can. This is good for a very short time before the bearings
start to run dry. The main bearing caps have a large cup built into
them that would hold several squirts of oil but aren’t drilled
to the bearing. I drilled mine and put some wool felt in them to
hold the oil. The main bearing caps have the bolt holes in the
opposite corners so the pressure is not even on the bearing and
shaft assembly.

From my two Edwards engines there were three out of four main
bearing caps broken. Also one bent crankshaft, one bent rod, and
one broken piston when the main insert seized on the crankshaft and
broke the main bearing cap. The flywheel runs very close to the
pistons.

There seemed to be a choice of low or high tension ignition.
Both are mag energized. The low tension ignitors are tripped by the
top of the pistons. My engine is high tension. It has a good
American Bosch mag. The plugs are model T Ford style ? inch pipe
thread.

Both the exhaust and intake valves are mechanically operated.
Both valves from each cylinder are operated by one double headed
rocker arm. The push rods both push and pull, so there are only two
push rods for four valves.

The governor is mounted on the crankshaft. Some of the governor
parts are quite flimsy but it does seem to work okay.

This engine is rated at 1? to 6 HP depending on the speed
desired, or if it is being operated on one or two cylinders. It
also can be operated on kerosene but it doesn’t have a starting
tank. This is done by squirting gasoline in the priming holes until
the engine warms up enough to run on kerosene.

The Edwards engines don’t have any method of choking, they
are primed to start. For every power rating and speed change the
air dampers and needle valves have a different setting.

The mufflers are mounted so part of the exhaust is discharged
against the water hopper. This doesn’t help with the cooling,
and does mess up a paint job.

Both of my Edwards engine blocks had a few good patches of paint
on them. It is a close match to the Ford tractor blue.

These engines are started by wrapping a leather strap around the
pulley and giving it a heavy pull. There is a stud on the strap
that goes into the set screw hole in the pulley.

These engines are a very interesting addition to any
collection.

Editor’s note: The Zilverbergs sent us a somewhat faded
xerox copy of Edwards engine Reference Sheet No. 8. If anyone is
interested in receiving a photocopy of this material, we will be
happy to send it for $2.00 U.S. funds. Write to Stemgas, PO Box
328, Lancaster, PA 17603.

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