Oilfield Engine Question

[Jim Gorter]

I am looking at finding a Oilfield Engine to restore and I have a few Questions. First of all I live on the west coast and it seems most of the engines posted are on the east coast. Second, I am interested in a Reid either 15 or 20 hp because of the charging cylinder design and would prefer one with a hot tube type of ignition. Are hot tubes difficult to maintain and keep running at shows.
lastly, what is a "drillers wheel" and what does it do.Thanks for the information, jim.

[RHudson]

wELL, I am the least qualified to answer any of your questions...but since you may die a slow death before you get an answer. i'll throw this in.

if you have the correct hot tube for your engine, its pretty straight forward. if not, you will have to experiment with length of the hot tube to get correct timming. ring back if your engine doesn't have tube.

getting correct flame to the hot tube takes a little playing around with pressures. if its windy at the show, its hard to keep correct heat to the tube. you see improvised wind shields from coke cans when it gets windy.
other than that, it a good simple system for an engine that turns constant rpm. there are some safety factors, but again, ring back when time is correct.

most of the older engines have manual fuel control and an independant air control. it takes a little playing around to figure out the correct settings of the two valves for best running. thats kinda frustrating because you cannot play around with them if you can't get the engine running. but its a great feeling when you finally get the great iron beast to bark at you.

I have figured out how to crank my oil city/south penn easily (with a little help from my son) the way i crank it,,,i have never read nor been told from anyone. which makes me question very much the small amount of information available to people like you and me trying to run an oilfield. again can't help you on the Reid.

the drillers wheel, i think?? its basically an ecentric wheel that allows multiple drive rods to be driven in a recipicating motion. these drive rods would run to the many remotely located pump rigs and drive each... generally it a fairly heavy affair. if you do a dogpile search on drilling wheel, i think you will come up with a couple of pictures....some of the best from a historical site in PA.

I think you will find all the oilfield engines were build and installed in the WVA, PA, and NY area. thats where the oil was when this technology was used. as drilling moved west, more modern engines and finally electric motors were used.

brother, i feel for your shipping problems....just got a 4 ton Bovaird home, and need to go back to ny to pick up a reid.....i just want to stay home for a while.

ask a few more questions when time is right..these engines can hurt you...thats hurt with a Big H.

[Tom Winland]

A drillers wheel is a string from the the derick back to the engine that goes around a pulley on the engine and back to the derick so that they can control the fuel going to the engine when drilling. The pulley the string is around is connected to a valve so the men up on the derick can slow the engine down when power is not needed.

Ohio had lots of oilfield engines along with WV, PA, and NY

Kinda of a quick answer and probably doesn't make sense but I'm at work and not much time to write.

Tom Winland
Ohio

I don't know what the drillers wheel is either so I will take Winlands word for it- makes sense anyway. The thing with the rods that Rhudson mentioned is called a "Power" and is a seperate bull gear/eccentric that is belt driven by the engine to pump multiple wells as he described. I see plenty of these engines running on hot tubes at shows so it must not be that terrible difficult once you learn the process. Of course thats easy for me to say since I have never done it!

[Fred_M]

A while back I ran across a guy's website that had some pictures of an, at the time working, rod powered oil field in IL that was powered by a hot tube engine, a 35HP Superior. http://www.herculesengines.com/FlatRock/

Fred

[Jim Gorter]

Thanks for the info guys. Does any one know what a 15 or 20 hp Reid would weigh? What are the chances of piggyback shipping an engine of this size along with some other freight bound for the west coast? also, these engines ran on field gas. Will propane work as well or are there some dangers associated with the propane use? Thanks again for the quick education, Jim.

[RHudson]

i stand corrected on the drillers wheel thing. i did not know thats what it was called..its like a cloths line with two pulleys. one of the pulleys is attached to a fuel control or governer.

i would guess that a 20 hp reid would be around two tons.

more than likely the engine was actually run on well head gas.. the natural gas that is above crude oil. LP will run the engine fine....it will just have to be regulated to a low pressure.... i use around 5 psi for the hot tube and i use just a backyard grill regulator (whats that about 1/2 to maybe 1 psi?) for the fuel to the engine..most people would suggest a 100 lb tank. i have run my 20 hp on the little 20 lb tanks but the run time will probably be limited to around 3 or 4 hours.

if you would like to read post, the only other place i know to go is http://www.oilfieldengine.com/ the Reids are fairly popular there. they have links to a few places that have more information. also, i think i have reid information recorded on my computer somewhere,,,,if it would be of help to you.

[Chuck Martin]

My 25 hp reid goes about 8500 lbs. Know a guy in KY that has a 20 hp reid for sale, on a trailer, water tank, etc. 100% show ready, let me know if you are interested, it's a hot tube on propane.

[Chris Austin]

The approximate weight out of a sales catalog is 5700 Lbs for a 20HP engine. And 4600 Lbs For a 15HP engine.

[Chuck Martin]

My 25 hp reid goes about 8500 lbs. Know a guy in KY that has a 20 hp reid for sale, on a trailer, water tank, etc. 100% show ready, let me know if you are interested, it's a hot tube on propane.

[Bob Johnson]

Hi,

I Have a 15 HP right hand REID engine. It is on its own 2 axle trailer. The book says it should weigh 4500 Lbs. Mine on the trailer weighs 5550 lbs. I just weighed it on the way home from a show in Medford Or. The Highway scale always is recording weights so you just drive through it.
I had a little trouble at first learning how to start the engine but now I can get it started pretty easily. I usually get some help to do it though. It runs on Propane. I ran it two days from 10:00 AM till 5:00 PM each day. I burned about 15 gallons of fuel. I have one 10 gallon and one 7 1/2 gallon tank.They tend to freeze up some but they run fine. I was running about 65 RPM. The engine uses a hot tube ignition with no problem.
I live in Northeastern CA. but if I can be of any help to you give me a call 530 279 2429.

Bob Johnson

Out west on the high desert where you would not expect to see a Oilfied engine