Climax Cotton Gin Engine

[spike mcqueen]

Anybody know anything about these engines ?
I know where one is and was wondering if anyone was interested in it.
Its a big muther, been inside a shed for all these years, covered.
I have photos.
email me at...spikemcqueen@sbcglobal.net, if you want to see photos.
I don't know how to add photos to this, sorry.

[Bud Tierney]

Climax was one of the old engine co's; there're Climax engines listed in a 1917 ring catalog.
They built some early tractor engines (and probably others I don't know of) then went into heavier industrial engines in later years.
Search Climax here and numerous posts and comments will come up; I don't know if the Climax Engineering Co of Clinton, Iowa etc was the builder of the Climax steam engines (see the
"Similar Threads Chosen At Random" at the bottom of the page) or whether there was any connection with the Climax Road Machinery Co of Marathon, NY, 1899 or so.

[Jon Rozevink]

Here are some pictures of it

[Bud Tierney]

That's probably one of the V12's produced when Climax was a division of Waukesha. Have a 94 bearing book shows two: one a 7x7, the other a 71/2x7, but there may well have been more V12's.

[Elden DuRand]

I've heard one of those suckers run. Wow! What a bark!

Glad I don't have to put gas in it.

Take care - Elden

[Andrew Mackey]

A guy I knew used to run one at a show in Ohio - 5 gallons/Hr - NO load
Andrew

[Bud Tierney]

I've never been around one of these, and don't know anything about them; that being said:
I'd guess this is set up for natural gas, but I'm not familiar with the NG carbs etc., and don't know if that's what the attached plumbing is.
Is that a rope-start pulley on the starter motor? Seems like some of the ICK starter motors on the Wauk engines came with a rope-start, but I'm too lazy to unbox the manuals to look.
My latest bearing book (94) shows ICK rod bearings, but I don't know if that's because they were still in production or just because there were so many around (the mains were ball bearings (in some catalogs called ball and roller) and "not available" thru Clevite.
My notes say Wauk bought Climax in 1957, continued building them until the mid-80's as a Division of Wauk, and stopped supporting them in 1998.

[JoeFisher]

Spike; saw one at auction of gin gear 5 years ago in central Texas. made by Coventry-Walkesha? about 700 cu.in. V-12, had natural gas carbs[2] and 4 cylinder Ford[hand crank] for starter motor. in Texas we would call it a "HOSS". went for $100. Joe

[kamsinc]

Originally Posted by Bud Tierney

That's probably one of the V12's produced when Climax was a division of Waukesha. Have a 94 bearing book shows two: one a 7x7, the other a 71/2x7, but there may well have been more V12's.

This isn't a 3711 is it? They were produced by Waukesha and Arrow and possibly Climax before that (I know the C-66 produced by Arrow today was a Continental/Climax product previously). Incidentally Arrow calls one end of the engine the front, and Waukesha called the other end the front. Hence the right bank and left bank camshaft are opposite depending on which one you have, so we have to go by casting numbers if a customer just needs a camshaft for one bank.

-Clay in Oklahoma City
Kams, Inc. - Camshaft Repair for Waukesha & other industrial engines

[mrxlh]

Yep, thats a 3711/3712. (3712 was an update to the waterpump, oil cooler and thermostats I think) Heads are becomming hard to find as they came in 3 different deck heights. If you need a manual on it, let me know I have one, parts and service. I have overhauled 4 of these that are still in use as generators offshore.

[FarmallBob]

Originally Posted by Jon Rozevink

Here are some pictures of it

The 12 cylinder Climax looks like two of this Waukesha 6 cyl natural gas genset blocks on a common crankcase - even to the little 4 cyl pony motor.

This one resides at the Western NY Gas & Steam show grounds in Alexander. (It is running in this photo.)

I've heard one of those suckers run. Wow! What a bark!

Whatta bark indeed! You can hear that big Wauk everywhere on the show grounds when it gets cranked up!

...FB