The Megatech Glass Cylinder Engine

[Ronald E. McClellan]

I bought this engine about three months ago. It had parts missing , and was told that the parts were still available. It took about two months to get the parts. It is a simple uncomplicated engine so I took it apart and checked , cleaned and lubed the parts as I put it together. It has a 1 5/8" X 2" B&S with a 3.1 : 1 compression ratio. The piston is aluminum ,but does not touch the sides of the cylinder. There are guides at the top and bottom that are made of graphite , as are the rings. The engine was made for demonstration and has two 4 OZ. gas tanks. The one thak is for fuel and the other is for water , or for two different fuels. The fuels recomended are gas , alcohol , acetone. My first fuel of choice was naptha since it is clean and is what I use in my model engines. WOW what a great feeling to have the engine start and run after just a few pulls and adjustments on the needlevalve. There were some orange flashes with the fuel out of adjustment , but when adjusted and running right you don't see much of any thing , UNTILYOU TURN OUT THE LIGHT , Then you can see a beautiful blue flash when it fires. I am wondering how many of these engines are out there. This is only the third one that I've seen. There was someone who had one running at the Jacktown show a couple of years ago. I haven't tryed to run it on alcohol or acetone. Has anyone run an engine on acetone? How does it do? Do you have one? Let me know. Ron

[Jonathan Widelo]

I know of one of these engine in PA my friend Bob Held owns one, that is the only other one I have ever seen. They were made her in MA for vocational schools.

~Jonathan

[Danny J]

That is a cool engine, thanks for posting it! I have never even heard of one much less seen one!

Thanks

[Bob Kurtz]

Jonathan, Yes, thats the engine that was at Jacktown a few years ago, indeed that is Bob Helds engine! a Great guy.

[Dave R]

Back in the 70s I worked in an engineering school lab where we had the whole outfit. The engine drove a generator that was part of a dynamometer. You could test various fuels in it for energy content. The generator could be used to crank it for starting. If I remember correctly you hooked a 12 volt car battery to it for cranking. We preferred to burn alcohol in it as it kept the glass cylinder cleaner. If you ran regular gas in it the glass would get dirty and you had to clean it with Bonami glass cleaner. Model airplane fuel also worked well and seemed to keep the piston working more freely. The kind with synthetic oil in it kept the cylinder cleaner than the regular kind which used castor oil as a lube additive.

[Junkologist]

Here's a video I shot of a friend's Megatech engine.

[Robert Green]

Was with bob last week , he had his glass engine running on propane. you guys should see his spark wave engine run. has a transmitter in a 2pc. Bethlem spark plug on a briggs. no plug wire!! you can hold on to the plug while running! awesome guy!!

thats great. Always wanted to see one run

[Ronald E. McClellan]

This is not Bob's engine and never was Bob's engine. Ron

[Horse Power at 511]

Someone should get this on that Discovery Channel show: Time Warp. They would be able to get some ultra high speed shots of that cylinder when its running.

[Bob Kurtz]

Ronald
I did not say the engine that is pictured is Bob Helds engine,
But yes he does have one. sorry for the confusion.