Identify brand of oilfield engine

[Allan Wright]

A few weeks ago I went to Winkler County, Texas to look around at some of the oil leases that my dad pumped 40+ years ago. This is where I learned how to drive and work on oilfield engines.
These wells were drilled around 1926-1929. I was not sure if they were drilled with steam engines or maybe a Reid or Superior engine. On a couple of well sites I found some artifacts from the old engines that were used to drill the wells with. At least this is my opinion.
I need some help to try to identify what brand of engine that was possibly used.
I found two ring pieces. The first one is about 8 1/2" o.d. x 11/16" thick x 1/2" wide.
The second ring is 11 1/2" o.d. x 3/8" thick x 1/2" wide.
The other is a shim looking piece that may or may not have gone on an engine
The spark plug is a Liberty Spit Fire. Not enough threads left to tell if it is a 1/2" pipe thread. I also found a couple of Champion spark plugs and I could make out an X on one of them, but that was all.
I know this is not much to go on, but that is all that I have.
Thanks for your time.
Allan

[Andrew Mackey]

Neat finds, but unfortunately, not much to go on. The Champion X is a 1/2" pipe thread plug.
Andrew

[Rod Fielder]

could it be a reid. 2 different size pistons!!

[Allan Wright]

Rod, that was what I thought, but I had no idea what the ring sizes were for the Reids.
All of the cement foundations were the same. Unfortunately, I did not take any measurements or pictures.
Thanks for all of the replies.

[Reed Engine]

It's kinda cool to find some old stuff of your dad's isn't it. I found some very old notes from 1955 and some old ball point pens that belonged to mine the other day. Had to set back and remember, sure do miss him.

[Ray Ethridge]

I did a little measuring and "bookin" this morning about this. The 8 1/2 inch one could be a 15 hp Bessemer or Reid. The 11 1/2 inch one is probably going to be off a 4 stroke though, the 30 HP Bessemer is what would have an 11 1/2 inch piston. My 25 hp Marion has a 12 inch bore and my 15 hp Evans has a 10 inch bore, so my guess is that it would be from a four stroke in the 20-25 hp range, maybe Superior? I was a little surprised, the charging cyl on my 20 hp Reid was actually pretty close to the size of the main cylinder, looked like the charge cylinder was maybe 1/4 inch larger.

[Allan Wright]

Thanks Ray, I was hoping you would chime in here. About a mile from these wells was a Monsanto Company well that had a 2 cylinder Superior on it. It sure did sound good when it ran.

My dad also pumped another lease that we went to that had Fairbanks engines from 208 thru 739, one RC-19 Witte, one C-66 Climax and one 8 1/2" x 10" Ajax. Most of the wells are gone now and the ones left have electric motors. We still went by the old plugged wells and looked around. Found a lot of old spark plugs, a few head gaskets, broken rings and some rusty bolts.

The Fairbanks all used Stitt 17EX spark plugs. All of them were rusted up and eaten away except for one that we found stuck in some oily dirt. It still had threads on it. Got it home, cleaned it up, put it in my 503 Fairbanks and it fired right up. That was some special feeling right there knowing that either my dad or me threw that plug away between 40 and 45 years ago. Ed, I know exactly how you felt about going through some of your dad's things. What a fantastic two days I had looking at this stuff.