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My friend Roger offered me a great deal on a very rare old engine. It's an Olds Gas Works Engine made sometime between 1900 and 1905 and it was rated at 5-7 hp . ( it's very difficult to get an exact date on manufacture of the Olds engines due to various owners of the company and thus the lack of records from the acquisitions )

Roger's Dad purchased this engine and had it on the family farm until his passing this past March. The engine came from another farm about 1-1/2 miles from his farm and where I grew up ( which was across from his farm ). It's complete engine only missing the fuel tank cap.

Here is the original battery box with the mixer ( carb ) and intake manifold.


We jacked up the front of the engine and slid boards under it. Started pulling with a chain come a long and rolling it on pipes.


up onto the trailer


and all strapped down ready for the ride out to Rough and Tumble http://www.roughandtumble.org


Notice in both the strapped down and lifting pictures, we did NOT lift or strap on the flywheels. You will bend the crankshaft if you lift the engine that way. The straps went against the main casting under the crankshaft mains


Once we placed it in the Willock Building, I took the head off and then gently rocked the engine to make sure everything was free to move. Luckily it was as there are a number of parts on it which are next to impossible to get. The bore looked great


The babbitt bearings and the crank were in fantastic condition. The dark is 70 year old grease. It cleaned right up.




This still has the original paint, decals and stripping on it. All I will do is clean it to show the original paint.


original paint on the cylinder water jacket


Olds decal


I ran the crank guard under some water and wiped it with a rag and the paint came up beautifully.


Here is how it sits right now out at Rough and Tumble. I have a few parts at home to clean up. The engine to the right is a 1896 Olds hot tube engine. That's Roger's and is so early it doesn't have any patent markings on it at all.

very nice I love seeing the old hit and miss engines at our country shows , I have got some JAP singles (industrial engines ) in storage I must get them out and start getting them back into running condition , you have go me going

lovely engine

I've made some very good progress on the Olds since my last post. I made a new head gasket out of asbestos sheet ( soaked in in water for two weeks before cutting so no issues with airborne fibers ) and new rubber gaskets for the water jacket. I cleaned up the valves and installed new tapered pins for the spring keepers. Got the engine all assembled and was able to start cleaning the original paint with kerosene.

The original paint came up GREAT.

Here's how it looked when it came out of the shed where it sat since the 1970s


After a single wipedown with kerosene







The deep green on the flywheels really contrasts the maroon