Wooden Motorcycle Piston from Vietnam

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I'm not completely surprised to see a wooden piston. Necessity is the mother of invention. My dad was born in 1903 so he lived in a very different time. He lived on a farm and he, his dad and his brothers divided up the work and became pretty self-sufficient. When an engine failed they could and would fix it themselves. As one example they used to pour their own babbitt bearings. But he also told me that a strip of leather could be used to replace a bearing "in a pinch". Now that's something you don't hear every day!

I don't suppose it would last very long, but long enough to get through the last day of harvest, or more likely to get to town on Saturday night.

Which side do you suppose faced the crankshaft, the smooth or the rough?
 
Originally Posted By: ecotourist
I'm not completely surprised to see a wooden piston. Necessity is the mother of invention. My dad was born in 1903 so he lived in a very different time. He lived on a farm and he, his dad and his brothers divided up the work and became pretty self-sufficient. When an engine failed they could and would fix it themselves. As one example they used to pour their own babbitt bearings. But he also told me that a strip of leather could be used to replace a bearing "in a pinch". Now that's something you don't hear every day!

I don't suppose it would last very long, but long enough to get through the last day of harvest, or more likely to get to town on Saturday night.

Which side do you suppose faced the crankshaft, the smooth or the rough?



I have heard of that. From what I was told they used the tounge of the shoe.
 
Pouring your own Babbitt bearings was standard practice until the 1950s.

The bearings were set up to make it easy. The bearing metal could be melted in a frying pan. It was cast directly into the pillow block and soot-covered shaft, often through the oiling hole. A little clay sealed the edges. Any flash could be trimmed with a pocket knife.
 
I think this may be something where the idea of a piston was adapted to make some sort of tamp for something.

It may have been mounted to some reciprocating arm to compress something or to move a hot air mass, or some novel application where someone applied the concept of a ICE piston to do the work. Maybe in some small home forge or something like that.

The amount of fuel that would soak into the heavy carbon cap would probably fall well out of the range of how rich you can run it unless the carb was modified heavily as well but the amount of time needed to deliver that fuel in the compression cycle would be questionable.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air%E2%80%93fuel_ratio

Also, once a hot ember forms on the top of the piston, it would just pre-detonate and turn into a flaming torch, where a ton of fuel would be needed to quench it enough to keep that in check.

Also, one rough ring that thick would have very little "flex" to conform to the cylinder wall, and how well the finish on the wall and the ring I doubt would create an adequate seal. The hot gas would get behind the ring and the carbon would be present in that area heavily as it's not in the photo.

This is just an adaptation IMO, not used to power an engine.

Or, someone that was desperate and had some knowledge tried it and it didn't work and had an "oh well I tried moment".

Or, heck, maybe it worked for an afternoon to drive someone somewhere, he got paid well, and makes another piston for each trip someone pays him to do. For all the work in a poor area, it may still have been lucrative until he could afford a new motorbike.
 
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They've been improvising like that in Cuba for close to 60 years. I'm always amazed at all the old cars still running when watching a news clip from 'modern' Cuba.
 
There was a show on last year about how they keep those old cars from the '50's running in Cuba. Lots of Frankenmotors running round there. Using boat and fork truck motors to replace the original ones. What ever they can make fit and get it running again, is the name of the game.,,,
 
My grandfather had a rifle he obtained when in the Philippines that had no rifling. He told me the Japanese would make bullets out of wood to shoot through these guns in order to just wound the enemy instead of killing them.

The wooden piston is pretty cool ... but compression and power will go down as the top burns up. Guess the guy knows it's time to replace the piston when the scooter gets way down on power.
 
Maybe a little maple wood tree sap additive, would increase the life of the piston, add compression but might decrease mileage!
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I talked to a Canadian who knew of repairs done by Inuit on outboard motors. They'd carve replacement parts from bone and ivory. Not internal engine parts though.
 
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