An interesting engine

[Werne]

Well, I have to admit, I've never even heard about this kind of cooling system. It seems it has something similar to a boiler between the cylinder and alluminum cooling ribs and it was filled with a liquid which I think was antifreeze coolant, it poured out as soon as I removed the cylinder head, who would have thought there's water inside the cylinder. Here's a pic of it, after I removed the head:

 

 

See the cavity between the cylinder and cooling ribs, that's where that liquid was. I dried it with paper towels but some gasoline leaked inside while I was checking the piston rings, I'll wipe it later. It's interesting, the only water-cooling system I've seen is the one used in cars, motorbikes use the same thing, it's just smaller. But this is different, it doesn't have an outer water-cooling and the water doesn't circulate, it just stays in this cavity.

 

It has some more interesting parts but unfortunately I don't have pics. The automatic clutch is one of those, instead of a normal clutch that has plates and a clutch drum, this one has two turbines, one connected to the crankshaft and the other connected to the belt-drive. Transmission fluid is used to transfer engine power from one turbine to the other. and all that is in a hermetically sealed case.

 

The whole engine is made to be durable and silent, the antifreeze coolant in the cylinder is making the engine much more silent and helps cooling a lot and the oil-cluch is more silent than the normal one and it has less parts that can mailfunction.

 

However, the rest of the motorbike is not made that high-quality, it's made out of thin stamped metal connected with screws unlike the rest of the bikes produced at that time which were made out of welded steel tubes. Almost half of it's weight is the engine and the bike can unfortunately carry only 80 kg of weight (I'm 93 kg :().

 

Oh, and it has pedals :D. You need to drive it around like a bycicle to start it, though you can just push it a meter or two and it will work. And for those of you that want to know what this thing is, it's a 1973 SOLO motorbike. It has 50 ccm, 1.21 horse power engine, 38 mm cylinder diameter (Tomos cylinder size 6) with a belt-drive transmission. It kinda remins me of a Tomos Alpino (APN) 6 or Jawa Babetta by it's design.

 

Sadly, I can't figure out where this bike was produced, there are SOLO logos all over it inside and out, and it has a serial number, but I can't figure out who produced it. I even tried calling the Solo repair center in Zagreb (you know, the guys that sell lawnmowers) to ask about this bike but they tell me they don't know anything about it. It doesn't have papers and it was never registered so I can't look for info anywhere.

 

So, did you guys ever seen anything like this? I sure haven't. I've taken apart a lot of cars, motorbikes, lawnmowers, electrical generating units, basically everything that uses gasoline or diesel but I've never seen an engine like this. It's just interesting. And by the way, does anyone know where SOLO motorbikes were produced? If someone answers it, he gets a cookie :biggrin:.

Edited March 11, 2012 by Werne

[M48A5]

A quick trip to Google turned this up: http://www.mopedarmy.com/wiki/Solo#Engine. Maybe the same?

[REZ01]

Is it one of these models?

 

any of these models?

[Werne]

A quick trip to Google turned this up: http://www.mopedarmy...ki/Solo#Engine. Maybe the same?

 

Yes, that's it. And thanks, I didn't even know there was a Moped Wiki, now I've finally found more info on the Laura engine too.

 

And as promised, you get a cookie. *hands over one cookie*

 

It's not the best cookie in the world but it's yours. And you get kudos too for finding this fast.

 

So the germans did build it, but I was looking at the wrong company. And I was looking for a SOLO moped, not SOLO engine (stupid me :wallbash:). Ah, well, at least now I know what that thing is.

 

@REZ01 You get a small cookie for trying.