Villiers Mk12/2 engine

[tbone]

I bought this Viliers engine for the princely sum of £5.00, it was advertised as a non runner, hmm wonder why? maybe because its in a million bits  
Its a MK12 engine version 2. Villiers produced several engines all in the same design but differing the stroke and bore means different cc`s.
This is a 120cc unit that will produce 1.2bhp @ 2000rpm, it has a magneto ignition and is air cooled.

[tbone]

At first glance it appears complete, or at least complete enough to rebuild n get running. There is a chunk out of the head and i`d guess this was due to some over zelous prizeing when someone removed the head.
I`ve got the broken bit and sticking it back on is no great hardship.

[tbone]

Pull the head off and what do we have?
This is a single cylinder side valve engine where the valves sit at the side of the piston.
Looks clean enough and there is no real wear to the bore, piston or valves..... a good start.

[tbone]

And so its off with the base.
The base is the sump, and also has the mounting holes cast into it for securing the engine. I think i said before somewhere that once most stationary engines are bolted into place, there is no need to unbolt them as everything is accessable from the top or sides, this is a good example of this.
Again this is nice and clean, even the last dribbles of oil sat in the bottom look freshish.
No sump gasket, but there wasn`t a head gasket either so no great surprise.
Note the use of a plastic cog on the govenor mechanism! It is original but still surprising to see it.

[tbone]

A quiet period at work yesterday evening (well it was a bank holiday) saw me clean up the base and knock up a gasket.
The castings are aluminium and i could have just used a jointing compound but it pays to keep your hand in  
(That looks a little wobbly in the picture but its only beacause its not sat flat on the base)

[tbone]

I also knocked up this gasket which seals the magneto housing to the block.

[tbone]

A better pic of the underneath for you.
The most interesting thing is the long spike that comes off the bottom of the bearing cap on the crankshaft. Theres no oil pump on this and it lubricates by using the splash method, as the crank turns,the long spike literally splashes into the oil in the sump and in turn the oil flies off the spike as it moves. Simple and effective.

[Manky Monkey]

That's a lovely little thing isn't it. Amazingly clean too. An interesting find Tim.

[tbone]

I`m now 99% sure it was fitted to and drove a pump of some sort, so may not have done many hours. I also need to correct myself, its a Villiers C12, well it is according to the cowl, now that i have cleaned it up enough to read.
Further investigation of the remaining bits shows that this is a hodge podge of bits n pieces.
As i mentioned before, villiers made these engines in several specs and varients and a lot of parts are interchangable.
The 5 holes around the cowl are for a late type recoil starter system, i dont have one in my box of bits, but i do have a rope pull starter.
Either the cowl or the the starter pulley are non original, it`ll be impossible to know which is wrong and for now i`ll have to use what i`ve got!

[tbone]

The valve timing was out by a notch, not sure why, so i pulled the crank out and re-set it.
 No pics i`m afraid cos i did this at work again!
The pic here shows the timing marks correctly aligned.

[tbone]

I then bolted the sump back on, complete with homemade gasket, which was smeared with blue hylomar first.

[tbone]

then i gave it a coat of paint and bolted the magneto plate on.

[tbone]

Next, the magneto coil pack, points, and condenser where fitted to the backplate. I would have liked to clean the points up more but the screw was siezed, its only the arm thats rusty, so it can wait till another day.

[tbone]

And some more of the tinwork recieved a first coat of paint.

[tbone]

The points are operated by the centre hub of the flywheel, which is eccentric. As the flywheel turns the arm on the points picks up on the high point of the hub and open.
To get them to open at the correct time i need to set the ignition timing. This is done by lining up the arrow on the mag with a mark on the rear case when the piston is at TDC.
The arrow is obvious, but the only mark on the back case is a line, i assume this is it?