Stover DV2Stover DV2EngineTheStover DV2 engine was manufactured in the thirties by the same folks who madethe Stover flywheel gas engines. These imagescome from a Stover brochure. There were some variants of this powerplant. As shown, it is radiator cooled. There also was a tankcooling option.-Here are some pictures ofthis cute little 2 cylinder Stover DV2 industrial engine. It has no data plate but I'm told that some of them were manufacturedforthe Alpha DeLaval company in Ontario, Canada.Theboss you see below the water inlet probably should have a serial number but itis blank.

• Stover Hit Miss Engine Serial Numbers Online

Although there is no starter andthe flywheel for this engine has no gear, there is a cover plate where theoptional starter would be. I found that this engine islisted on the Autolite website and the Autolite #216 or MP4316 (gapped at 0.025”) is thecorrect spark plug.Thisparticular engine is equipped with a radiator (not shown) and is crankstarted. If you have more information, please email me so I can include it.Specifically, the parts I need are anoriginal crank, an oil filler/breather and radiator shell and any mounting brackets for it. Isuppose the radiator cap is obtainable at an auto parts store but if I can findan original, I'd be all smiles.It is an even firing engine(both pistons move together). The magneto isa Wico A257B (impulse). There’s no water pump. Thefan is just an idler.

The radiator has a tunnelthrough the bottom tank that the crankshaft goes through for the crank. The bolt mounted to thewater outlet is the top radiator brace. It has a governor (in thehousing at the front of the magneto).-Another DV2 ownersent the following information:'A3.5 horsepower rating was given to the DV2 engine. Each of the two cylinders has a 2-1/2 x2-1/4” bore and stroke. Radiator cooling was standard equipment.

Retailing at $125, theDV2 could also be shipped with complete automatic starting equipment, including starter,generator, automatic starting switch and choke for another $50. Only 230 of the DV1engines were built compared to the 2142 engines of the DV2'.-There aremanuals available from Hit-n-Miss Enterprises,. Themanual for the Stover DV1 and DV2 is catalog number LS127 at $3.00ea. Thereis an MV engine in this series, probably manufactured later.

The manual for it is number LS137 at $8.00ea.I will be updating this page as more information becomes available.PROGRESSREPORTS:-12-23-03: Ifinally got around to pulling the head, flywheel, front pulley, magneto,manifold and fuel pump so I guess I have to go ahead and finish the job.The combustion chambers show very little carbon. When I removed the sparkplugs, I was surprised that, although they were really rusty on the outside, theyappear to never have been run. There is very little wiggle in the pistonsand only the slightest ring ridge.Thestarting crank socket unscrews from the pulley.

DO NOT ATTEMPT TOPULL THE CRANKSHAFT PULLEY FROM THE CRANKSHAFT! It screwson (right-hand thread). There are two setscrews end-to-end in thepulley. I guess the second setscrew is to lock the first setscrew inplace. After taking out the setscrews, the pulley can be unscrewed fromthe crankshaft.-12-26-03:I finished tearing down the engine. It's a bit of a puzzle to takeapart. The engine is a 'barrel' type.

This means that there are nomain bearing caps. The crankshaft has to be removed from the end of thecrankcase.

This one is a little more puzzling in that you have to removethe bolt-on counterweights in order for the crankshaft to fit through thecrankcase.Howdo they say it - 'once you've figured out how to do the job, you'redone'. Well, I started by removing the governor/magneto housing.That part was all right.

I then removed the front timing cover. Thatwas WRONG! What you have to do is to first remove the blockfrom the crankcase. Now is a good time to ream the ridges from thecylinders. Take the governor housing off now but leave the front cover inplace for the time being.Take off the flywheel, starting crank socketand front pulley. The crank socket is threaded into the pulley and doesn'tnecessarily have to be removed unless a puller is needed to get the pulley offthe shaft. The pulley is a slip fit on the crankshaft and is held in placeby a couple of set screws end-to-end. The bottom of setscrew fits into adepression in the crankshaft and the top one locks both in place.

There isno key. If, after you have taken out the setscrews, the pulley won't workout with gentle tapping, you can either use the crank socket to attempt to turnit or you can remove the crank socket and use an appropriate bolt threaded intothe hole in the pulley to push it off the crankshaft.Thesmall cast cover beneath the fuel pump is removed to get at the fuel pump camfollower. The follower must be unscrewed and turned as it is removed to beable to disengage it from the fuel pump pushrod. It's not really necessaryto take off the fuel pump to get the front (timing) cover off but, because thepump is a relatively fragile die casting, I'd strongly suggest doing so.The fuel pump cam follower is lubricated through a wick made of cotton rope likeclothes line.

Because it's probably absorbed a lot of crud, it would bea good idea to replace it before reassembling it into the engine.Unboltthe block from the base and tip it over. Remove the counterweights fromthe crankshaft. They have to be removed in order to take the crankshaftout and it's also easier to get the pistons out (and back in) with them out ofthe way. After makingsure there are witness marks on the caps and rods and remove the pistons.If you've left the counterweights in, you will have to turn the crankshaft untilthe pistons are near the top of the stroke so the big ends don't hit them whenyou pull the pistons.Totake out the crankshaft you must remove the counterweights. The crankshaftwith the counterweights on it is too big to fit through the openings in theblock.

Remove the nuts from the studs on the counterweights and tap them off.You should put witness marks on one of the weights and the crankshaft becausethey can be reversed. I don't know if this makes any difference but it's agood idea.Bothof the end covers must be removed to get the crankshaft out.

This isbecause the front main bearing is larger in diameter than the crankshaft timinggear so the crankshaft must be moved away from the gear to allow it to movelengthwise. Unbolt the timing cover and carefully pry it partially off soas to not put the main bearings in a bind. Unbolt the bellhousing andcarefully pry it off the block without cocking it too much. Sometimeduring this process, the crankshaft will come loose so you may want to put shoptowels in the crankcase to keep it from getting dinged. You also want to makesure that the cam gear doesn't get into a bind if the front main bearing isrusted tight in the timing cover. The ball bearingmains stay with the crankshaft. The counterweight studs are long enough tointerfere with the cover bores so you will have to thread the crankshaft out from therear.Ifyou need to remove the camshaft, you first have to remove the valves andsprings.The ends of the valve stems arethreaded. A tappet ison the left.

Next to it is the adjuster that screws on the bottom of thevalve stem and strikes the tappet. To the right of it is the thin 15/16'lock nut nut that is threadedonto the valve stem. It is machined on one side to make the lower springseat. To the right of the spring is the upper spring seat that goes aroundthe valve guide in the block.Thevalves are taken out by simply unscrewing the bottom nut and locknut andremoving them. At this point, the valves come out.

If all you aredoing is a valve job, you can can leave the springs and upper spring seatsalone. If you are removing the camshaft, you have to take out the valvesprings and upper keepers to take the pressure off of the tappets.Totake the camshaft out, turn the engine so the crankcase is up to make thetappets move away from the camshaft. Inside the crankcase, remove thecotter key from the oil pump pushrod and remove the rod. Remove the nut atthe front end of the camshaft and slide the fuel pump cam off remove thewoodruff key and the front cam ball bearing. While holding the camshaft tothe rear and and turning it, with a soft hammer, gently tap the timing geartoward the front until it comes off. Don't lose the woodruff key.The camshaft is removed from the rear.

Reverse the procedure to put thecamshaft back in.I'mstill uncertain if this engine was ever painted. On the left-hand pictureis just about the only remaining paint on the outside of the engine. Thereis no hint of any other color that I can find. On the right is the insideof the valve chamber. It has the same color as does the inside of thecrankcase. I think this particular engine wasn't painted at all.

Thered lead paint that is on the outside is overspray.Thisparticular engine has aluminum rods like it says in the brochure but, unlike thebrochure, it has inserts. Thank goodness the bearings look good enough toput back in.Thepistons have four rings. The top three grooves are 0.095' wide andthe oil ring groove is 0.126' wide. The top groove has an 0.067'wide ring and an 0.0235' wide spacer. The second ring is plain andthe third ring is stepped.

An 0.125' vented oil ring is used.As taken out of the engine, these rings show very little wear.Thebores are 2.500' and the piston skirts are 2.4995' in diameterdiagonal to the wrist pins. There is slight scoring on the skirts,probably due to the close clearance. I'll probably hone the cylinders 'tilthey are 2.501' to give a little more clearance.Thepiston heads only had some blackened oil on them and there was virtually noridge so I think that either this engine has been rebuilt or it has very fewhours on it.I'mgoing to have to replace the rings and all three of the ball bearings (only therear cam bearing is a 'plain' type). The ball bearings have been damagedby moisture.

The cam lobes and the bottom of the cylinder bores have avery small amount of rust pitting but, unless I change my mind after lookingmore closely, I don't think anything needs to be done to them.-12-28-03:Atlast, afterfinishing disassembly I found a trace of what might be theoriginal color. It was hiding on one of the bolts that hold the skid tothe engine and was protected by a lockwasher. Does anyone out there knowif this is the correct color? There was no trace of this color on anyother part of the engine. My only guess is that it was eitherpainted at the factory when the engine was oily or it was aggressively steamcleaned at some time in the past.-1-5-04:COLOR.Aftergetting a couple of paint color numbers that weren't valid, I matched the coloras close as I could and came up with off-the-shelf Rustoleum satin finish HunterGreen. Close enough!MAINBEARINGS.At first, we thought we had a problem getting exactreplacements for the ball bearing mains because of the difference in width ofthe outer and inner races and the offsets between them. Incidentally, theyare metric.

After going through the exercise of looking-up the closestbearing we could find, we discovered that the originals are stillavailable. They are on order as is the easy-to-get cam bearing.PISTONRINGS.Frank also has the rings on order from Dave Reed at Otto GasEngine Works.Dave was very helpful on the phone. He says that the cylinders should onlybe lightly honed and that the ring end clearance should be about0.008'.

Instead of the spacer and narrow ring in the top groove, he'ssupplying one wider ring.GOVERNOR.Ialso got the governor back together. If your engine is anything like mine,you should give the governor a really close look. If it has rust inside itor is full of sludge, you should take it apart for cleaning. On thisengine, the governor was rusty and the spring was rusted to the inside of thespeed adjusting screw making it impossible to adjust the speed. It isn'ttoo bad to disassemble. Remove the nut on the front of the housing andgently tap the gear/flyweight assembly out.

Don't lose the little woodruffkey on the shaft! Now soak everything inside the housing in solvent orpenetrating oil.Toget the spring out, first straighten the tines on the cotter key that sticks outof the end of the adjusting screw and tap it down a little. Now, figureout which way the spring has to be turned to make it get smaller indiameter.

You'll probably have to use a rag or piece of leather on thescrew and pliers to be able to turn it enough to make the spring shrink enoughto start slipping in the screw. After it's turning, it's just a matter ofpatience to be able to get it worked loose enough to remove the screw and brasslocknut. The spring should still be hooked to the brass fork inside thehousing.Ifit's really cruddy, to get the spring out, remove the slotted 1/8' pipeplug in the front of the governor housing.

Using a small punch, drivethe pin from the fork out through the hole where you removed the plug. Youcan now pull the shaft out and work the fork and spring out of the housing.MAGNETO.TheWico magneto put out a really puny spark so I decided to take it apart to see ifI could fix it. Besides being dirty, the impulse was rusty. I had totake it apart to clean it.

Do this carefully because there is a stiff coilspring inside. The cotter pin is removed from the nut and the nut isloosened with a socket wrench and a mallet (or an impact wrench). Afteryou get the nut off, you can pull the impulse out. The spring might getaway from you if the impulse comes apart. Some wire brush work and a goodoiling and it went back together without too much fuss.Thepoints were a little corroded so I took them out and dressed them enough toremove the oxide.

The mag now makes a spark but only about 1/8' onimpulse so I might need to see if the points can have slipped on the shaft(there's a screw on the shaft that holds the cam on). Although I didn'tremove the cam, I also don't know if it's keyed to the shaft or not and willleave it alone until I find out for sure.OTHERSTUFF.The important gaskets (head, manifold, etc.) came off in onepiece so I lucked-out in that department. The rest of them can be tappedout.Afterlooking closely at the instruction reprint as shown at the top of this page, Isaw that this engine lost it's breather/oil filler at some time in the past andsomeone substituted a pipe plug!

If the crankcase is sealed up without thenegative pressure check valve as described in the literature, crankcase pressurewill build up and will force oil past the rings and the felt seals on thecrankshaft. I also think that the lack of ventillation in this area is thereason there was so much rust in the governor and magneto impulse. Now,I'm looking for a breather/oil filler as well as the radiator cap andshell! In the meantime, if no one can come up with one, I may have to makea substitute.Here'sa picture of the breather/oil filler from his DV2, sent by Vic in Canada(THANKS!)Themanual for the DV2 says the breather has a spring loaded leather facedcheckvalve. This is all there is to Vic's breather. The checkvalvewasher and spring may fit inside, underneath the washer shown and could bemissing on Vic's breather. I don't know.I'mnow waiting for the paint to harden (3-4 days) and for parts to come in.Patience, patience, I tell myself.With luck, I could have it runningsoon.-1-6-04.Ijust got the mag back together and bolted to the governor housing.

I'm notsure that the mag is strong enough to run the engine. I only get about1/8' spark off the impulse. With an 0.025' plug gap, it mightrun.-1-9-04.Yesterday,I got the front cam and main bearings. If you're looking for replacements,here are some numbers and comments.Themains were originally New Departure, number ENDEE 8206. We couldn'timmediately locate this number but an exact replacement is an MRC brand, number8506. The MRC bearing looks like it's single sealed which is better thanthe original bearing that looks like only a single shielded bearing.

Ifyou saved the felt rings that fit on the crankshaft between the bearing and thehousings (or you are lucky enough to have an overhaul gasket set), I'd recommendre-using them because they'd act as dust shields.Thefront cam bearing originally was a New Departure, number 3204 which is an 'open'bearing. The replacement bearing is an SKF brand, number 62042RSJEM.

This bearing is a double sealed bearing. The seals have tobe removed.

It is an easy job with a sharp pick. The reason theseals have to be removed is that the only way for oil to get from the crankcaseto the fuel pump cam box is through the front cam bearing. You'd belooking at trouble if you leave the seals on.Idecided to assemble the crankshaft, timing gear and camshaft, awaiting thepiston rings and completion. I would have gotten it together faster if I'dthought harder about the sequence of reassembly. It took two boltings ofthe front cover and three boltings of the bellhousing (rear cover) to get itright. To keep you from making the same mistakes, here is the assemblysequence:1:After removing the seals from the front cam bearing, tap it into it's bore inthe front of the block.

Note that, before the camshaft, timing gear andfront cover are in place, it can be pushed all the way through. If youforget this step until after the front cover is on and before the cam and gearare in place, the bearing can also be pushed into it's bore from the rear,although it's a little harder to do from the back.2:Get all of the mating surfaces clean and put silicone compound on them.Also put a thin film of compound on the bore in the front cover to keep oil fromgetting past the O.D. Of the bearing.

I rubbed a little oil on theexposed iron of the cover between the bearing and the outside world to keep rustat bay. Lay the gaskets in place and get the bolts and lockwashersready. Put the front cover and the bolts where you can easily reach them.3:With the main bearings in place on the crankshaft (sealed side out), put theoiled felt washers on the ends of the shaft. Do NOT put the counterweightson at this time!4:Slip the crankshaft into the block from the center, working the counterweightstuds on one end of the crankshaft through one of the main bearing bores in theblock.

When the shaft can be lowered to the other main bearing bore, movethe crankshaft until it is roughly centered in the block.5:Now, hold up the crankshaft and guide the front cover into place and secure itwith the bolts.6:Oil the valve tappets and put them in place.7:Lay the cam gear in the block and slide the camshaft (with the woodruff key inplace) in from the rear. Before tapping the camshaft into the keyway inthe gear, align the timing marks.

The timing marks consist of onechamfered tooth on the front of the crank gear and two chamfered teeth on thefront of the cam gear. While holding the gears aligned, turn the camshaftso the keyway lines up and tap the camshaft onto the front cam bearing.8:Put a thin coat of silicone sealer on the inside of the rear main bearing borein rear cover (the bell housing). As with the front cover, put a little oil onthe bare iron between the bearing and the outside world. Install thethe bellhousing and the counterweights.Oncethe pistons are in, the engine can be bolted to the oil sump/base. Don'tforget to put the dipper trough, the oil pump plunger and spring in beforehand.

It'd be a good idea to leave the flywheel off until the engine is onthe base. It's pretty tippy when it's upside-down even without theflywheel on at this point.-1-10-04.Theblock went on the base and I cleaned up some more bolts and nuts.-1-11-04.Todaythe head, manifold, flywheel and front pulley went back on. I learnedsomething else, too.

At least on this engine, the tappet cover won'tgo back on with the magneto in place. The stud is too long. I had totake off the magneto cap to get the cover on the stud.Themuffler is not original. It's a real affordable way to cut some of theracket. This one is for a Kohler engine and I got it at my local hardwarestore.Ain'tit about as cute as a speckled pup!WhileI'm waiting for the silicone rubberized fabric for the fuel pump, I'll rebuildthe carburetor and get it attached.

The fan and bracket have yet to becleaned-up and painted, too. Since I don't have a radiator shell, I'veworked-up some brackets to hold the radiator in place. That has to wait'til I get the fuel pump back on.-1-15-04.Thesilicone rubberized fabric came in today. Just to be sure, I cut-off alittle corner of the material and dropped it in a can with a littlegasoline.

Stover Hit Miss Engine Serial Numbers Online

A couple of hours later, I went back and found that the 'rubber'had gotten crumbly. Now, I'm checking on a neoprene materialto see if it will be okay.Afterlooking at the pictures of the breather that Vic sent, I rooted through myjunkpile then went to my friendly hardware store and got some stuff to 'roll myown'.Iended-up not using the rubber washer and added a short stub of schedule 40 PVCpipe that pressed into the nipple. I cut most of the threads off one endof the nipple, leaving just just enough thread to be able to get it a turn ortwo into the coupling. I pressed theabout 1' piece of PVC flush into the short thread end of the nipple to make a seat forthe check valve washer shown at the upper right in the picture. Beforescrewing the short end into the coupling, I squared-off the short thread end tomake the seat work better.Idrilled a hole through the middle a 1/4-20 thread coupling (also not shown) justslightly smaller than the diameter of the long bolt. After cutting off thehead of the bolt, I pressed it into the coupling and peined over the end to keepit in place. This now looked like a 'T' shaped thingy.

Ithen drilled a 1/4' hole across the nipple just below the PVC insert anddeeply countersinked both ends. I used the two flat head screws to holdthe thread coupling inside the nipple. In place on the engine, thethread coupling is horizontal and the bolt sticks up, the threaded endeventually used to hold the cap (the large washer in the picture above) down.Tomake the check valve (so the breather can blow out but not suck air in), thesmaller washer was drilled to a slip fit over the bolt and the O.D.

Was groundso it fit with about 1/8' clearance inside the coupling. The springwas stretched and a piece was cut to slide down the bolt to just barely hold thevalve washer against the seat when the large washer (the top) is bolted down.Youwonder about the color?. I decided to paint the non-Stover parts(except the muffler) red so anyone looking at the engine will have no doubt asto the authenticity of the parts. When a correct breather is found, itwill be painted green like the rest of the engine and the red one will berelegated back to the junkpile to await morphing into something else.-1-17-04.It'sa-gettin' cuter all the time!!!Today,I got the fan and bracket, the carb, the home made radiator brackets and thefuel pump on (minus the diaphragm - I'm still waiting for the correct diaphragmmaterial). I've made a mounting bracket for the non-original gas tank thatyou can see a part of in the picture. The tank bracket mounts on a pad onthe back of the block. Because the tank is pretty close to the exhaustpipe and muffler, I shortened the pipe and used a 45 degree elbow and closenipple to move it out of the way.Sincewe don't have the radiator shell, we had to fabricate brackets and a couple ofadapters to get the radiator mounted.

I've still got to make somemeasurements and drill the bracket before I can mount the radiator and hook itup.Today,while I was cranking it over, I leaned my arm against a plug and got asurprise. I hope the mag's hot enough for it to run. If it doesn'tI'll probably have to get a new coil. Everything else in the magnetochecks out okay and, since I believe these mags have Alnico magnets in them,they ought to be fine.-1-19-04.Today,after breaking off the top radiator connection and having to have aradiator shop re-solder it, I finally heard the engine run. I didn't havethe fuel pump diaphragm material but, since it was ready, I hooked a temporarygravity tank to the carb line and, after a half dozen cranks, it started and ranstrong. I may have to work some more on the carburetor because it isrunning a little rich.Hereit is, going like a champ.

The governor hunts a little and there's no wayto adjust the sensitivity to make it stop that bad habit. I found that ifI adjusted the fuel mixture just so and held the throttle shaft a little, itwould run fine for a few minutes before something upset it and it startedhunting again. I ran it about a half an hour today.-1-20-04.WhenI first worked over the carburetor, I thought that I shouldn't try to tap thebrass float pin out of the diecast carb housing. I figured it would beokay. If I left it sit for a while, the carb would drip alittle so I took the carburetor apart and lapped the float valve and added awasher to the seat to lower the float level a little.

I was lucky to getit out and back in without any breakage.Thatsolved the drip problem but now the governor hunts worse so I have to run it with alittle choke on. I'm certain that this is not the way it's supposed tobe.Whiletinkering, I shut it off and had a really hard time starting it again.Good spark to the plugs and gas in the cylinders so I think the plugs that camewith the engine are going into the trash. I think I'll make a trip toAutoZone for a couple of those Autolite 216's and see if that makes it easier tostart.Here'sa little better picture. Now, take note of the classy radiator cap madeout of a spray paint cap. 'Ya can't say I don't do things first class!01-22-04.Well,I put in the new plugs and it runs about the same. Another problem Ithought would be fixed with new plugs is that I can't quarter turn the crank tostart it.

It won't fire even if I snap the crank over. If I spin it,after a couple of turns it'll start.5-01-04.Withthe help of a fellow Stover DV-2 owner, Frank and I now have a correctbreather. A picture if it is below. The only thing we need to do nowis to make a new throttle shaft and ream the carburetor body to fit.

Thisought to solve the hard starting and rough running problem.06-12-04.Well- we made a new butterfly shaft and reamed out the carb body. The goodnews is that it fits really nice. The bad news is that I still have tospin it to start and it STILL hunts! My next theory is that, even thoughit doesn't try to kick back, the spark could be a little too advanced. Ichecked the timing and the mag impulse snaps REAL close to TDC so it shouldbe all right.Otherthan the cranking problem and hunting at no load, it sure runs good. Sincethere's no fine adjustment on the mounting of the magneto, the only way I canretard the spark is to move the mag gear one whole tooth.

I think that maymake it too slow but, some time when I'm over there and feel like fiddling withit, I'll give it a try. Who knows, it might work.12-04-04.Idid a swap with Arthur Southwell, a collector in southern Florida, for an old army surplusLeland 2,500 Watt 120 Volt AC generator head that runs at 1800 RPM.I think it will make a nice match to the little Stover. I see no reason Ican't run the Stover at 1800 RPM forever. One of these days, I'll clean theLeland up and test it. If it works, I'll make a skid that I can bolt theskidded Stover and the generator to. Since the generator turnscounterclockwise, I have to set them side-to-side and belt the Stover to it.It'dbe kinda nice to take it to shows with a string of lights and my Webster wirerecorder playing 1950's Rock-n-Roll for evening entertainment.10-12-05.Today,we belted the generator to an electric motor to see if it works.

Itgenerates fine but the commutator and slip rings are out of round. Sincethe brushes are perpendicular to the commutator and slip rings, it is possibleto reverse rotation without damaging them. I tried reversing rotation butit wouldn't generate, even after I flashed it. Using the 'What TheHeck' scientific method, I reversed the exciter field wires, spun it up andflashed it again. Now it generates turning clockwise facing theshaft.

We'll direct couple it to the Stover.Theonly issue with turning it backwards from what the factory intended is that ofthe cooling fan. It's a squirrel cage and most likely won't move as muchair when reversed. If the generator runs hot under load, we'll take itback apart and remove the squirrel cage, cut the cage from the spider and weldit back on reversed.10-24-05.Wetook the Leland generator apart and turned the commutator and slip rings.I guess they were turned out of round when the generator was manufactured.After cleaning it up, painting, re-insulating the field coils and replacing thebearings, it's back toghether. I still have to clean up and paint thebrush cover.Theoriginal outlets on the junction box were twist locks so, since we found thatmodern grounding outlets would fit perfectly, we replaced them.

Thegenerator was originally set-up for a floating (non-grounded) configuration so Igrounded one side of the output to the generator frame then tied this lead tothe neutral and ground lugs of the outlets. With this arrangement, there'sless chance of a hair-raising experience.Weturned the stub shaft on the Stover for an Oldham coupling and are getting some2 X 4 square steel tube to make a sub-frame for mounting the generator to theengine. When it's done, I think it'll make a nice circa 1940's genset.I'mlooking forward to seeing if the Stover will make enough power to generate thefull 2,500 Watt output of the generator.

We're gonna look through ourcollective junkboxes to see if we can find a 15-Amp AC Ammeter, a reed frequencymeter and an AC Voltmeter. If we get lucky, we could make up a nice panelfor the little genset.that is.if the spirit moves us.10-29-05.Theframe for the genset is coming along. We got some 1-1/2 X 3 steel tube andhere's Frank doing some artistic spark making.Inthe next couple of days, we'll get the engine and generator mounted on the frameand do some testing. Now, I wonder how well the thermo-syphoncooling will work on the Stover.

We'll find out.11-01-05.Today,we finally got it all together and tested. The bands on the frame railsare holding the rubber feet 'til the glue dries.Thecord going through the doorway that's hooked to the light bulbs is for settingthe engine speed so the generator puts out 60 cycle power. This is done byconnecting the neutrals from commercial power and the generator together.Now, the hot from the generator is run through the two series connected 120 Voltbulbs (same wattage) to the hot of the commercial power. With thegenerator running, the governor is set so, with no load other than the lamps,the lamps fade in and out about twice a second on the fast side or about 62cycles. Under overload conditions, the frequency is around 58 cycles ortwo fades per second.We'vebeen very interested in seeing how well the engine could pull thegenerator. The generator is rated at 2,500 Watts and the engine is ratedat around 3-1/2 HP.

Off the wall, we estimate that it takes about ahorsepower to produce about 350 Watts from this particular generator. Atthis rate, the engine could produce enough power to make about 1,225Watts.

With these numbers in mind, we hooked a 500 Watt heat gun to thegenerator. This load only served to steady the governor that was hunting alittle.Next,we hooked a 1,500 Watt heater to the output, making the total load about 2,000Watts and the engine picked up the load easily. Either the generator ismore effecient than we thought or the Stover does better than 3-1/2ponies. We ran it with this load for a few minutes to seat the rings andwarm it up then we added another 1,500 Watt heater, bringing the total load toabout 3,500 Watts. The little Stover was still game!

The final strawwas to replace the 500 Watt heat gun with a 1,500 Watt heat gun. Now, theload was 4,500 Watts and, although the throttle was wide open and the frequencywas around 58 cycles, the voltage was still 115 and holding.Duringthe overload part of the test, I started smelling hot paint. That's when Inoticed that the muffler was turning brown. Even after running for 5minutes at 4,500 Watts, the radiator was just barely boiling. For acooling system with no water pump, I think this is very good.Thisleads us to the unmistakable conclusion that both the Stover and the generatorare well under rated.

If the generator does take one horse for 350 Watts,that means that the Stover is capable of producing 12.9 horsepower! Evenat a horse for 500 Watts, the engine is doing about 9 horsepower. Not badfor such a cute little engine. Now, instead of this outfit being nice forshow, it's also going to be a nice standby generator set.Thanksto all who offered help and suggestions! Is this a great hobby or what??!!-10September 2012:Today,I got an email from Joe Cucuzza who has a Delco-Light power-plant type15EC1.

It is a 120VDC unit. He was asking if the engine for thisneat little generator was a Stover DV-2. I think it is and, since it's insuch good original condition, I thought (with Joe's permission) I'd post threephotos of it.Joe'sStover DV-2 powered Delco-Light generator.(Clickon the photos for the high-resolution version.)Joesays that, as of this date, he hasn't had it running but it has compression and,with some cleaning-up, should run. Interestingly, the magneto is mountedon the end of the generator. Also note that the breather is returned tothe carburetor air inlet and the governor is different.

It has a chokestove mounted on the flat spot on top of the exhaust manifold. The DV-2 Irestored had the same flat spot and I wondered what it was there for.

NowI know.Thefan is driven directly off of the front of the crankshaft and it has no fanbelt. Also, it is equipped with a water pump, driven by the governor gear.-Comments?VisitsSince 8 February 2010.