Today I pulled a cylinder off a 1930s Douglas motorcycle engine that has been set up to run a battery recharging generator, to check its condition.

It's in very good condition, so it will be an easy job to get it running as an auxiliary generator for an Armstrong-Sideley Cheeta X engine that is being set up to run.

I'm a volunteer at the WA RAAFA aviation museum where this is being done.

The Douglas is a 350cc, air cooled boxer engine with a double throw crankshaft so it will run very smoothly. It has big deep cut outs in its piston tops to fit big valves in hemispherical combustion chambers. It also has two camshafts, one on each side of the block, which run pushrod operated overhead valves, so for its age it's quite sophisticated. It's in very good condition, so a set of piston rings, some gaskets and fiddling will get it going.

The Cheeta, which is from an Avro Anson, is a 13 litre, 7 cylinder radial engine, with a single throw crankshaft, so it will rumble, thump, clatter and make an enormous noise, which will be wonderful.

We would like to fit it on the back of an old truck and then take it to car and aero shows, to make lots of noise and have lots of fun.

I can hardly wait to get them both going.

Gotta love big arse radial engines here's the famous Corncob 27 cylinder radial built by Pratt & Whitney whom i work for, this photo taken last year at the Seattle aviation museum, when i was working in Canada. Cheers Damo.