RPM

[jake666 0]

Can I measure my rpms off of flywheel cover? It's a kohler cv18s

[Jeff-C175 7,206]

Just now, jake666 said:

flywheel cover

 

You mean the perforated screen?  Sure, why not?  

 

Did you try it and not having stable readings?  Is that why you're asking?

 

 

 

[Sparky-(Admin) 23,146]

Where’s @Handy Don ? 
  He showed me a phone app that measures RPM’s and it was pretty slick. 

[Maxwell-8 4,367]

Their are small rpm meters available on the ebay. Measuring the rpm trough the sparkplug.

[squonk 43,780]

You have to be careful with those small engine tachs that measures from the spark. A lot of engines operate the points off the crank they fire the plug every revolution. A Kohler K series operates the points from cam so it fires every other revolution

[Handy Don 14,054]

16 hours ago, Sparky said:

Where’s @Handy Don ? 
  He showed me a phone app that measures RPM’s and it was pretty slick. 

For an iPhone, I have been using this one.

It uses a combination of strobing the phone's LED and timing the shutter on the video camera.

For the WH engine, I use a piece of white tape on the PTO pulley, but it could just as easily be on the grass screen.

I usually set my desired RPM in the app (for idle or max) and then adjust the engine until the pulley (or grass screen) appears to stand still on the phone screen.

If you want to know what the current RPM is, you can increment/decrement the RPM setting in the app until the image is standing still. I use this for things like checking a drill press setup to get the manufacturer suggested speed for drilling a metal with a particular bit or hole saw. I could see it being handy if I had a metal lathe, too.

To be clear, it is NOT a continuous reading of RPM like a gauge, but it serves me well for my tasks.

Edited January 20, 2022 by Handy Don