From the Rolls-Royce experimental archive: a quarter of a million communications from Rolls-Royce, 1906 to 1960's. Documents from the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation (SHRMF).
Letter from Ethyl Export Corporation regarding corroded crankshaft pin oilers and potential causes.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 145\3\ scan0034 | |
| Date | 29th May 1935 | |
| CABLEGRAMS: ETHYLPORT. LONDON. TELEGRAMS: ETHYLPORT. CHURTON. ETHYL EXPORT CORPORATION Incorporated in the State of Delaware U. S. A.{Mr Adams} with limited liability. ABFORD HOUSE, VICTORIA LONDON, S.W.I Telephone: VICTORIA 5520 Head Office: 135 EAST 42ND STREET NEW YORK, U.S.A W. A.{Mr Adams} Robotham, Esq., Rolls-Royce Ltd., Nightingale Road, DERBY. 29th May, 1935. Dear Rm{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}, I wish to acknowledge your letter of the 14th May, and I am sorry that I could not deal with it before, but I have been on a rather protracted trip in Europe and only returned this morning. I have examined the crankshaft pin oilers which you sent along, and they certainly seem to be in a very badly corroded condition, but I am very dubious as to the cause of this corrosion and would not be prepared to accept your laboratory's opinion without having the opportunity of carrying out some further work ourselves. I do not mean by this that your laboratory is necessarily in error, but since so many cars with aluminium plugs in their crankshafts have been operating satisfactorily on Ethyl fuels I cannot, at the moment, think that the fuel is the cause of this trouble. I am, however, writing to the States to see if they have any specific information to give us, and in the meantime I wonder whether you can let us know, confidentially of course, the type of lubricating oil which was employed in the car in question, and also if the owner was in the habit of just topping up the oil level in the crank case and not draining the case at intervals in order to use completely fresh lubricant. In the meantime, to prevent the recurrence of such trouble whatever its cause may be, do you think that some anodic treatment would assist in resisting this corrosion attack? I have seen some cases on the continent where pistons and cylinder heads have been treated in this manner with some degree of success. I can conceive that the trouble could occur by the presence of some products of high acidity in the crank case and this, as you know, is quite a possibility, even a probability, especially in the case of an auto-mobile. | ||