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 to the Buick Motor Company asking five technical questions about their engine design.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 124\3\ scan0423 | |
| Date | 10th November 1936 | |
| 1049 10.11.36. W. Chayne, Esq., The Buick Motor Company, Flint, Michigan, U.S.A. Dear Mr. Chayne, We have all been delving into the 1937 Manual that you kindly sent us. The result is that all the people in our Engineering Dept. have got questions they would like to ask. I have collected together all these questions in the hope that you might have time to send us some replies. The questions consist of:- (1) We think that your tubular push rods must be more expensive than the solid steel ones we use, and, therefore, you must have some very good reason we do not know of for using them. (2) We cannot understand how the aluminium rocker pedestals make up for the elimination of the water-heated rocker shaft. We should have thought that the aluminium pedestals would have always caused an increase of clearance, and, therefore, more valve noise. Possibly, however, you are using a high expansion exhaust valve steel and the pedestal is required for this reason. (3) We cannot understand how the heat deflecting top groove in your piston works. We cannot understand why, after a short time it does not become filled with carbon. (4) Can you give us the real 'low down' on crankcase ventilation? Is it really to remove acid corrosion? (and what damage does this corrosion do?), or is it purely a Sales' feature. (5) Do you find that the filter in the floating oil intake gets silted up and that the filter soon becomes useless? | ||