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 Rover Motor Co. Ltd. regarding experiments and information on chromium-plated cylinder blocks.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 127\3\ scan0101 | |
| Date | 15th June 1936 | |
| X1091 Exptl. Dept. Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Rm.{William Robotham - Chief Engineer}15/KW. 15th June, 1936. Captain S.B. Wilks, The Rover Motor Co.Ltd., COVENTRY. Dear Wilks, With reference to your letter of June 13th, concerning the chromium plated block, so far we have no results from this. The fact that the bores are under-sized has caused us a certain amount of difficulty because we have been carrying out a comprehensive series of experiments lately on oil control, and we wish to incorporate the results in the test on the chromium plated block. This necessitates another set of special pistons. However, in view of your remarks we are going forward with the test right away. It would be of material assistance to us if you could give us the following information :- (1) Have you run your chromium plated blocks with rings having a ground or a turned finish. (2) Was the effect on oil control noticeably different from the ordinary cast-iron finish. (3) Did the rings take longer to bed down. (4) Do you consider the cost of chromium plating cylinder bores for production reasonable. We are tackling cylinder wear from rather a different angle. We are endeavouring to use an oil of viscosity somewhere about SAE-20 all the year round, increasing the quantity thrown to the cylinder bores very considerably, and maintaining the oil consumption by improved ring control. It may be that we shall still want chromium plating. Yours sincerely, | ||