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).
Cases of valve spring failures and the resulting engine issues.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 88\4\ scan0059 | |
| Date | 5th May 1934 | |
| x257 EP{G. Eric Platford - Chief Quality Engineer}4/MH.{M. Huckerby}5.5.34 E.W.H. [Struck through] C.W. [Struck through] DY.{F R Danby} [Struck through] R.W. [Struck through] re VALVE SPRING FAILURE, CAUSING ENGINE CRASH B-54-AH With reference to E.6/HP.26.4.34, and dealing with the paragraph in regard to the "warning" given to the driver that the valve spring is broken, this also occurred to me in the above case, and on enquiring into this matter from JLE{J. Lee Evans - Chassis Test Manager}, whose tester Copping was driving this car at the time, he reports as follows :- "I have gone into this matter with Copping who drove this car and he informs me that three or four miles out of Hockliffe, when he was doing about 70 m.p.h., he noticed a rattle in the engine and pulled up to find that the damage had taken place. He had no indication of anything wrong prior to this. He had had to slow down to about 30 m.p.h. going through the village of Hockliffe and there was nothing noticeably wrong with the engine then." JLE{J. Lee Evans - Chassis Test Manager} also reported a case where he found a valve spring broken during his inspection on test (B-97-AE), but the noise caused by the broken valve spring was only noticeable when running slowly. It must be realised that we have not required testers to expect R.R.quietness from the valve mechanism on these engines. As regards the aero engines, although we have only had two cases recorded where valves have dropped into the cylinder, causing trouble, we certainly have had dozens of cases where valve springs have been found broken (outer spring only) during the engine's periodic inspection. EP{G. Eric Platford - Chief Quality Engineer} | ||