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).
Inter-office letter discussing the problems of 'equal distribution' in induction pipes due to the quality of American gasoline.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 75\2\ scan0243 | |
| Date | 8th August 1921 | |
| R.R.A. 25 25m. 12-20-20 40849 INTER-OFFICE CORRESPONDENCE X2758 ROLLS-ROYCE OF AMERICA, INC SPRINGFIELD, MASS. CC Mr. Belnap Mr. Nadin Oy2 - G 8821 August 8, 1921 Dear Hives: Re: Induction Pipes (1) Equal Distribution: I have sent you enough and written you enough probably to bore you to tears, but possibly to show you that the U.S. is not trying for "equal distribution" or "unidirectional flow" or any of the age-old ideals that we see from the english papers are still exercising Europe. They are trying to feed dry gas into the cylinders. "Equal distribution", in the European sense of the word, has always meant a patch-up scheme to make a sloppy induction pipe, slop about equally into all cylinders, and it will not do for this country with their gasoline and their winter temperatures. The reason it will not do, as I have already written, is that the gas has such heavy ends in it that if you get a dose of these heavy constituents slopped into a cylinder, (1) It dilutes the oil, because a lot of it will not evaporate or burn. (2) What does not burn is very liable to crack, causing the well-known knock met with in kerosene engines (like farm engines which nearly all knock on kerosene), and depositing carbon in large quantities, so that an engine in extreme cases may be impossible to run after 500 miles. (3) The knock means high temperatures, overheating, hot-plug preignition, even cracked plugs. (4) The heavy wet fuel also fouls spark plugs. (5) The crankcase dilution causes cylinder wear. (6) You get detonation very readily when the cylinder is foul, because the heavy ends when evaporated have a low self-ignition temperature. | ||