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).
Cracked cylinder head on a Goshawk engine due to overheating and proposing modifications to the fan drive system.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 77\4\ scan0209 | |
| Date | 24th May 1922 | |
| To Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} from R.{Sir Henry Royce} c. to CJ. Wor.{Arthur Wormald - General Works Manager} c. to EY. EP.{G. Eric Platford - Chief Quality Engineer} X4240 R1/M24.5.22. GOSHAWK - CRACKED CYLINDER HEAD X.4225. X.4240. We cannot expect this or any other engine to run without water. It is a high duty engine and under the conditions they have been run it is called upon to run at full throttle very nearly continually, or at continuous long spells. We cannot therefore expect either the valves or head to stand unless there is water to circulate. We must endeavour to make the fan drive more reliable and secondly in the case this is neglected, to prevent as far as possible the rapid loss of water which probably at present takes place in this and most other engines. To render the fan drive more efficient I propose to fit the largest fan possible and to run this as slowly as possible not attempting to drive it faster than the engine speed. It would therefore be fitted with a pulley the same size as on the engine which will not be larger than the fan pulley on the 40/50 in which case thr fan belt should have as easy a time as on the 40/50. In the original arrangement we made the Goshawk crankshaft pulley as small as we could under the circumstances but the fan and its pulley were both smaller than they need have been, though on examining 4-Goshawk-11 one cannot conclude but that the drive is a good one, but the fan is small, and a long way from the radiator. It will be realised also that the fan and radiator have never had the cowling fitted and therefore the fan is too far (contd) | ||