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).
Investigating bearing failures on 'F' engines, attributing the cause to faulty oil supply installation.
| Identifier | WestWitteringFiles\T\2January1929-June1929\ Scan145 | |
| Date | 19th February 1929 | |
| To R.{Sir Henry Royce} from Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} c. to SG.{Arthur F. Sidgreaves - MD} Wor.{Arthur Wormald - General Works Manager} c. to RG.{Mr Rowledge} R.{Sir Henry Royce} c. to BY.{R.W. Bailey - Chief Engineer} FL ORIGINAL FAILURE OF BEARINGS ON 'F' ENGINES. X3865 X3843 We have received at the Works the rest of the engines from the 'Fox' machines. These have come back for removing the pipes in the crankshaft. Examination of the bearings on these engines shews no sign of them being likely to fail. In no case had the bearings the same appearance to those on which the conn.rod failed. All the evidence goes to shew that the failure was due to faulty installation causing complete failure of the oil supply. On the bearings which shewed signs of starting to fail but which had not actually failed, there has never been found any stoppage of the oil supply [feed handwritten above supply]. We have carried out tests driving a crankshaft in a crankcase by means of a belt and measuring the amount of oil delivered to the big end bearings. We find that even with the pipes there is an adequate supply at low oil temperatures. A separate report will follow. We are also running an engine on the hangar on which we have pipes fitted to three of the big ends and enclosed crank pins on the other three. We have started this engine up from cold and have opened it out to full throttle at 2500 revs. with the oil temp. at 30°C. So far it has come to no harm. It was found that the oil installation on the service 'Fox' machines was very different to the experimental contd :- | ||