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).
Suggestions to improve the Phantom car's cooling system, addressing issues like steam formation, crankcase distortion, and radiator suction effects.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 149a\3\ scan0179 | |
| Date | 18th August 1936 | |
| HARRISON RADIATOR CORPORATION LOCKPORT, NEW YORK August 18, 1936 - 4 - [Handwritten note: Good Suggestion] To sum up have the following suggestions to offer to improve the cooling on the Phantom car. Ways and means be attempted in an endeavor to reduce the BTU input to the jacket. Among other things, wish to suggest that a glass tube be fitted between the engine outlet and the radiator and the inlet temperature to the pump be gradually increased at full load at various speeds to see whether or not there are any local hot spots or spaces with sluggish circulation where the water is flashed into steam. We will approve over here cooling systems in which the water enters the pump at 190°F as being a satisfactory job, without steam showing in the glass tube between the engine and the radiator. Among other contributory causes to this formation of steam, we have found sluggish water circulation places underneath the exhaust valve ports and around spark plugs. Small water passages where the core supporting wires have fused and form a dam which retards waterflow. The shape of the exhaust manifold we find to be quite critical with some designs in that if the gas is turned too abruptly after leaving the side of the cylinder block, sufficient back pressure locally will be setup so that the exhaust port temperature is higher than it would be under normal conditions. We have also found that in cases where the exhaust gas temperature at the exhaust port where it leaves the cylinder is of the neighborhood of 2100°F and we have some very satisfactory jobs running over here where this temperature does not exceed 1400°F.{Mr Friese} Prior to the general use in this country of the cylinder block and crank case, cast in one piece we had numerous cooling complaints from customers who did not drive their cars sufficiently at high speed to thoroughly break the engines in and the difficulty which we ran into was due entirely to crank case distortion, that is we could run a car at 70 to 80 MPH on the beach at Daytona or any suitable piece of road distances ranging from 10 to 15 miles and upon stopping the car and the engine, it would be impossible to crank the engine due to the distortion which had taken place in the crank case so holding the shaft. With the advent, however, of the integral unit, this difficulty has disappeared entirely. Wish to call your attention to the reference to the paper previously referred to of the effect of the suction on the bottom tank of the radiator and how this suction affects the breakdown temperature of the cooling system if the depression is too high. HEAT TRANSFER PRODUCTS AVIATION AUTOMOTIVE MARINE INDUSTRIAL RADIATORS SHUTTERS OIL TEMPERATURE REGULATORS CAR HEATERS THERMOSTATS HEAT EXCHANGERS | ||