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).
Engine faults related to cylinder construction and proposing a two-piece block design for testing.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 179b\2\ img088 | |
| Date | 11th November 1932 | |
| -2- two engines only seen signs that the engine has been detonated. We can always pick this out by the condition of the top joint ring. Our fully supercharged engines are run without any boost control and we know that the throttles are frequent-ly opened above the recognised amount. In fact we are having difficulty in getting the boost control adopted because the engines are giving so very little trouble without it. The weakest unit, taking all of our complaints on engines, is cylinder construction. We have got over our worst epidemic by making sure that the cylinders are well tightened down but it has still left us with distorted liners, studs which are liable to break or pull the threads out of the crank-case. We believe the most satisfactory solution we have of the cylinder trouble lies in the one-piece cylinder block construction. These cylinders have been Type Tested and got through 100 hours Type Test without any criticism. The only criticism we know against the two-piece cylinder block is the increase in weight, but if we go ahead with the increased rating we can justify the increased weight. We believe with the two piece cylinder block we shall get rid of the top joint troubles and with the spring loaded rubbers we can forget the bottom ring troubles. We shall eliminate liner distortion and we believe owing to the joint being made with the extra bolts between the head and the cylinder it will not be necessary to tighten the crankcase studs down to such an extent and therefore reduce the risk of these failing or pulling out. We consider the two-piece block should be tested out to a conclusion before we think of adopting the six bolt cylinder on the Kestrel. The six-bolt cylinder will give us approximately the same increase in weight, will spoil interchangeability of crankcase, and only reduces, does not overcome the trouble with the top joint liner distortion. | ||