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).
Unsuccessful attempts to reproduce piston seizures on a B-23-AE Bentley Chassis.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 90\1\ Scan130 | |
| Date | 15th April 1935 | |
| To Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/Rn.{Mr Robinson} (FILES) x263 15.4.35. Piston Seizures. The following work has been carried out on B-23-AE Bentley Chassis in an unsuccessful attempt to reproduce piston seizure. The pistons and cylinder block were fitted to B-23-AE that had previously been run and had seized No.6 piston in the hands of a customer. A new piston had been fitted to No.6 and the bore of the cylinder block honed out .005". 1st Test. The engine was started up cold and the car taken on the road immediately afterwards, running with the mixture control in the half strong position, occasionally braking to 1,000 r.p.m. full throttle, otherwise running between 1,000 and 1,500 r.p.m. This was maintained for 12 miles, at which point No.1 sparking plug was cut out and the engine run on 5 cylinder's with the mixture still half strong for a further 12 miles. 2nd Test. Engine started up cold and car driven on the road immediately for distance of 5 miles, running three quarters strong on mixture lever. Car returned to Works and engine cooled right down with cold water. This performance was repeated 10 times, each start being made with a cold engine. 3rd Test. The car was left out all night and after a dead cold start, driven at top revs. a distance of 80 miles. This test was repeated, the car being left out all night as before. The object of tests No.2 & 3 was to try and reproduce the effect of a customer starting from cold and driving to business a short distance running strong, making an occasional fast run, and so running into trouble. There were no signs of piston seizure, however, when the engine was stripped, and after cleaning the sparking plugs the engine ran quite smoothly. Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/F.Dodd. | ||