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 testing involving fuel, spark plugs, detonation, pre-ignition, and component failure analysis.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 174\4\ img018 | |
| Date | 13th December 1930 | |
| -2- Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/EHD.1/WJ.13.12.30.Contd. on D.T.D.134 fuel and Lodge A.40 plugs at 2000 R.P.M. and varying degrees of detonation intensity up to 2.100 ft. at which point the engine ran for 1/2 hour without showing any signs of pre-ignition although the piston crowns and cylinder heads were afterwards found to be badly burnt due to excessive overheating. Some high speed full throttle work was then undertaken in order to obtain indicator diagrams from the engine. Further tests were also done to find if prolonged detonation at 2000 R.P.M. and 2.50 ft. would produce similar burning of the piston and cylinder heads, and two hours were run using K.170 plugs and D.T.D. 134 fuel. They appeared to be in good condition at the end of the test and so K.L.G. F.12 plugs were fitted to A.{Mr Adams} side since pre-ignition was far more likely to occur with these plugs than the K.170. After five minutes running the engine stopped due to pre-ignition but no marking was found and it was decided to fit A.S. plugs and repeat the test. It was during this run that the failure occurred. The engine had then run six hours under conditions of heavy detonation. From the fitting of the tubular rods the engine had run 57 hours. The weight of one pair of these rods is twelve ounces in excess of that for the standard R.{Sir Henry Royce} section rods previously fitted. From the appearance of the crack it would seem that failure was due to fatigue of the metal and we are now fitting the crankshaft from "F"1 engine. which has now completed 73 hours running, with a view to trying to reproduce a similar failure. Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair}/R.H. Dorey. | ||