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).
Technical memorandum discussing experiments on the 40/50 engine's cooling system to prevent water loss.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 38\2\ Scan176 | |
| Date | 5th June 1922 | |
| To R from Hs{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} c. to CJ. c. to E.{Mr Elliott - Chief Engineer} c. to Da.{Bernard Day - Chassis Design} c. to BY.{R.W. Bailey - Chief Engineer} c. to EP.{G. Eric Platford - Chief Quality Engineer} X3456 Hsl/LG 5.6.22. 40/50 COOLING. X.766 X1757 X.3456 X.4225 There have been a great number of cases where a 40/50 engine has been run short of water and in some cases run without water, but we do not know of any case where this condition has caused cracked cylinders. We have had cases of cars which have been run without water until the pistons have seized but there was no damage to the cylinders. We should say that we are absolutely free from cracked cylinders on the 40/50 due to any conditions of running on the road. Sometime ago we carried out a number of tests on the 40/50 in order to prevent loss of water when boiling. We made a number of experiments but we could not prove any very definite improvement over the present standard and we postponed the tests until the hot weather when we could carry out tests on the road instead of having to try to reproduce the conditions on the dynamometer. Our recent experiments on the Goshawk show that it is much better than the 40/50 H.P. for not throwing out water with the steam. We are therefore making further tests on the 40/50. Experiments which we tried were as follows:- (1) An extra top water pipe was fitted, connected to the four core plug holes which come between the valve caps. This pipe was .75" dia. and a separate connection was made on the radiator for this pipe. (2) The top water pipe was made taper from 1" to 2" dia. on the radiator. (3) Various types of steam separators were tried between the outlet from the cylinders and the radiator. contd. | ||