What's your favourite engine?

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Fastpedaller

Über Member
The 5 bearing Ford Kent engine in either the 998 or the 1198cc version. These were fitted to the earlier Cortina MK1 and Corsair, and then the Ford Anglia 105E and the 123E.
This engine also had a 1300, 1500 and a 1600cc versions.
A very strong balanced engine and very easy to work on.

I have a brand new, never fitted, crossflow inlet manifold if you need one!
 
The 5 bearing Ford Kent engine in either the 998 or the 1198cc version. These were fitted to the earlier Cortina MK1 and Corsair, and then the Ford Anglia 105E and the 123E.
This engine also had a 1300, 1500 and a 1600cc versions.
A very strong balanced engine and very easy to work on.

The 1600cc version of which is still used in Formula Ford today...
 

sevenfourate

Devotee of OCD
Honda NSR 500 - 2 Stroke Grand Prix Bike.

Porn for the eyes. Orgasm for the ears.

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Profpointy

Legendary Member
Another engine I find interesting is the Clerget 9b rotary engines used in Sopwith Camels and other allied aircraft. The first interesting think was that the propellor was connected to the engine, which span around the crankshaft. I used to think the propellor would be fixed to the crankshaft, which was turned by the engine, but no. I am not sure about the Clerget, but a lot of these rotary engines had blip switches. If you wanted to slow down you'd switch the blip switch and some of the cylinders would stop firing. So you would have three power outputs depending on what position the blip switch was in. Another interesting thing was the lubrication system. The engine used castor oil, which leaked out during flight. The pilot could ingest a lot of castor oil, which could give him the runs.

The later Bentley for the Camel is very appealing too. I bought this book on how to build a quarter size working model. Even more amazingly the bloke who wrote the book and built the first model wasn't even an engineer but took it up as a hobby in retirement. Apparently he didn't even have access to the drawings and had to work it all out from the contemporary equivalent of the Haynes Manual the mechanics had in 1917. You can see videos of working models that a good number of folk have built based on the book. I should admit I have no realistic chance of making one myself and just bought book because it was so appealing

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Here's a linky to a working one

View: https://youtu.be/UsyhOdRXsPA?feature=shared
 
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Yellow Fang

Yellow Fang

Legendary Member
Location
Reading
The Rolls Royce Falcon, which powered the Bristol F.2 fighter has already been mentioned, but the Rolls Royce Eagle was even better. It powered the Airco DH4, which is a less well known, two seat bomber and reconnaissance aircraft. The Rolls Royce Eagle gave it 375 H.P. and a top speed of 143 mph. That is crazy for a WW1 aircraft. I have read a number of books about the air war in WW1. I thought if there was anything more suicidal than being a fighter pilot, it was serving in a bomber or reconnaissance aircraft. However, if you are in a plane with a top speed of 143 mph then you have got a chance. The Germans would have nothing that could catch you, unless they dived on you from above.
 

captain nemo1701

Space cadet. Deck 42 Main Engineering.
Location
Bristol
One of these:
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Deuterium/anti-deuterium fusion matrix, power output about 12.75 billion gigawatts, enough to power the entire world for centuries or Accy's telly for a week :okay:
 

nagden

Über Member
Location
Normandy, France
My favourite engine is on my Honda rotovator. It the smallest in the Honda range the F200. I have had it for 40 years and it has worked and worked with very few probs.
 

figbat

Slippery scientist
My favourite engine is on my Honda rotovator. It the smallest in the Honda range the F200. I have had it for 40 years and it has worked and worked with very few probs.

Similarly, the Briggs and Stratton engine in my lawn mower is unkillable. It has been ‘serviced’ once in my 15+ years of ownership (changed the oil) and I got it second hand, but continues to fire up on the second pull after the winter break and self-propels the mower around with gusto. It’s still on the original spark plug as far as I know.
 
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Yellow Fang

Yellow Fang

Legendary Member
Location
Reading
If I am fair I have to pay tribute to the Yanks' Pratt & Witney R-2800 Double Wasp. It generated over 2000 HP, way more than any of our engines at the time. It was a radial engines. Radial engines were less aerodynamic than online, liquid cooled engines like the Merlin, but they stood up to battle damage better. A bullet through the glycol tank of a Spitfire and the engine would soon seize up. P&W R-2800s powered aircraft like the Republican Thunderbolt, Grumman Hellcat and Voight Corsair. Those were big, hefty fighters with a lot of armour and weaponry, but could still out perform their enemies, because of their massive engines.
 
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