Thread: engines of yesteryear

The Commer knocker a 6 cylinder horizontally motor was a very impressive I always felt in its day I never had the opportunity to drive one they would lug down to a very low RPM and not falter The design was something never copied I often wounder what they would b e like today if Roots group had of kept producing them A real work horse

Originally Posted by hodgo

The Commer knocker a 6 cylinder horizontally motor was a very impressive I always felt in its day I never had the opportunity to drive one they would lug down to a very low RPM and not falter The design was something never copied I often wounder what they would b e like today if Roots group had of kept producing them A real work horse

Heard some stories off my father about the Commer...

He told me one story that I never forgot... Copper in Meekatharra would target the trucks for overloading, Dad had empty fuel drums on, so just out of town, he loosened an injector line and let the tyres down enough to make the truck look heavy...

Well the cop couldn't weigh him in town, so he made Dad follow him all the way to Mt Magnet where the railway had a weighbridge... It was 50 in the water bag and no aircon back then...

When he was weighed, cop asked whats in the drums, Dad said "air" and your tyres, Well you didn't give me time to pump them up... He never got stopped after that, but the loads got heavier...

Commer engine, horizontally opposing pistons, 2 conrods each piston and a rocker between the rods, one crank... 2 stroke diesel... There is a couple in a shed near Perth(bullsbrook), 2 where going 20 years ago and a couple outside for spares...

Never got to work on one but have heard both good and bad reports about working on them...You would never break a speed record in one tho...

The Commer knocker a 6 cylinder horizontally motor was a very impressive I always felt in its day I never had the opportunity to drive one they would lug down to a very low RPM and not falter The design was something never copied I often wounder what they would b e like today if Roots group had of kept producing them A real work horse

Ummmh! The design was actually copied - by Rootes Group, to put in the Commer. The first incarnation of the design in production was as a submarine engine by Junkers in WW1 although it seems to have been invented by him in the 1890s. Their similar aeroplane diesel was extensively used in the interwar period, for example in the Fokker Waal long range flying boat. In WW2 they were used to a limited extent in some German reconnaissance aircraft. (Hugo Junkers himself lost control of his companies as he was not a Nazi supporter).

With German patents no longer valid in Britain, Tilling-Stevens used Junkers patents to design the engine, and were taken over by Rootes in 1950. Tilling -Stevens are notable for specialising in the manufacture of petrol-electric trucks and buses in the 1900-1930 period, selling despite their inefficiency and cost because of the ease of driving before synchromesh and preselector gearboxes.

Rotary valve engines from yesteryear. Rotary-Valve Internal Combustion Engines.

A few interesting ones there. I remember reading about the Aspin engine (or Aspin rotary valve) many years ago, I think it was either high oil loss or high wear and they didn't really get it resolved. Aspin Rotary Engine Library

Here's a link to an 8.6litre Aspin bus engine Aspin Rotary Valve Engine Archive


Not exactly 'yesteryear' but the NVT (Norton Villiers Triumph) Wulf which was a stepped piston 2-stroke always looked interesting. 2-stroke but with 4-stroke lubrication system.
They spend years mucking around developing it then someone took the design and was going to use it in small industrial engines. Tales from the Road: Featured Bike - Norton Wulf 500cc Prototype 1975
It was Bernard Hooper Patent US4068629 - Stepped piston two stroke engines - Google Patents


Similar principle but more recent Hybrid Opposite Piston Engine - HOPE & Portable Range Extender / HOPE - Two stroke engine

Concept is still ongoing http://www.ainonline.com/aviation-ne...e-higgs-diesel


Colin

It's been posted here before on another thread but the Napier Deltic engine is an engineering marvel, like the knocker engine it has opposing pistons but in a triangle instead of horizontially opposed.



and they go alright as well



Regards,
Tote

Wallsend Slipway and Engineering Co - Graces Guide

Check out the oil burners

We have lots of old engines still running around the place. Scince Works Pump house is good for a visit. Go on the right day and some of the oldest even get fired up.

Kelly&Lewis Engine

this has just a few which might tickle your fancy.

If in Sydney and you chat to the right people a tour of HMAS Vampire engines is a place I can vouch for.

Then their are the sleeve valve engines. These were popular in the 1910-30 period, mainly in luxury cars, to deal with the issues with poppet valves, mainly those of noise and short life. The sleeve valve engine in these cars could be absolutely silent in an era when typical car engines always had a clatter of valve gear (mind you, Rolls Royce were silent as well, and they never subscribed to sleeve valves!). Sleeve valves lost popularity as improved metallurgy and valve seat cooling design in the 1930s made the advantages seem less, and the costs and oil consumption remained. They were, however, markedly successful in the Bristol aeroplane engines into the fifties, and Napier aeroengines into the late forties.