Specifications of 50 famous racing engines up to 1994

[hollus]

1957 Vanwall V254 2.5-litre four

In 1956 the four was installed in a new Vanwall with chassis by Colin Chapman and aerodynamics by Frank Costin, by 1957 it was a winning combination. Vanwall built 7 in all 2.5-litre engines designated V254.
Composed of high-topped, deep-walled crankcase in RR53 aluminum alloy into which individual cast-iron cylinders were deeply spigoted, a water jacket and a shallow cylinder head in RR50 alloy with separate camboxes and exposed valve springs, the whole held together by 10 long high-tensile-steel tie bolts from the head to the main bearing caps.
Nestling inside the tie-bolts and topped and bottomed by rubber sealing rings, the cast RR50 aluminum water jacket steadied and sealed the whole assembly. A structural role was played by the cylinders, which fitted into a radiused countersink in the head. Skirts of the crankcase extended bellow the crankshaft center line. A deep finned sump capped the bottom.
BP oil was used. An EN19 forged 5 main bearing crankshaft was used. EN24 nickel-steel forged con-rods had I-section shanks, were machined all-over and polished. RR59 aluminum alloy piston with full skirt were forged by Hepworth and Grandage, had 2 Dykes compression rings and 1 oil control ring. Cooling oil jets were used to cool the underside of the piston crown.
A compact cylinder head with hot water extracted from it by a manifold between the cams. A water pump mounted low at front of crankcase driven by an extension of the oil pressure pump input shaft. Symmetrically inclined valves at an included angle of 60 degrees and seating on bronze-alloy inserts. Exhaust valve guides were finned and in direct contact with water.
All gears drive to cams were housed in a magnesium casting bolted to block and head. All spur gears ran with ball bearing with 1 idler rotating a single BTH magneto. 2 KLG plugs per cylinder were used. A 3 pinion scavenge pump was used. Each cam rotated in its own case.
Cylindrical hollow tappets sliding in bronze guides. 2 hairpin springs per valve placed out in open air. Bosch fuel injection pump with injector in inlet port just upstream of valve seat injecting at 650psi. Amal carburetor bodies and their control system served as slide throttles.

Specifications:

Cylinders l4.
Bore 96mm.
Stroke 86mm.
Stroke/bore ratio 0.90:1.
Capacity 2490cc.
Compression ratio 12.5:1.
Con-rod length 163.5mm.
Rod/crank radius ratio 3.8:1.
Main bearing journal 70mm.
Rod journal 51mm.
Inlet valve 53mm.
Exhaust valve 45mm.
Inlet opens 70 degrees BTDC.
Inlet closes 90 degrees ABDC.
Exhaust opens 75 degrees BBDC.
Exhaust closes 49 degrees ATDC.
Valves overlap 119 degrees.
Inlet pressure 1Atm.
Engine weight 163kg.
Peak power 285BHP@7200RPM.
Piston speed corrected 21.5m/s.
114.5BHP per litre.
0.57kg per BHP.

[hollus]

Some links on the 1957 Vanwall V254 2.5-litre four:

https://www.ultimatecarpage.com/car/299 ... -Prix.html









http://www.grandprixhistory.org/vanwall.htm

[hollus]

1958 Borgward RS 1.5-litre four

1958 Borgward RS 1.5-litre four: This was the fuel-injected 16-valve four engine that seriously started troubling Porsche 1-1/2 litre sports car racing and hill-climbs categories; in 1959 it was used in F2 in a Cooper chassis. Stirling Moss won the British F2 championship in a Cooper-Borgward. The RS four was the work of designer Karl Ludwig Brandt, a pre-war veteran of BMW’s experimental department.
A forged 5 main bearing crankshaft running in trimetal Glyco bearing shells. Forged I-section shanks con-rods that were polished to a chrome-like finish. A Silumin block/crankcase casting with extended skirts well below crankshaft center line. The main bearing caps were located laterally by pins to crankcase walls. Cylinder head studs penetrated the block to do double duty as the main bearings cap studs.
Except for connection to injection pump, every oil line was drilled in place. A 10-litre dry-sump system with shallow cast oil pan slopping to a central pick-up connected by a cast-in piping to scavenge pump housed in lowest part of cam-drive cover. Scavenge and pressure pumps were placed at right and left of cam-drive. Both pumps rotated at 0.6 engine speed by spur gears at crank nose.
Centrifugally cast iron cylinder liners were sunk wet into the block, very tightly at the bottom and sealed by 2 O-rings seals at the top of liner. 8 ‘feet’ radiated out to rest on a ledge within the block, like JANO’s Lancia D50 and Dino Ferrari construction.
Camshaft drive was by a 2-stage double roller drive at front of block, with adjustable idler sprockets. Camshafts and sprockets were joined by a coupling of 2 conicaly tapered rings which when pressed together by a central bolt expanded to lock the end of the cam to the sprocket. Infinite variation of valve timing was therefore possible.
Exhaust valve closing and inlet valve opening points were equally disposed at 42 degrees from TDC, giving 84 degrees of overlap.
Steel camshafts ran directly in bores through the removable cam cases. A Bosch racing distributor was driven from rear of inlet cam. Cam lobes contacted cast-iron cup-type tappets. Symmetrically inclined at 32 degrees from center line were the 4 valves per cylinder. 2 spark plugs per cylinder were used. Injector nozzle sprayed through a 10mm hole.
Mahle forged aluminum alloy pistons with the crown specially anodized to a deep graphite grey, had 2 Dykes compression rings above a single oil ring. Fuel injection by Bosch 4 plunger pump was at a pressure of 1000-1100psi.

Specifications:

Cylinders l4.
Bore 80mm.
Stroke 74mm.
Stroke/bore ratio 0.93:1.
Capacity 1488cc.
Compression ratio 10.2:1.
Con-rod length 140mm.
Rod/crank radius ratio 3.8:1.
Main bearing journal 60mm.
Rod journal 50mm.
Inlet valve 33mm.
Exhaust valve 30mm.
Valve overlap at TDC 84 degrees.
Inlet valves gas-velocity at 7500RPM 208 feet per second.
Inlet pressure 1Atm.
Engine weight 128kg.
Peak power 165BHP@7500RPM.
Piston speed corrected 18.9m/s.
110BHP per litre.
0.78kg per BHP.

[hollus]

Some links about the 1958 Borgward RS 1.5-litre four:

[Tommy Cookers]

the sources linked above are riddled with mistakes

the Borgward engine didn't contribute to any awards in F1 as F1 was 2.5 litre until 1961
it (Borgward-engined Cooper) was quite competitive in F2 against eg Cooper-Climax cars but not in mixed F1/F2 races
in 1959 a C-B finished 10th (zero points) in the British GP - its only F1 championship race
Moss finished 2nd in the F2 C-B at the 1960 S.Africa GP (a non-championship F.libre race)
in the 1961 etc 1.5 litre F1 only the Lotus 18-Borgward of Kurt Kuhnke entered 3 1963 non-championship races without result

Borgward was bullied into liquidation by another car maker (it paid its creditors in full)
Borgward touring cars were quite successful in racing eg 'Bill' Blydenstein

[hollus]

the sources linked above are riddled with mistakes

Well, thanks for setting the record straight.
Stivala: Your call, we could remove the links and leave the pictures only. Do you have a better link, Tommy Cookers?

Edit: The offending link eventually got removed. But if anyone is interested, it is the same page where the third picture came from.

[Tommy Cookers]

sorry, with the weird way I set up of this old computer I can't post links

this book will help
1 1/2 litre Grand Prix racing 'Low power High Tech' by Mark Whitelock
and maybe
'Tony Robinson - the biography of a racing mechanic' by Ian Wagstaff
T.R. was in the BRP team that were briefly the users of the Borgward engine in F2 Coopers
(I haven't checked Borgward's sportscar use - only the false claim that Borgward contributed to Cooper's 1959 F1 makers title)

and the usual results archive sources
(eg I thought Paul Frere won the 1960 S Africa GP in a C-B but archives say he used a Climax engine)

[saviour stivala]

the sources linked above are riddled with mistakes

Well, thanks for setting the record straight.
Stivala: Your call, we could remove the links and leave the pictures only. Do you have a better link, Tommy Cookers?

Yes remove the links but leave the pictures, those Borgwad engine picture are authentic and Hard to find . Some of the 50 most famous engines were not famous for their success in F1, the Borgward was one of them.

[nokivasara]

Some links on the 1957 Vanwall V254 2.5-litre four:

https://www.ultimatecarpage.com/car/299 ... -Prix.html

https://www.ultimatecarpage.com/images/ ... 129556.jpg

https://www.ultimatecarpage.com/images/ ... -22958.jpg

https://www.ultimatecarpage.com/images/ ... 129556.jpg

https://simanaitissays.files.wordpress. ... anwall.jpg

http://www.grandprixhistory.org/vanwall.htm

http://www.grandprixhistory.org/images/vanwall8.jpg

I wonder why the throttle linkages are made "too short", the throttle wires chafing on the engine side of the holes. Beautiful engine otherwise

[saviour stivala]

Some links on the 1957 Vanwall V254 2.5-litre four:

https://www.ultimatecarpage.com/car/299 ... -Prix.html

https://www.ultimatecarpage.com/images/ ... 129556.jpg

https://www.ultimatecarpage.com/images/ ... -22958.jpg

https://www.ultimatecarpage.com/images/ ... 129556.jpg

https://simanaitissays.files.wordpress. ... anwall.jpg

http://www.grandprixhistory.org/vanwall.htm

http://www.grandprixhistory.org/images/vanwall8.jpg

I wonder why the throttle linkages are made "too short", the throttle wires chafing on the engine side of the holes. Beautiful engine otherwise

@Nokivasara, Thanks for those links. Any additional input and comments are greatly appreciated, and you sure have a point about the throttle wire, I notice that there is another shaft with lever arm that seems to operate the throttle shaft that have the quadrants that pulls the individual throttle cables above it.

[hollus]

1958 Ferrari Dino 246 2.4-litre V6

The new series of Ferrari V6 engines was called Dino after the death of Enzo Ferrari’s son Alfredino. With guidance of Vittorio Jano as consultant the V6 concept arrived at Ferrari from Lancia were it had been developed for sports racing use by Jano and Francesco de Virgilio. Its implementation at Ferrari was by Franco Rocchi under the direction of Andrea Fraschetti who was killed while testing a Dino single seater.
This engine was produced in many sizes and with many upgrades. In the 1950 a V6 was virtually unknown engine type, its adoption by Ferrari was surprising, no less surprising was the adoption of a vee of 65 degrees angle between the cylinder banks with its unequal firing impulses.
Both 60 and 65 degree vee angle engines were build and tested. The 65 vee angle was chosen, development started with a 1.5-litre V6 formula 2 engine. The next up was a 1860cc engine, and then to 2195cc and after to 2417cc. this was for first formula 1 season in which aviation petrol was mandated instead of the exotic methanol-based brews which were banned.
Having decided on a 65 degree bank angle Rocchi provided a crankshaft that had individual big-end journals for each con-rod for even firing intervals. Wet cylinder liners clamped between block and head were used. With liners counter-bored 1/12 inches down in the block. Metal to metal head gasket was by a metal insert ring. An angled split con-rod was used on the 1.5l engine but were not needed on the bigger bore engines. An I-section con-rod with a 3-ring piston above the gudgeon pin were used.
Wide cam-lobes on Jano-type mushroom tappets which screwed onto the valve stems for adjustment, each cylinder head had its own duplex roller chain driving its camshafts, the chains were driven by a pair of meshing gears rotated by the crank nose, the cams of each cylinder bank rotated in opposite direction, an intermediate idler pulled down the chains. Chain cam drives remained an exception future for formula 1 engine.
Valves were splayed at an included angle of 60 degrees, 2 14mm-spark plugs per cylinder were sparked by 2 double-circuit Marelli magnetos with dual rotors and contacts. 3 double-bodied 42DCN downdraughts Webers units placed in a row down the center of the vee mounted on a single aluminum incorporating paths to the ports.
As raced in Formula 1 in 1958 the 246 V6 was used again in 1961 as the power unit of Ferrari’s first mid-engined sports-racer, the 246SP.

Specifications:

Cylinders V6.
Bore 85mm.
Stroke 71mm.
Stroke/bore ratio 0.84:1.
Capacity 2417cc.
Compression ratio 9.8:1.
Con-rod length 98mm.
Rod/crank radius ratio 2.8:1.
Main bearing journal 68mm.
Rod journal 43.6mm.
Inlet valve 52mm.
Exhaust valve 46mm.
Inlet pressure 1Atm.
Engine weight 135kg.
Peak power 270BHP@8300RPM.
Piston speed corrected 21.2m/s.
111.7BHP per litre.
0.50kg per BHP.

[hollus]

A few links on the 1958 Ferrari Dino 246 2.4-litre V6:





https://www.ultimatecarpage.com/car/127 ... -Dino.html

https://simanaitissays.com/2017/03/07/g ... ra-part-2/


http://www.targapedia.com/album_nonsolo ... 20(3).html

[hollus]

1959 Aston Martin RB6 2.9-litre six

1959 Aston Martin RB6 2.9-litre six: In 1948 David Brawn acquired Aston Martin and Lagonda, the later contained a promising engine designed in 1945 by Willie Watson. 11 years later this same twin-cam six developed further powered Aston Martin DBR1/300 sports-racers to victory at Le Mans, Nurburgring, Goodwood and to the Manufacturers World championship for sports cars.
In 1955 Ted Cutting designed a new aluminum block with 2-studs main bearing caps with the crankcase sides down 4-inches below crank center line so the main bearing caps could also be braced by cap-screws from the sides of the block. Centrifugally cast flanged at top cylinder liners clamped between head and block, the bottom end was snug-fit in a bore and sealed by O-rings.
The block had 7-main crank bearings. Crankshaft machined from steel billets and ran in thin-wall lead bronze bearings by Glacier. A vibration damper at crank nose was used. Dry sump with single pressure pump and double scavenge unit were used. Deeply-webbed pattern fully machined from forged blanks con-rods with fully skirted Hepworth & Grandage pistons with 2 compression rings and 1 oil ring were used.
Just before Willie Watson left Aston in 1955 a new aluminum cylinder head was developed, this head had extremely steep valve inclinations of 45 degrees from the vertical for the inlets and 50 degrees for the exhausts, it was fitted with cast iron valve guides for the inlets and bronze for the exhausts and carried the camshafts direct without bearing shells, the exhaust guides were directly exposed to the cooling water.
Cup-type tappets slid in bores directly in the head and surrounded 2-coil springs per valve. 50DCO Weber carburetors with 40mm venturis were used.
One short stroke engine version bringing the capacity down for the 2.5-litre formula 1 fitted with 2 Lucas magnetos firing 2 10mm-plugs per cylinder was developing its peak 250BHP@7800RPM, but sustained running above 7000RPM was causing bearing failure, the bearing people said it was because the rods were flexing, new rods did not solve the problem which finally was traces to oil flow in the drilling to the bearings at top center of rods journal stalling the flow by dynamic forces at high revs, moving the location of the oil drilling away from top center solved the problem.

Specifications:

Cylinders l6.
Bore 83mm.
Stroke 90mm.
Stroke/bore ratio 1.08:1.
Capacity 2992cc.
Compression ratio 9.8:1.
Con-rod length 166mm.
Rod/crank radius ratio 3.7:1.
Main bearing journal 63.5mm.
Rod journal 50.8mm.
Inlet valve 50mm.
Exhaust valve 40mm.
Inlet pressure 1Atm.
Engine weight 203kg.
Peak power 255BHP@6000RPM.
Piston speed corrected 17m/s.
Peak torque 319Nm@5400RPM.
Peak BMEP 199PSI.
87.3BHP per litre.
0.79kg per BHP.

[hollus]

Some links about the 1959 Aston Martin RB6 2.9-litre six:

https://www.ultimatecarpage.com/car/637 ... -DBR1.html








http://in2motorsports.blogspot.com/2016/12/

[Tommy Cookers]

for much of its life the DBR1 used the 83 bore 2922cc RB6 engine with four main bearings
(the 2.5 litre RDP engine was for 1956 Le Mans prototype limits only)
the RB6 engine became 84 bore 2992 cc during the 1958 season
and 7 main bearing became standard for the 1959 season
(though 4 main bearings were still used for extra power on occasion - eg the Moss car at 1959 Le Mans)
only 5 DBR1 cars and 7 RB6 engines were made
by 1958 the FIA prototype limit was 3000 cc - disrupting everyone except Aston Martin
https://www.sportscardigest.com/aston-m ... r1-profile photos/
https://www.tentenths.com/forum/showthread.php?t=81151

afaik the RB6 was a modernised 'bottom half' compatible with the 'top half' of the engine in production and formerly raced
(this having the Bentley-attribution purist 'barrel' crankcase with 'cheese' (diaphragm-type) main bearing mounts)
a co-worker of mine had this engine and the weird chassis in his Lagonda
there's accounts of the 'cheese' investigations by Jackman and cam design via Eberhorst
and chassis/suspension doctrine rivalries of Bastow, Tresilian and others
(W.O.B's design firm presenting to Armstrong-Siddely the 'AM' engine at 3l - A-S chose its pushrod hemi on production cost)


the illustrational drawing of the AM F1 car shows a naïve exhaust manifold
the Dino 246 F1 had similarly old-fasioned manifolding - until the 3 equal-length header system (of 1960 ?)

the 286sp (2863cc 90x75) of 1962 was according to Ferrari's website not a Dino but a 60 degree sohc like a road V12s
was it made on the same tooling ? if so - doesn't this mean that it had 3 crankpins ?
and Giacosa's book mentions a mysterious 3.2 litre V6
Dino 296s chassis 0746 3rd at Silverstone in May 1958 and 3rd at Nurburgring 1000 km in June - 2962cc 85x87 65 deg dohc