Interesting Stuff

[johnny comelately]

50,00km engine life, pneumatic valves, MGUH = sort of technology transfer...early days

[johnny comelately]

Once you trim away some of the superfluous stuff there is some interesting history here.
Eg, fuel blends including going back to the 10% toluene; the German wartime fuel production and its affect; original straight blade turbo impellers

[J.A.W.]

Once you trim away some of the superfluous stuff there is some interesting history here.
Eg, fuel blends including going back to the 10% toluene; the German wartime fuel production and its affect; original straight blade turbo impellers

Sadly, these aero-engine vids are presented by a dilettante, who really needs a 'proof reader'/
fact checker, since he speil's out ideas without any real grasp of the technicalities, with visual
scenes which do not match what he is trying to express, (such as other German D.I. fuelled
engines powering aircraft, made by Junkers-Jumo & BMW, being shown, not the 'Mercedes').

He misses other salient facts, (from the German use of T.E.Lead - gained from US makers - in fuel),
through to no reasons as to why the German V12's were inverted & used 'sidewinder' superchargers,
plus offering zero info as how the early DB 600 series used rolling-element crankshaft bearings,
or why intake tracts pumping air only (with D.I.) are so 'forgiving' of 'radical' valve timing, & yet
failing to note - a diagram showing a tandem twin engine arrangement - was actually a Kawasaki,
& that Italians also built these engines (Alfa-Romeo) per agreement, too...

[johnny comelately]

[Tommy Cookers]

Toluene ? .....

petrol aka gasoline is even today in German called benzin (pronounced bent-zene) .... why ? ......
because when Herr Benz made the first car there was no car fuel .....so .....
Frau Benz went to the pharmacy and there bought a bottle of general-purpose cleaning solvent
but ....BENZIN or BENZINE is alkanes pentane-heptane NOT BENZENE a cyclic aromatic C6H6

and NOT BENZOLE ....
benzol in the USA or 'Benzole' (brandname) in the UK/GB - what was it ? ....
a natural mixture 70% what a chemist calls benzene, 18% toluene and 6% xylene .....
this mixture for decades coming from the distillation of coal tar .....

coal tar (on the passing of wooden sailing ships) being somewhat a waste product from coking ....
coking (it changed the world from 1720) being the removal of hydrocarbon from coal to leave pure carbon aka coke
coke was invented to replace charcoal for iron smelting
also later coal tar came with coal gas production

TOO-LITTLE-KNOWN FACT - coke is what made cast iron tend to be brittle - charcoal smelted CI was/is less brittle

so industrialised countries eg GB and Germany with indigenous coal but no oil .....
from the start added 'benzole' to petrol aka gasoline derived from imported natural crude oil
this helped eg in WW1 aviation via what we now call 'octane boosting' ....
but disadvantageously tended to separate or even freeze

so benzol(e) was the hot ticket in motor sport right after WW1
(methanol was a more specialised 1930s innovation)
TEL ('lead')was introduced pre WW2 and quickly became dominant as a cheap and easy octane booster

benzene is anyway a natural constituent in some region's crude oil
benzene was re-introduced into road fuel with catalysts requiring the banning of TEL
then benzene was discontinued as carcinogenic - and replaced with various so-called 'oxygenates' ....
these now replaced with E5 E10 etc - the ethanol has also oxygenate-type behaviour

EDITED ABOVE in response to J C's post following and ...
https://www.chemeurope.com/en/encyclope ... ether.html
which also says 'Ligroin is 12% alkylbenzene' ... and ... TOLUENE is the simplest alkylbenzene
(so seemingly in Ligroin benzin DOES mean benzene)

this reminds when I had an insider tip in Florida to avoid cramp by taking something German ....
that's both the name of the element bismuth and the traditional name (and/or brandname ?) of a folk remedy .....

[johnny comelately]

Ligroin is the petroleum fraction consisting mostly of C7 and C8 hydrocarbons

[Tommy Cookers]

TOLUENE STORY II

this paper https://www.enginehistory.org/Reference ... istics.pdf says ... benzene = benzol ...
and more usefully is revealing in other ways ie ....

we assume rich mixture improves detonation resistance aka Octane Number ON or Performance Number PN but ....

many of the typical petrol/gasoline ingredients chemically classified as paraffins ....
eg our friendly reference fuel (iso)octane have nil response to richening - but respond strongly to tetra-ethyl lead TEL
(remember charge air temperature is fixed in ON and PN tests)

WW2 wannabe typical petrol/gasoline ingredient the fancy manmade paraffin ....
'Triptane' (2,2,3-trimethyl butane) responded well to both richening and TEL - hence its prominence as '300 Octane'
(actually 300 PN ie a '100 PN' engine's power could notionally be trebled by raising the boost)

many of the typical petrol/gasoline ingredients chemically classified as aromatics .....
eg benzene & accomplices toluene and most xylenes have nil response to TEL - but respond strongly to richening
don't tell the FIA !!!!

the FIA demanded eg turbo F1 fuel etc didn't exceed 101 Research Octane Number RON ... but ....
RON (and MON) require using the worst mixture strength eg lean
because toluene etc gives rather low ON when lean - but rather high when rich
the 101 RON 84/16 toluene/heptane blend (because raced slightly rich) behaved much better than the FIA intended


was toluene the 'rocket fuel' of F1 legend or myth ??

it's c.20% denser than conventional fuel - so contains about 20% more energy per litre
(but c.0% more per kg - and (unlike alcohols) only c.0% more per amount burnable with the ICE's air massflow)
it was used in postwar cruise missiles (submarine or air-launched) to minimise bulk - these of course weren't rockets

the first FIA tankage reduction failed to limit power (because the FIA hadn't thought of these higher fuel densities)
severe tankage reductions were then needed - these were effective in reducing power

benzene and toluene etc were minor ingredients of some mogas
toluene and/or xylenes are still a minor ingredient of avgas - one maker now quotes its 100/130 avgas as 103/130
to this extent many WDCs were in part won on toluene

[johnny comelately]

Astounding to this uneducated mind
And before anyone jumps up and down, yes it might be better suited to another section but it can be connected to fuel production from algae and solar energy at a stretch.

[johnny comelately]

TOLUENE STORY II

this paper https://www.enginehistory.org/Reference ... istics.pdf says ... benzene = benzol ...
and more usefully is revealing in other ways ie ....

we assume rich mixture improves detonation resistance aka Octane Number ON or Performance Number PN but ....

many of the typical petrol/gasoline ingredients chemically classified as paraffins ....
eg our friendly reference fuel (iso)octane have nil response to richening - but respond strongly to tetra-ethyl lead TEL
(remember charge air temperature is fixed in ON and PN tests)

WW2 wannabe typical petrol/gasoline ingredient the fancy manmade paraffin ....
'Triptane' (2,2,3-trimethyl butane) responded well to both richening and TEL - hence its prominence as '300 Octane'
(actually 300 PN ie a '100 PN' engine's power could notionally be trebled by raising the boost)

many of the typical petrol/gasoline ingredients chemically classified as aromatics .....
eg benzene & accomplices toluene and most xylenes have nil response to TEL - but respond strongly to richening
don't tell the FIA !!!!

the FIA demanded eg turbo F1 fuel etc didn't exceed 101 Research Octane Number RON ... but ....
RON (and MON) require using the worst mixture strength eg lean
because toluene etc gives rather low ON when lean - but rather high when rich
the 101 RON 84/16 toluene/heptane blend (because raced slightly rich) behaved much better than the FIA intended


was toluene the 'rocket fuel' of F1 legend or myth ??

it's c.20% denser than conventional fuel - so contains about 20% more energy per litre
(but c.0% more per kg - and (unlike alcohols) only c.0% more per amount burnable with the ICE's air massflow)
it was used in postwar cruise missiles (submarine or air-launched) to minimise bulk - these of course weren't rockets

the first FIA tankage reduction failed to limit power (because the FIA hadn't thought of these higher fuel densities)
severe tankage reductions were then needed - these were effective in reducing power

benzene and toluene etc were minor ingredients of some mogas
toluene and/or xylenes are still a minor ingredient of avgas - one maker now quotes its 100/130 avgas as 103/130
to this extent many WDCs were in part won on toluene

Wasnt the Honda fuel of the turbo era 1 majorly toluene?? and had to be heated to increase the reid vapour??

[Andres125sx]

Astounding to this uneducated mind
And before anyone jumps up and down, yes it might be better suited to another section but it can be connected to fuel production from algae and solar energy at a stretch.

Astonishing!

[johnny comelately]

A bit quirky but eye opening (hope that doesnt get lost in translation)

[johnny comelately]

"Here is a 1917, 600 Horsepower Snow gas compressing engine running at the Coolspring Engine and Tractor show. This engine was manufactured by the Snow-Holly Works in Buffalo, NY. The rated output of the engine is 600 HP at 100 RPM, which yields a torque value of 31,500 ft-lbf. The natural gas compressing cylinder at the front of the engine was also manufactured by Snow and features an 18 inch bore and a 48 inch stroke. The compressor accepted gas at approximately 50 psi and raised it to 450 psi. Upon peak compression, the gas in the cylinder exerted a force of about 114,300 pounds on the piston. The engine is 75 feet long with a 18 ton, 18 ft diameter flywheel. The overall weight of the engine is estimated to be about 140 tons! The engine was owned and operated by National Fuel Gas Corporation of Titusville, PA"

[Airshifter]

Good stuff. It's amazing the amount of work that went into something like that. I wonder how flat the torque curve is?

BTW, I'd imagine cam changes needed quite a bit of shop space. That thing is huge!

[gruntguru]

Looks to have two double acting pistons (4 combustion chambers) on the one axis. WOW!

[johnny comelately]

Hoping this may be interesting
Fascinated me, couldnt stop looking at it
and very different to the Dakar vehicles, so that gives perspective.
There is the temperature opposite in a place called Kelly Tarltons in Auckland NZ where a VW beetle was converted to tracks to do the Antartic crossing
1922 Citroën Kegresse Auto-chenille, note the inlet difference
https://www.justcars.com.au/news-and-re ... lle/886163