History Henry Ford’s Incredible X-8 Engine

I once rode right seat in a Ford trimotor. One of my jobs was to reach around and wipe the oil off of the windshield on my side. It was in scheduled service. But they flew without a first officer. So they sold his seat to whoever was there first and wanted it.

 

Rich, my Dad and I had the privilege of riding in a Ford Trimotor a few years ago out of Tulsa. Quite an experience. Bones

 

Interesting. Math and Physics

 

Hi Rich.Please correct me if I am wrong.IIRC,from what I was told by a gentleman that worked on B17`s during WW2 that the oil changes took 50 gallons per engine.He also mentioned that the engines built by Studebaker were the worst for oil consumption.TIA.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

 

I was quite young during WW2. They weren't drafting newborns. But the planes I worked with later did have large oil tanks. Especially the 4360 engines lost enough oil that nothing behind them ever needed lube. Have no idea about Studebaker engines. Some of our trucks were built by Studebaker. But they had REO engines. Seemed as good as any.

 

My father in law was a B-17 pilot in WWII and didn't like the Studebaker built engines. I never did find out what his specific beef with them was.

 

Many of the early radial/rotary aircraft engines ran a total-loss oil system. I remember reading that the castor oil used in many of them had a definite laxative effect on pilots unfortunate enough to get a faceful of that mist. Harleys simply got the rap for an early problem that was solved fairly quickly.

 

The early Harley’s were a total loss system too. Bones

 

Because I never trained on or flew piston engine aircraft, I got curious and looked at one of my old pilot's engineering manuals to see if I could find the answer to your problem.
On a radial engine, there is a reservoir, and inside that tank, there is a supply tank that supplies the circulating oil in the engine. There is a combined scavange/pressure oil pump.
When the aircraft is flown in normal flight, the oil in the reservoir and the supply tank are available to the pump.
When the aircraft is flown inverted, the oil available to the engine is confined to the supply tank, which limits the amount of time the aircraft can be flown inverted.
If you are talking about jet fighters, I know that the engine(s) in the aircraft I flew, were designed to fly for 30 seconds of inverted or negative G flight without damage. I used to do some maintenance test flights after an engine change, and 30 seconds inverted and hanging from the straps, is a very long time (in relative terms).
Bob

 

As far as I know, the airline really frowned on inverted flight.

 

We did it in the 747 simulator. You would be amazed at how well the 747 and the DC 10 handle.
The wings on transport planes are stressed for -2G, so there is a margin that would theoretically allow this in a transport plane. This is designed in to withstand turbulence.
I believe that the p***engers would not be impressed.
Bob

 

My insides would be outsides if up side down flight a cured...I have enough trouble with air rumble strips...

 

Having read the entire thread, I still don't understand why this is so. Perhaps I'm limited by thinking that my old Panhead was a two cylinder radial? Or am I wrong in this interpretation of the single crankpin HD being a small cousin of the big radial engines?

 

The Harley has only one crankpin with both rods on the same pin. The radials have one large crank throw with 7 or 9 little crank pins for each cylinder. Cousin yes, brother , no. Bones

 

The Harley is an odd fire engine. Less than smooth as you may have noticed.But you can and they do have two cylinder aircraft engines. That fire once every revolution. Still not very smooth. There are opposed four cylinder engines on airplanes,. And cars and bikes. But not on a single crank pin. What would the firing order be on a round four cylinder? Start with #1 of course. Then turn 180 degrees and fire #3. opposite #1. Now where do we go? 90 degrees to #4? 270 degrees to #2. Back to running like a Harley.

 

Thanks to those that replied to my questions, that video was the ticket on understanding the valve train function. Damn there were some smart people in that era! When you look at how crude cars were this was darn near rocket science! Also my muse about the oiling system and what I presumed to be drysump tanks was about any four stroke piston engine aircraft including V 12 liquid cooled like Allison and Rolls Royce etc. I was under the ***umption that they had a drysump system similar to what we use in circle track racing and had scavenger stages returning to a reservoir tank and a pressure stage supplying the bearings etc. in the engine. I intend to investigate this further out of curiosity!...and thanks to Ryan and the other mods. For allowing this thread to continue, piston engine aircraft are really HOTROD's !

 

"The Harley has only one crankpin with both rods on the same pin. The radials have one large crank throw with 7 or 9 little crank pins for each cylinder. Cousin yes, brother , no. Bones"
WHAT?

 

Friends of ours had a '37 Spartan Executive 7W with a PW 9 cylinder. They took us up in it , a fantastic experience. Two weeks later, shortly after taking off, he felt a slight "shudder", and the prop stopped at 1000. After setting down in a soybean field (dead stick in a tail-dragger) and towing it home, on tear down they discovered that the master rod had failed, internals in bits, two slave rods had jammed into one cylinder, and bits of pistons and shrapnel were found in the exhaust ring. Catastrophic failure.

 

Your ***umption is correct for those engines, as well as the Rangers for sure and Menasco's I believe, as well as all radials that I'm aware of. Most Continental and Lycoming have a wet sump like a Volkswagen

 

Now, factor in SLEEVE valves if you want to complicate things

 

The Speedway museum in Lincoln Nebraska ended up with several of those engines including the X8. Speedy Bill got them at the auction. They were all on display the last time I was there.