I have a friend who salvaged an air-cooled rotary 9 cylinder diesel engine that was being used as power for a rural Wisconsin sawmill.
He told me the engine had been started life in a WW2 Sherman M4 tank. After rebuilding the engine and the diesel injection system he looked at the handful of old "shotgun shells' for the starter but instead welded pipe fittings in place of the shell receiver and starts the engine with a surge of nitrogen gas from a high pressure bottle.
The giant paperweight is mounted to a wheeled stand and he occasionally rolls it out and fires it up to rattle the neighborhood.
Thank you Joe! I wish there were photos!
This photo borrowed from https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-media/NASM-A19710893000-NASM2015-01753-000001
The M4 Sherman tank featured five primary engine options during WWII to ensure production, including the
Continental R975 radial
Ford GAA V8
General Motors Twin Diesel,
Chrysler A57 Multibank,
and a Caterpillar radial diesel.
These powerplants generally produced between 350 and 500 hp, with the Ford GAA V8 widely considered the most efficient and preferred engine.
G'day mate. not to be picky,but a "rotary" engine is one where the mass of cylinders rotate around the crankshaft. As in early aircraft the prop. was attached to this moving mass and if you ever see any WW1 types with all or none throttle you will see the torque inputs at work. A radial has fixed cylinder arrangement and turns the crankshaft with whatever drive is needed.Hope this helps. Still lovin' your work! Cheers.
ReplyDeletewell, radial I'm familiar with, so I posted that radial aircraft engine photo.... then launched the story. Radial and rotary seem to be getting the same search engine results... but I'm only familiar with the Wankel Rotary, so when you describe a rotary as the same as a radial I'm familiar with, it's just putting my early morning uncaffeinated brain into a fog.
DeleteBut back to where it all started... let's just clarify, Joe said it was a rotary tank engine from a Sherman Tank. And I don't think that was the engine in the Sherman. So I posted the hemi with the 3 carbs. That's an upgraded Sherman tank engine (those are Demon carbs)
Volksrob, Thanks for the clarification! I knew the difference between radial and rotary but still suffered a brain-fart when I sent my note to Jesse.
ReplyDeleteThe RADIAL 9 cylinder was one of a few engine options for the M4 tank in case of supply disruptions. I don't know how many actually went to war with the radial engine, I'm just an engine fiend and have to rely on others for WW2 history. It's possible - even likely - that the engine my friend has was a war surplus crate purchase for the Wisconsin sawmill and not actually salvaged from an existing tank... but that's not nearly as fun of a story!
thanks for the follow up Joe!
DeleteI had no idea there were engine options... so, now I am learning that!
I'll change the post to keep up!