Foden 2-stroke engines

Another interesting point on these monsters is they are started by compressed air.

I guess a Mack air-start won't cut it.

From what I can work out they pressurise one cylinder to make the engine rotate then dump the diesel in and it fires and keeps running.

I'd like to watch it happen. I know get a life.

Off topic sort off Why are Radial engines od number of cylinder
I believe I know :whistle:

All me nose Iz:
wen shut down the oil n fuel drains to the lower cylinder
n they need to turn the monster ovr by hand to rid any oil
accumulated in the lower cylinder n then right to fly into life
me thinx they were radial engines fitted in the Water Buffalo




cya

It is all to do with the timing. Good read on Wikipedia.

Davo
Not sure how fast U wanna Spin the prop on th@ F B Ship
the largest prop tipz the scales @ 131ton

Sure wouldn't want to chuk a wobbly

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:



cya

Knew I saw that posting about the number of cylinders in a radial engine! Posed the question under "RADIAL ENGINES"
Like to know the answer,
Thanks, Dave_64

Yeah, I'm with you, Zuffen. I'd like to see how they start those mommas! Had a bit of a squiz on Youtube, fair bit on the actual engine, but couldn't find a film clip of actual start.
Dave_64

Can't see a four stroke radial working with an even number of pots, two stroke doesn't care.
These engines were amazing. The master rod idea went out the window with their designs.

geoffb wrote: Off topic sort off Why are Radial engines od number of cylinder
I believe I know :whistle:

Air start on big engines is all to do with shifting valve timing. Valve timing is shifted to "start" position and compressed air pushes that piston down then the next one etc as per firing order. Once she's spinning the valve timing swings to conventional timing position and at the same time fuel is injected. Away she goes.
Takes a lot of air.

This Nordberg engine was a 12 cylinder radial diesel, doesn't that go against the statement that RADIAL engines ran odd numbers of cylinders for them to work efficiently?
This seems to be at odds (to me, anyway) with replies made on this forum under "Radial Engines".
Dave_64

The Nordberg is a two stroke design. Two strokes can have odd or even numbers as every cylinder fires every stroke but 4 strokes must have odd numbers to avoid adjoining cylinders firing at some time in the cycle. Say a 4 cylinder radial fires 1, 3, it then must fire an adjoining cylinder either 2 or 4 after 3. It would really vibrate. The odd number design can keep jumping two across all the time to keep it smooth.

.