Rolls Royce Changes To V-8 Engines

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29021, 9 October 1959, Page 14

Rolls Royce Changes To V-8 Engines

the company con-

siders that the previous sixcylinder 4.8-litre engine has reached the peak of development, Rolls Royce and Bentley cars will in future be produced with a V-8 engine. Having two banks of four cylinders set at 90 degrees, the 6.2 litre V-8 engine is of “over-square” desigp. The company continues to give no details of performance, but

the compression ratio is quoted as 8 to 1. A departure from the custom is that overhead valves operated by hydraulic tappets have been adopted to replace the overhead inlet and side exhaust valves which have so long been a feature of Rolls Royce engines. Use Of Aluminium

In the new engine, aluminium has been extensively used, and both the cylinder blocks (which are fitted with cast iron “wet” liners) and the heads are cast in high-silicon content aluminium alloy. This is an interesting innovation, since the American engineers have been recently reported to be having difficulty with aluminium engines. Piston slap and quicker wear of the cylinders has worried the Americans, and on the new “small” models from the Big Three, the originally planned aluminium blocks have been replaced by cast iron.

The Rolls Royce company has countered the problem with its cast iron liners. The valve seats —one of the trouble spots in an aluminium block—are of austenitic steel. The inlet valve guides are cf cast iron and the exhaust guides of bronze. Three Mufflers

Spe'cial twin carburettors are fitted, and have an automatic choke control fitted. Three silencers in line muffle the engine, and in typical Rolls Royce fashion, each has been scientifically manufactured to take care of a different range of noise frequency. Although the engine is larger than its predecessor, the use of aluminium makes it no heavier.

Two separate air systems ventilate the interior of the cars to which the new engines are fitted. An upper one carries fresh air to the windscreen and passengers’ faces, and a lower one draws air from behind the front seat and channels it back to an outlet under the instrument panel. The refrigeration unit for hot weather has a capacity equivalent to that of 50 normal household refrigerators.