Background
There has been a long history of Two-stroke diesel development, even before the development of the TS3 by Rootes Group / TIllings Stevens, with various firms producing successful and not- so succesful engines. Lufthansa had 6 Dornier Do 26s, one of the nicest looking flying boats of its time, regularly flying the Atlantic in the 1930s, powered by Junkers Jumo 2 stroke dieselss.
There is also a lot of disinformation regarding two-strokes, particularly in regard to the TS3. Check this webpage out here. The TS3 was NOT a copy of the Sulzer or Hills and despite repeated requests from me for this web site to change this information, it still makes this claim.
Many two-strokes used opposed piston layouts, but the design feature that set the TS3/4 apart from other two-strokes was the use of rockers to transmit the power from the piston to the crankshft and the use of a single crankshaft. The only other engine that was similar was the French MAPP two-stroke diesel. See info on the MAP diesel below.
There is huge interest in the two-stroke diesel concept again, with many firms conducting research into new two-stroke engines because of the advantages this form of engine offers. With developments in modern technology and metalurgy, will we see a modern two-stroke running again in a truck in the near future?
Did you know? -
• As well as building and flying the world's first diesel aero engine in 1928, Packard built at least two different models of 2 stroke diesel aero engine. You can read more about the aircraft here
• Louis Coatalen, chief engineer of the Sunbeam Motor Car Co. displayed a great deal of interest in diesel engines, modifying Mercedes and Packard engines to diesel. In the early 1930s, he built a twelve-cylinder water-cooled diesel that developed 600 h.p. at 2,200 r.p.m. and weighed 2.0 lb. per h.p. Coatalen later planned a two-cycle Diesel of approximately the same size as his four-cycle Diesel which he hoped would develop 1,000 h.p. It is unknown if this was ever built.
• Salmson of France built a water-cooled radial with its eighteen cylinders arranged in tandem pairs around
the crankcase. A two-stroke diesel rated at 600 h.p. at 1,700 r.p.m. it weighed 1.9 lb. per h.p. This engine was exhibited at the Paris Aero Show in 1934 but again, it is unknown if it ever flew.
• The firm of Walter in Czechoslovakia obtained a licence to build Packard aero diesels. Although no Packard Diesels were built abroad, the future of this type of power plant appeared so promising that Ceskoslovenska Zbrojovka, part of the National Arms Factory, decided to design a Diesel of its own. Development work was started in 1930 and three years later the nine-cylinder, two -stroke air-cooled ZOD 260-B Diesel passed its 50-hour test with a rating of 260 h.p. at 1,560 r.p.m. This engine gave excellent results in small training planes with many hundreds of hours of flying to its credit.
• Yamaha has developed a Super Diesel in line twin two-stroke. A host of new technologies and methods, including variable compression ratio allows it to develop more power than conventional diesels of similar size, while taking up less space and weighing less but still meeting new emission standards - long a problem of two-stroke diesels.
• The Wartsila-Sulzer RTA96-C turbocharged two-stroke diesel engine is the most powerful and most efficient prime-mover in the world today. Each cylinder has a capacity of 1820 litres! You can read about it and see it here. The 14 cylinder version produces 108,920 hp at 102 rpm!
From Colin Maxwell...
• The New York fire department has a brand new Napier Deltic still in its
original packing crate (see link on Napier below). Think it was probably kept as a spare for the
"Superpumper". They want $US 150k
• The Soviet T60 tank and successors also has an opposed two-stroke - copy of the Leyland L60 in the Cheiftain?. These engines, ranging between 850 and 1500hp, can be purchased brand new from an arms factory in the Ukraine.
From Peter Firmstone...
• Sir Harry Ricardo created a two stroke sleeve valve engine during WW2, which made over 200 HP per litre at 4000 rpm. This engine was made obsolete by the Turbo Jet and never made it into production. Although not a diesel, it was a Uniflow scavenging two stroke, pretty much the same principles as the Rootes engines.
John Burns-Curtis add this about this motor. This appears to be the V-12 two-stoke sleeve valve RR Crecy engine. It was to be a direct drop in replacement for the RR Merlin aero engine, which was the most outstanding engine of WW2. The Merlin was a 1930s design and the replacement was a 1940s design, the next generation. A number were made and tested on concrete bunkers but never flew. The Crecy was ready for production. Sadly, the lead the Brits had in turbojet design relegated piston R&D to the back burner. A lot of interesting piston engine R&D was stillborn. These WW2 engines now have many of their features becoming standard in cars, the first being fully developed fuel injection. The CAFE and Emissions have forced an increase in engine efficiency. Several car companies, are looking at 2-stroke engines, 'again', and of course, turbo charging, supercharging, after cooling etc, etc, were first either developed or mass produced for WW2 planes. The Crecy was producing 360 HP per cylinder while the whole Merlin produced 500 to 800 HP depending on version.
You can find some more info about the engine here
Links to info on other two-stroke diesels
Click on the links for more info on Diesel engines
Was this the first two-stroke diesel engine in practical use. An early Sulzer diesel powered railcar - 1912?
Junkers Jumo 205 Diesel aero engine - Chapter 4 of Diesel Aviation Engines, by Paul H. Wilkinson, written in 1940. Goes into a lot of detail on the engine, componentry, manufacturing, etc. Very interesting information. This is a large file so may take some time to download - be patient, it is worth it.
There is a cutaway and more info on this engine here
And more info on Junkers engines, including the Jumo 223 24 cylinder X engine here
The French MAP diesel - another opposed piston, rocker and single crankshaft diesel similar to the TS3
Hill Diesel of America - another opposed piston, rocker and single crankshaft diesel similar to the TS3
The Napier Deltic - a quite amazing two-stroke that started its life as a high-speed light weight marine engine for English fast patrol boats and ended up being used for a number of uses, including trains. There is some more quite useful background info here - takes a while to load.
There is some more stuff here, which includes some animations of how the engine works (with real sound) - look for the links to the right, but be warned, these are large files and take a while to download- ages on dial up!
And if that is not enough, how about the Napier Nomad - 3000hp flat 12, two-stroke diesel. Interesting thing, Sir Harry Ricardo features on this one tooo. Have a look here , here and there is more here. There is some more stuff here but note you have to scroll well down the page to find it!
Sir Harry Riccardo - there is a page detailing his amazing career and developments here, including a picture of the Rolls Royce Crecy
Very rare Stuart 2HM 2 stroke diesel
Okay not a diesel, and two cranks but certainly interesting - 3 cylinders, 6 pistons - sound familiar? But this was 1905! Scoll down when you get to the page to find out all the info
The Two-Stroke Networker - links to a 1999 copy of an inline magazine with lots of interesting info
From John Burns-Curtis - England
A modern aero engine, remarkably similar to the TS3. Their newsletter with more info is here
And there is another two-stroke diesel engine here, although it is not horizontally opposed.
From Peter Firmstone
The Horizontally Opposed-Piston Engine - from a Book - High Speed Diesel - author unknown
From Colin Maxwell - New Zealand
The modern OPOC two-stoke - engine of the future?
Another link to info on this engine here provided by John Burns-Curtis
And there's some more downloadable stuff here