Very interesting. Amazing work but I don't understand the lubrication system. By the way, I prefer this approach to a radial VW: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGeSIM_8BHY Regards, Art S.
I'm thinking Castor oil and an oil can, like in WWI engines... Same engine, same guy... or did the link not work for you?
Here's a description of the oiling system: Read down through the posts... How Does The Oiling System On Radials Work? — Tech Ops Forum | Airliners.net
I remember in 1944 working on the line and prepping airplanes for the daily mission. The lower cylinders were trapping oil that had drained out of the crankcase. The procedure was to slowly and carefully turn the props to clear the cylinders and work the oil out of the lower cylinders. There was a 1/8th inch dia. hole in the bottom of the exhaust collector ring and the oil poured out of that as we cranked the props. For us there was no definite number of blades to push. We kept the blades going around until the amount of draining oil was diminished to a minimum. There was always a pool of oil at lest a foot in diameter. If one looks between the two bottom cylinders you will see the sump. Oil collected therein was pumped into the tank by a scavenge pump. It was then pumped back into the engine via passages in the rotating parts. There was a steady loss of oil during the operation of the engine due to the required clearances in an air cooled radial and the disparity of expansion rates in the steel and aluminum parts. The B-29 had a 55 gallon tank behind each engine and sometimes they were empty at the end of a mission. Their engines, the R3350, leaked great quantities of oil and a crew chief once mentioned the it was the only externally oiled engine in the Air Force.
