[Illustration: _Figure 10._--4-Cylinder vertical engine: a, cylinder
assembly with valve mechanism parts; b, cylinder disassembled, and
parts; c, pistons and connecting rods; d, bottom side of piston; e,
crankshaft, flywheel and crankcase end closure; f, crankcase, with
compression release parts. (Pratt & Whitney photos D-14996, 15001,
14998, 14994, 14999, 14989, respectively.)]
The camshaft construction was considerably altered from the 1903
design. Although the reason is not entirely clear, one indication
suggests that breakage or distortion of the shaft may have been
encountered: whereas in the 1903 engine there had been no relationship
between the location of the cams and the camshaft bearings, in this
engine the exhaust valves were carefully positioned so that all cams
were located very close to the supporting bearings in the crankcase.
Also, the camshaft was solid, although it would seem that the original
hollow shaft construction could have provided equal stiffness with
less weight. The final decision was possibly determined by the
practicality that there existed no standard tubing even approximating
the size and wall thickness desired.
There still was no carburetor, a gear pump metering the fuel in the
same manner as on the 1904-1905 engine. Basically, the intake charge
was fed to the cylinders by a round gallery manifold running alongside
the engine. This was split internally by a baffle extending almost
from end to end, so that the fuel mixture entering the manifold on one
side of the baffle was compelled to travel to the two ends before it
could return to the inside cylinder, this feature being a copy of
their 1903 general intake arrangement. Apparently various shapes and
positions of entrance pipes with which to spray the fuel into the
manifold were used; and the injection arrangement seems also to have
been varied at different times. The fuel pump was not necessarily
always used, as the engine in some of the illustrations did not
incorporate one, the fuel apparently being fed by gravity, as on the
original engine. Chenoweth describes an arrangement in which exhaust
heat was applied to the inlet manifold to assist the fuel vaporization
process, but it is believed that this was one of the many changes made
in the engine during its lifetime and not necessarily a standard
feature.
A water circulation pump was provided, driven directly by the
crankshaft through a two-arm universal joint intended to care for any
misalignment between the shaft and the pump. The water was piped to a
horizontal manifold running along the cylinders just below the intake
manifold, and a similar manifold on the other side of the engine
collected it for delivery to the radiator. It is a little difficult to
understand why it was not introduced at the bottom of the water
jackets.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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