The crankcase was considerably changed from that of the vertical 4,
and was now in two pieces, with the split on the crankshaft center
line. However, the shaft was not supported by the lower half of the
case, as eventually became standard practice, but by bearing caps
bolted to the ends of the upper case and, in between, to heavy ribs
running across the upper case between the cylinders. The lower half of
the case thus received none of the dynamic or explosion loads, and,
serving only to support the engine and to provide for its mounting,
was lightly ribbed. In it were incorporated integral-boss standpipe
oil drains which discharged into a bolted-on sump. The upper half of
the case was again left open on one side, giving the desired access to
the interior, and, additionally, the design was altered to provide a
method of camshaft assembly that was much simpler than that of the
vertical 4 (see p. 42).
The cylinder was also greatly altered from that of the vertical 4. It
was made in three parts, a piece of seamless steel tubing being shrunk
on a cast-iron barrel to form the water jacket, with a cast-iron
cylinder head shrunk on the upper end of the barrel. This construction
compelled the use of long studs running from the cylinder head to the
case for fastening down the cylinder (see Figures 12a-c). For the
first time the cylinder heads were water-cooled, cored passages being
provided, and more barrel surface was jacketed than previously,
although a considerable area at the bottom was still left uncooled,
obviously by direct intent, as the ported exhaust arrangement was no
longer employed.
Also for the first time one-piece forged valves were used, but just
when these were incorporated is not certain and, surprisingly, they
were applied to the inlet only, the exhaust valve being continued in
the previous two-piece screwed and riveted construction. The reasoning
behind this is not evident. If a satisfactory two-piece exhaust valve
had finally been developed it would be logical to carry it over to
the new design; but exhaust valves normally being much more
troublesome, it would seem that a good exhaust valve would make an
even better inlet valve and, in the quantities utilized, the two-piece
design should have been much cheaper. In the original 6-cylinder
engine the inlet valves operated automatically as in all previous
models, but at the time of a later extensive redesign (1913) this was
changed to mechanical actuation, and the succeeding engines
incorporated this feature. All the valve-actuating mechanism was
similar to that of the vertical 4, and the engine had the usual
compression-release mechanism, the detail design being carried over
directly from the 4-cylinder.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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