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Shorebilly · #12 04-04-2007, 07:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by R Leo

Missed the u-boot engine.

I love that part in Das Boot where they're making the balls-out run through the Straits of Gib and the crazy engineer is checking the engines. He opened some sort of valve on the cylinders and blue flames jet out on the power strokes.

Man, with all that exposed valve gear in that engine room, you could loose a finger in there.

When I first saw the movie "Das Boot".....I was Chief engineer aboard a German built container ship.....and that particular scene was one of the most realistic in the whole movie....that "crazy engineer"

was just checking to see if all cylinders were firing under load......there is a specific sound that he was listening for as well as the color of the flame......I personally have done this on many occasions......

The actual purpose of the indicator cock, is to provide both a place to mount an "engine indicator" and to allow access to the various pressures within the combustion chamber.....the indicator is an instrument that allows you to actually see the combustion process in a graphic form......there is a lever attached to a piston (balanced against a spring).....the lever scratches a trace if it's movement onto a (sort of) waxed paper......and depending if you pull the card in or out of phase with the engine cycle.....will depend on what one can determine about the health of the combustion process within that cylinder......you can tell compression pressure, combustion pressure, exhaust back pressure, as well as the condition of your Fuel Injector Nozzle.......and the horsepower generated by each cylinder (when reading cards with a planimiter)....

This is done digitally these days......but pulling a set of indicator cards was an art form.....took lots of practice....

SB