i saw the one pictured in the Railway Museum in York a few years ago. I was suitably impressed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napier_Deltic

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

An animated schematic of a Deltic engine. The inlet is coloured green and the outlet purple. Notice the bottom shaft contra-rotating with respect to the other two; the lag between the exhaust and inlet ports opening; and that ignition occurs when the pistons are not at equal positions in the cylinder.

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DJ


84 300D Turbodiesel 190K with 4 speed manual sold in 03/2012

A hex configuration is a logical extension.

Sixto
87 300D

That is a very cool concept, does anyone know if it's ever been used in an actual application?

It actually has. The link has some interesting reading.

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DJ


84 300D Turbodiesel 190K with 4 speed manual sold in 03/2012

The fact that the Deltic replaced MB diesels is worthy of note.

"Development began in 1947 and the first Deltic unit was produced in 1950. By January 1952 six engines were available, enough for full development and endurance trials. An ex-German E-Boat, powered by three Mercedes-Benz diesel engines, was selected for these trials, since its power units were of approximately equal power to the new 18 cylinder Deltic engines. Two of the three Mercedes-Benz engines were replaced with Napier Deltics"



I'm pretty sure ForcedInduction will be able to find pictures of one in a Ford.

__________________
1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

Interesting, I didn't know they were actually used in service.

Yes, it really works.

This from the Wikipedia text (my emphasis added)

...Various models of Deltic engine could be produced with varying numbers of such three-cylinder banks, though nine and eighteen cylinders were the most common, having three and six banks...

Sounds like that configuration may have been ,indeed, a hex!

What a friggen' cool engine!

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1998 E300 +310,000K
1996 E300 +460,000K

I think what they meant by that was how many sections long the engine was. A three banked engine would have nine cylinders and 18 pistons. A six bank would have 18 cylinders and 36 pistons.

__________________
1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

I knew you'd come thru. Who is that guy? I assume it's a one-off custom model.

Ah, I found it. Here's the whole story on the custom Deltic:

http://www.craftsmanshipmuseum.com/Tomlinson.htm

__________________
1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13

I've seen a few home made small engines at an antique engine show that were massively impressive. That one by far takes the cake, and check out that little turbo!!

I've been on a ship that had an opposed piston engine (Fairbanks Morse). Man those damn things are LOUD. They only had 2 cranks, not the triple crank with 3 sets of pistons. They still make them.

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1985 300D Mango Green with 16" Pentas, Vogtland springs, Euros/ clear corners, 234k, lots to come soon....

I had a video of it running where he got it up to about 5000rpm. I've searched all my hard-drives and the internet but I can't find it.

Look, Ma... no head gasket!

How do they balance it? If you break a revolution into 6 parts you get ign-ign-ign-exh-exh-exh in sequence. Seems like you'd need an engine with factors of 3 rows of triangles, or massive crank dampers.

Sixto
87 300D

Just imagine the ignition system required to run 36 spark plugs on that 2-stroke model at 5000rpm. Thats 3000 sparks per second!