ash wrote:Continuing on the theme of marine engines and YouTube.
I tried to find a video which would portray my horror on looking down into the engine room of my first ship and seeing a 4 legged Opposed Piston Doxford Engine working.
As a cadet, I had to open the test cocks, which were horizontal, before the 2nd engineer turned her over on air. The 2nd had a nasty habit of opening up the fuel control before I had time to close all the test cocks and so cause a jets of flame to blast out at waist height.
This isn't exactly as I remember, I thought that the top piston was more exposed, but the closest that I could find.
Ash
Ash,
You probably were thinking of one of these -
This is a 6 cylinder version. I sailed on a couple of ships with these. My memories are of the water cooled lower pistons springing leaks on the crank arrangement that fed the water to the pistons, and havinng to go into the crankcase ond repack them when we were alongside. That, and the hoses that fed the water to the upper pistons. Much preferred B&W engines myself, but the worst of the lot were the Zulzer 7 cylinder RSAD's. Once you started the engine, it was impossible to see down to the aft end of the engine for the oil haze. Dreadful things!
Somebody likes Doxfords, though -
http://www.doxford-engine.com/index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Jim