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A total-loss oiling system is an engine lubrication system whereby oil is introduced into the engine and then either burned or ejected overboard. Now rare in four-stroke engines, total loss oiling is still used in many two-stroke engines.
Steam engines used many separate oil boxes, dotted around the engine. Each one was filled before starting and often refilled during running. Where access was difficult, usually because the oil box was on a moving component, the oil box had to be large enough to contain enough oil for a long working shift. To control the flow rate of oil from the reservoir to the bearing, the oil would flow through an oil wick by capillary action rather than downwards under gravity.
On steamships that ran their engines for days at a time, some crew members would be "oilers", whose primary duty was to continuously monitor and maintain oil boxes.
On steam locomotives, access would be impossible during running, so in some cases centralised mechanical lubricators were used. These devices comprised a large oil tank with a multiple-outlet pump that fed the engine's bearings through a pipe system. Lubrication of the engine's internal valves was done by adding oil to the steam supply, using a displacement lubricator.
The first recirculating systems used a collection sump, but no pumped circulation, merely 'splash' lubrication, where the connecting rod dipped into the oil surface and splashed it around. These first appeared on high-speed steam engines. Later, splash lubrication engines added a 'dipper', a metal rod whose only function was to dip into the oil and spread it around.
As engines became faster and more powerful, the amount of oil required became so great that a total loss system would have been impractical, both technically and for cost.
Splash lubrication was also used on the first internal combustion engines. It persisted for some time, even in the first high-performance cars. One of Ettore Bugatti's first technical innovations was a minor improvement to the splash lubrication of crankshafts, helping to establish his reputation as an innovative engineer.
A more sophisticated form of splash lubrication, long used for rotating motor shafts rather than reciprocating engines, was the ring oiler.
Later systems collect oil in a sump, from where it can be collected and pumped around the engine again, usually after rudimentary filtering. This system has long been the norm for larger internal combustion engines.
A pumped oil system can use higher oil pressures and so makes the use of hydrostatic bearings easier. These gave a greater load capacity and soon became essential for small, lightweight engines such as in cars. It was this bearing design that saw the end of splash lubrication and total loss oiling. It disappeared from nearly all cars in the 1920s, although total loss continued in small low power stationary engines into the 1950s. Chevrolet used splash lubrication for their rod bearings until 1953, where it was phased out for the 235 'Six,' and then in 1954 when the 216 was eliminated from their line, and both the solid lifter and hydraulic lifter versions of the 235 had full-pressure lubrication.
Two-stroke engines, and most model engines, have a total-loss lubrication system. Lubricating oil is mixed with the fuel, either manually beforehand (the petroil method), or automatically via an oil pump. Prior to being burned in the combustion chamber, this air/fuel/oil mixture passes through the engine's crankcase, lubricating the moving parts as it does so. In order to reduce exhaust smoke, the Kawasaki H2 750 cc (46 cu in) 2-stroke triple motorcycle had a scavenge pump with a spring-loaded ball-valve under each crankcase to return surplus oil to the tank for reuse. [1]
Normally known by the term "rotary engine", the usually air-cooled radial configuration, rotating-crankcase Otto cycle engines were used by many "pioneer era" (1903–1914) aircraft and World War I combat aircraft. These engines were designed to have a total-loss lubrication system, with the motor oil held in a separate tank from the fuel in the vehicle, and not pre-mixed with it as with two-cycle engines, but mixed within the engine instead while running. Castor oil was often used because it lubricates well at the high temperatures found in air-cooled engines, and its tendency to gum is of little consequence in a total loss system, since it is constantly being replenished. Unburned castor oil in the exhaust was a cause of digestive complaints in many WWI airmen.[ citation needed ]
Wankel engines are internal combustion engines using an eccentric rotary design to convert pressure into rotating motion. These engines exhibit some features of both four-stroke and two-stroke engines. Lubrication is total loss, but there may be some variations. For instance, the MidWest AE series of Wankel aero-engines were not only both water-cooled and air-cooled, but also had a semi-total-loss lubrication system. Silkolene 2-stroke oil was directly injected into the inlet tracts and onto the main roller bearings. The oil that entered the combustion chamber lubricated the rotor tips and was then total-loss, but the oil that fed the bearings became a mist within the rotor-cooling air, and around 30% [2] of that oil was recovered and returned to the remote oil tank.
The rotary engine is an early type of internal combustion engine, usually designed with an odd number of cylinders per row in a radial configuration. The engine's crankshaft remained stationary in operation, while the entire crankcase and its attached cylinders rotated around it as a unit. Its main application was in aviation, although it also saw use in a few early motorcycles and automobiles.
A two-strokeengine is a type of internal combustion engine that completes a power cycle with two strokes of the piston in one revolution of the crankshaft. A four-stroke engine requires four strokes of the piston to complete a power cycle in two crankshaft revolutions. In a two-stroke engine, the end of the combustion stroke and the beginning of the compression stroke happen simultaneously, with the intake and exhaust functions occurring at the same time.
The Monosoupape, was a rotary engine design first introduced in 1913 by Gnome Engine Company. It used a clever arrangement of internal transfer ports and a single pushrod-operated exhaust valve to replace the many moving parts found on more conventional rotary engines, and made the Monosoupape engines some of the most reliable of the era. British aircraft designer Thomas Sopwith described the Monosoupape as "one of the greatest single advances in aviation".
A dry-sump system is a method to manage the lubricating motor oil in four-stroke and large two-stroke piston driven internal combustion engines. The dry-sump system uses two or more oil pumps and a separate oil reservoir, as opposed to a conventional wet-sump system, which uses only the main sump below the engine and a single pump. A dry-sump engine requires a pressure relief valve to regulate negative pressure inside the engine, so internal seals are not inverted.
An automatic lubricator is a device fitted to a steam engine to supply lubricating oil to the cylinders and, sometimes, the bearings and axle box mountings as well. There are various types of automatic lubricator, which include various designs of displacement, hydrostatic and mechanical lubricators.
A crankcase is the housing in a piston engine that surrounds the crankshaft. In most modern engines, the crankcase is integrated into the engine block.
Within piston engines, a wet sump is part of a lubrication system whereby the crankcase sump is used as an integral oil reservoir. An alternative system is the dry sump, whereby oil is pumped from a shallow sump into an external reservoir.
The Suzuki RE5 is a motorcycle with a liquid-cooled single-rotor Wankel engine, manufactured by Suzuki from 1974 to 1976. Apart from its unusual engine, the RE5 is mostly a conventional roadster, albeit with some peculiar styling details thanks to Italian industrial designer Giorgetto Giugiaro.
Oil cooling is the use of engine oil as a coolant, typically to remove surplus heat from an internal combustion engine. The hot engine transfers heat to the oil which then usually passes through a heat-exchanger, typically a type of radiator known as an oil cooler. The cooled oil flows back into the hot object to cool it continuously.
The oil pump is an internal combustion engine part that circulates engine oil under pressure to the rotating bearings, the sliding pistons and the camshaft of the engine. This lubricates the bearings, allows the use of higher-capacity fluid bearings and also assists in cooling the engine.
A plenum chamber is a pressurised housing containing a fluid at positive pressure. One of its functions is to equalise pressure for more even distribution, compensating for irregular supply or demand. It is typically relatively large in volume and thus has relatively low velocity compared to the system's other components. In wind tunnels, rockets, and many flow applications, it is a chamber upstream on the fluid flow where the fluid initially resides. It can also work as an acoustic silencer.
The Lorraine 12H Pétrel was a French V-12 supercharged, geared piston aeroengine initially rated at 370 kW (500 hp), but later developed to give 640 kW (860 hp). It powered a variety of mostly French aircraft in the mid-1930s, several on an experimental basis.
The MidWest AE series are lightweight, liquid-cooled, single- and twin-rotor Wankel engines, with dual ignition, designed for light aircraft. They were produced by Mid-West Engines Ltd. at Staverton Airport, Gloucestershire, UK.
High-speed steam engines were one of the final developments of the stationary steam engine. They ran at a high speed, of several hundred rpm, which was needed by tasks such as electricity generation.
The Austin 25-30 is a motor car. It was the first automobile produced by newly established British car manufacturer Austin.
An internal combustion engine is a heat engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer in a combustion chamber that is an integral part of the working fluid flow circuit. In an internal combustion engine, the expansion of the high-temperature and high-pressure gases produced by combustion applies direct force to some component of the engine. The force is typically applied to pistons, turbine blades, a rotor, or a nozzle. This force moves the component over a distance, transforming chemical energy into kinetic energy which is used to propel, move or power whatever the engine is attached to.
David W. Garside is an inventor and former project engineer at BSA's Kitts Green research facility. He is notable for having developed an air-cooled twin-rotor Wankel motorcycle engine which powered the Norton Classic road bike. Although the Classic was not the first production rotary-engined bike, it was significantly lighter, smoother, more powerful and better-handling than the contemporary Suzuki RE5.
The 4 VD 14,5/12-1 SRW is an inline four-cylinder diesel engine produced by the VEB IFA Motorenwerke Nordhausen from 1967 to 1990. The engine was one of the standard modular engines for agricultural and industrial use in the Comecon-countries. Approximately one million units were made.
The Mercedes-Benz OM 138 is a diesel engine manufactured by Daimler-Benz. In total, 5,719 units were produced between 1935 and 1940. It was the first diesel engine especially developed and made for a passenger car. The first vehicle powered by the OM 138 was the Mercedes-Benz W 138. The light Mercedes-Benz trucks L 1100 and L 1500 as well as the bus O 1500 were also offered with the OM 138 as an alternative to the standard Otto engine.
Splash lubrication is a rudimentary form of lubrication found in early engines. Such engines could be external combustion engines, or internal combustion engines.
