Merlin ****..
- Thread starter ZRX61
- Start date
Moose-LandTran
Well-known member
Changing the headgaskets? 
boogerboy72
Well-known member
- Joined
- Aug 30, 2009
- Messages
- 212
call me dumb, but wtf is that out of? a plane?
Moose-LandTran
Well-known member
tatra
Well-known member
rarchets, no.........this, effin rights.............but napiers would get an impotent 80 year old hot..........
tatra
Well-known member
just seen pics on the net but wouldn't doubt your word on that........ever seen a napier deltic disesel?........imagine the english fit of that engine would sound like
Merkava_4
Banned
A polished P-51 Mustang ...
If I wake up sticky tomorrow morning, I'm blaming you for it.
If I wake up sticky tomorrow morning, I'm blaming you for it.
nissan_crawler
Well-known member
fap, fap, fap...
God I love those planes. I'll never forget looking up and seeing a p51 flying formation with the blue angels, what a sight. Cool owner, too. He let me sit in it, and open up panels and peek around.
God I love those planes. I'll never forget looking up and seeing a p51 flying formation with the blue angels, what a sight. Cool owner, too. He let me sit in it, and open up panels and peek around.
GDA
Well-known member
F'ing hot. A great piston engine and the best (stick) plane.
You are a Lucky man to get to wrench on one.
You are a Lucky man to get to wrench on one.
arkangel06
Banned
Nothing like a p-51 love those planes!!!!!!!
scooby074
Well-known member
Merlins..... ARE...PURE...***...
Frank Elson
Well-known member
Late 1960s/early 1970s a Brit called John Lugo put a Merlin in a two seater, plastic bodied hot rod. It was governed down to 200mph.
He also put a Rolls Royce radiator grill on it.
RR were sueing him when his car was mysteriously destroyed in a fire in Sweden.
I've tried a quick Google to try to find out more to add to my failing memory but it's late at night here and I'm tired...
I also remember reading something years ago that when you add the planes up that used the Merlin - and the job that they did - it is probably the free world's most important engine ever.
He also put a Rolls Royce radiator grill on it.
RR were sueing him when his car was mysteriously destroyed in a fire in Sweden.
I've tried a quick Google to try to find out more to add to my failing memory but it's late at night here and I'm tired...
I also remember reading something years ago that when you add the planes up that used the Merlin - and the job that they did - it is probably the free world's most important engine ever.
Moose-LandTran
Well-known member
Close, Frank. It was a man by the name of John Dodds. He was an independant Rolls-Royce gearbox specialist. The car known as "The Beast" was built based on a Ford Capri, using a lot of fibreglass by a man called Roy Phelps, the founder of Santa Pod raceway and like you said, had a Rolls-Royce grille on the front. The engine used was a Rolls-Royce Meteor, the same as a Merlin but without the superchargers, but still made ~1,500bhp and destroyed gearboxes easily.
My grandad, who used to own a Rolls-Royce dealership in Essex knew him.
It later caught fire, and was rebuilt using a Schimitar body, it's still around today, owned by Dodds' son.
The Beast:
My grandad, who used to own a Rolls-Royce dealership in Essex knew him.
It later caught fire, and was rebuilt using a Schimitar body, it's still around today, owned by Dodds' son.
The Beast:
T56 Impala
Well-known member
My dad told me a story once.
He was on the flight line, and several, soon to be decommissioned Mustangs were doing a preflight. He started talking with one of the crew when the Crew chief fired the engine. Somehow, one of the exhaust plugs was left in. When the engine fired, it hit the guy my father was talking with in the back right on his left shoulder. Needless to say, he was on sick call for several weeks! Dad said he was always thankful he never had to deal with those big a$$ props.
He was on the flight line, and several, soon to be decommissioned Mustangs were doing a preflight. He started talking with one of the crew when the Crew chief fired the engine. Somehow, one of the exhaust plugs was left in. When the engine fired, it hit the guy my father was talking with in the back right on his left shoulder. Needless to say, he was on sick call for several weeks! Dad said he was always thankful he never had to deal with those big a$$ props.
tcianci
Well-known member
In the early seventies, I worked for a guy who was from Canada and he told me that one of the jobs he had when he got out of the Canadian Air Force was working for a company that converted Mustangs to executive private planes. They were supposed to be pretty plush inside at least compared to a stock P-51. Always sounded odd to me...anyone else ever hear of that?
Steve from Socal
Well-known member
Cavalier was the company and perhaps half the mustangs flying in the 1960's were at some point converted. Very cool airplanes but, many killed their new owners many on their first take off!!!
Steve
Mach1Guy
Active member
I understand this motor has been around since the late 30's. Sorry if this is a dumb question. I'm used to working with 4 valve modular ford motors. So anyhow, looking at the intake and exhaust valves, it seems that there was quite a bit left on the table as far as high rpm flow. I can't clearly remember if these motors were supercharged or turbocharged, or both. That will make up for restrictive heads, but still, it seems that there could be much more top end left in the motor.
Does anybody open up the heads or just run them as is?
The top head is an fr-500 run of the mill head with just a little cleaning done to it.
sorry for the hijack.
Does anybody open up the heads or just run them as is?
The top head is an fr-500 run of the mill head with just a little cleaning done to it.
sorry for the hijack.
nissan_crawler
Well-known member
I don't know the original design reasons (probably because it was 60 years ago), but to mess with it now, I would think you would have to have an STC or fly under experimental.
Steve from Socal
Well-known member
Merlin's are not Toyota's
The margin on the valves have to keep the valves cool under constant power. Aero engines are loaded at far higher power setting than a car engine, where a car engine is making 15-25% power under normal driving an airplane is flying at 60% or more power in level flight and can run at max continuous power if you want to spend $$$$. They also don't turn as high a speed, the Merlin is a 3000 RPM engine. Also with much larger valves the springs would be very hard on the cam, these engines are under boost 95% of the time, high levels of boost much of the time.
Steve
The margin on the valves have to keep the valves cool under constant power. Aero engines are loaded at far higher power setting than a car engine, where a car engine is making 15-25% power under normal driving an airplane is flying at 60% or more power in level flight and can run at max continuous power if you want to spend $$$$. They also don't turn as high a speed, the Merlin is a 3000 RPM engine. Also with much larger valves the springs would be very hard on the cam, these engines are under boost 95% of the time, high levels of boost much of the time.
Steve
One of my sweetest moments when I was much younger.
100 foot full power pass over the runway to tell me to get the mowing tractor I was on out of his way.
He wanted to land.
He let me sit in it after I gassed him up.
(He checked the oil himself.)
I had never put that much gas in a plane before or since.
100 foot full power pass over the runway to tell me to get the mowing tractor I was on out of his way.
He wanted to land.
He let me sit in it after I gassed him up.
(He checked the oil himself.)
I had never put that much gas in a plane before or since.
porschedude996TT
Well-known member
My father worked for North American Aviation years ago and worked on the F-82 Twin Mustang which had two Merlin's. He was also involved in some testing a dozen engines that were being ground tested at 100" (49psi) of boost. The engines were a lined up in a row and the engines were swinging bob-weighs rather than propellers. He said that he knealed on the valve covers looking for air leaks during the testing on several of the engines that were loosing boost. Some of the engines lasted an hour and others lasted 8 hours before sucoming to the high boost. I believe that the engine was designed to 18-25psi boost.
Steve from Socal
Well-known member
Sixty inches is nominal max boost; IIRC 80 was war emergency, however 130 inches is not unheard of in racing. The war department estimated a life span of a Mustang at a very low number a hundred hours or so in combat. The TBO was 600 hours on a Merlin, about what it took to get in theater, do some formation and gun work and, ****** a few dozen bomb runs.
Steve
Steve
