saviour stivala and hollus, this thread has been a wonderful review of older racing engines over the winter break. Every engine summary leaves a palpable impression of people having a go at it and doing the best they can with the resources available. Not sure how many of the 50 still remain to be done but thanks much for keeping this website interesting over the "dark" months.
I agree bill, I've really enjoyed these posts over the last couple months. Thanks for the effort SS and hollus.
saviour stivala and hollus, this thread has been a wonderful review of older racing engines over the winter break. Every engine summary leaves a palpable impression of people having a go at it and doing the best they can with the resources available. Not sure how many of the 50 still remain to be done but thanks much for keeping this website interesting over the "dark" months.
I agree bill, I've really enjoyed these posts over the last couple months. Thanks for the effort SS and hollus.
Thanks for the support everyone.
There is an interruption this week as I have no access to decent internet and computer, normal service to resume soon.
1960 Maserati 61 2.9-litre four: Designed by Giulio Alfieri, a 4-cylinder-in-line engine canted 45 degrees to the right with an offset crankshaft to the left side, an engine for sports car racing that in the 1960 showed it could take on and defeat the best that its rivals could offer.
An aluminum-alloy cylinder block housing very thin wet nitride-iron cylinder liners, carrying the crankshaft in 5 main bearings. An attempt to lengthen the stroke to bring the displacement to 3985 nearer the 3-litre limit failed when the test engine destroyed itself in a big way on the Maserati dyno. Main bearing caps were held by 4-studs, cylinder block extended only to crank centerline. Bearing shells were thin-wall lead-indium by Vandervell.
Fully polished I-section con-rods with 2-bolt big-end, fully skirted forged Borgo pistons with flat top had 2 compression rings and 1 oil ring. A deep cast aluminum finned on its left side sump shaped to conform to the engine’s 45 degree slope was used. Dry sump by pressure and scavenge pumps which were exposed at front of sump bellow the crank nose, 2-pick-up pipes and 2 scavenge pumps picked-up the SAE 50 oil used.
A large water pump was gear driven by the gear tower at front of block, twin valve for each cylinder were inclined at an included angle of 76 degrees, 37 from the vertical for the inlets and 39 degrees for the exhausts. Valves were made in-house by Maserati.
The 2 camshafts ran in 5 bearings each, drive to cams was by a train of helical gears from nose of crank. Pressed-in bronze valve seats were used. 2-14mm plugs per cylinder were used, Lodge RL50 for mixed circuits and the colder RL51 for fast circuits, sparked by 2 Marelli distributors driven by gear at top of cam-drive tower and 2 coils.
2 Weber 48DCO3 with 40mm venturis were used. The Webers were fed by a Fimac mechanical pump driven from the front of the exhaust cam. A tunnel scavenging exhaust system of conventional shape was fitted on the right hand side of engine.
This engine was also build and sold for use in GP racing to Cooper in 2.5-litre.
1961 Dino 156 1.5-litre V6: Enzo Ferrari took the obvious opportunity of preparing a smooth transition into the next formula 1 of 1961, he remained faithful to V6 engines but in a new format. The previous V6 was raced in both front and mid-engined chassis, but Carlo Chiti wanted a shorter and lighter more powerful engine that would be better suited to a new mid-engined chassis. Chiti and Franco Rocchi had assigned the task to a young newcomer at Ferrari by the name of Mauro Forghieri.
Chiti “At first there was open disagreement between Ferrari and myself, as he preferred the 65 degree bank angle engine, I was however determined and all the engines I set-up were 120 degree bank angle” the new 1.5-litre engine weighed 25kg less than the 65 degree bank angle one and had even firing with a much shorter crankshaft with shorter I-section con-rods with a reduced big-end bearing diameter. They still had 2-bolt bearing cups.
The pressure and scavenge oil pumps were driven from the front of crank, the right cylinder bank was offset forward. Chain drive to cams was still used, but between the cam sprockets the chain ran straight across, as on the Lancia D50 V8, instead of being pulled down around an additional idler sprocket, each bank had its own double roller chain system driven from 2 half speed gears on nose of crank.
These gears also drove the 2 Marelli ignition distributors splayed out at 120 degrees in front of block, sparking 2-plugs per cylinder. Each cylinder head had 8 hold down studs instead of 12 as the 65 degree Dino had. Wet cylinder liners were installed in a Silumin block.
Wide cam-lobe camshafts worked on broad mushroom tappets of Jano design that screwed directly onto the valve stem for both guidance and clearance adjustment, coil valve springs were used. For this new engine Weber produced an in-line 3-barrel unit, the 40IF3C, with 40mm throttle bodies.
Inlet valves were angled at 28 degrees from vertical. Exhausts were angled at 32 degrees, giving a total included angle of 60 degrees. Only 1 exhaust valve size was used but 2 different inlet valve sizes to produce different power curves as desired were used.
The first 120 degree wide angle engine after 50 hours of dynamometer testing lived-up to its expectations and developed 190BHP@9500RPM with a red-line of 10000RPM, against the previous 65 degree 180BHP@9200RPM with a red-line of 9500RPM.
At Zandvoort which was an unique GP where all starters finished and non made a pit stop the 120 degree V6 placed one-two. In Belgian GP were Phil Hill won, the 120 degree V6 filled the first 4 positions with the 4th position taken by a 65 degree V6 driven by Oliver Gendebien, victories in Britain and Holland for Wolfgang Von Trips followed.
There is a very interesting testing data and comparison chart with other engine as regards results of using different inlet valve sizes and a combination of bore and stroke sizes done with this engine by Mauro Forghieri as regards the importance of gas velocities.
Specifications:
Cylinders V6.
Bore 73mm.
Stroke 58.8mm.
Stroke/bore ratio 0.81:1.
Capacity 1477cc.
Compression ratio 9.8:1.
Con-rod length 98mm.
Rod/crank radius ratio 3.3:1.
Main bearing journal 60mm.
Rod journal 43.6mm.
Inlet valve 38.5mm.
Exhaust valve 34mm.
Inlet pressure 1Atm.
Engine weight 120kg.
Peak power 190BHP@9500RPM.
Piston speed corrected 20.4m/s.
128.6BHP per litre.
0.63kg per BHP.
the Dino 156 rod ratio is remarkably 'short' - presumably to minimise engine width
this might have helped power by better matching piston motion to combustion in its later stages
the Maserati engines 'sold to Cooper' ?
presumably the Atkins-owned T45 F2-15-58 car
driven in 1959 by Salvadori but retiring with transmission failure from all 3 championship GPs entered
it having presumably 250S 96 x 86mm dimensions (2.5 litre Climax engines not being generally available at that time)
only Menditeguy ever scored F1 championship points (3 in 1960) in a Maserati-powered (T51 '1959') Cooper
'Centro Sud cutting and lengthening the chassis to take the Maserati engine'
though eg Salvadori's Cooper Monaco T61P did well in 1964 - it had a 4941 cc Maserati V8
Last edited by Tommy Cookers on 08 Mar 2019, 19:41, edited 4 times in total.
1962 BRM P56 1.5-litre V8: Built to race in the new GP formula 1 starting in 1961 which the British team had objected strongly to, Peter Berthon settled on a 90 degree V8 as the best configuration, while Aubrey Woods was chief draughtsman on the project.
A well over-square cylinder dimension so the con-rods from the V16 could be used, also over from the V16 were the roller bearings for the camshafts and the 3-shaft spur-gear train that provided half speed from the crank nose to the cams of each bank.
A litany list of problems many of them serious showed up when the first engine was assembled, the cams could not be assembled in their bearings, the compression ratio turned out at 8.2:1 instead of the projected 12:1, and believe it or not no provision for starter motor which was mandatory was made. From this difficult start a fine engine had emerged. Sir Alfred had warned his BRM men that failure with this model could result in the works unit being shut-down.
A 2-valve combustion chamber with 1-single offset 10mm plug was used, valves at an included angle of 76 degrees, shared 34 degrees for the inlets and 42 degrees for the exhausts, with a striking difference between inlet and exhaust valve sizes. For the first time BRM used inverted cup-type tappets sliding in iron guides inserted in a light-alloy tappet block. Each cam ran in crowded roller bearings.
Aluminum pistons were slipper-type, a single Dykes compression ring and a 2-piece oil ring were used. Conventional thin-wall lead-bronze bearings were used for crank. The crankshaft was machined from EN40u steel and nitride. It ran in 5 main bearings. This was a 90 degree crankshaft. 2-studs retained each main bearing cap which were slotted into its crankcase web.
Head and block were cast of LM8 aluminum alloy. Magnesium was used for cam covers and the finned oil pan, the sump was extremely shallow as the block extended down to bottom of engine. A flanged at the top iron liners pinched against top of block by the head and sealed by cooper nimonic ring, the wet liner’s bottom end was sealed by 2 O-rings in groves in block.
A spur gear at nose of crank drove the 2 ex-V16 gear packs dives to cams on each cylinder head. The crank nose gear drove another gear bellow it that in turn drove the oil pump at 0.55 times the engine speed. Bridging the front of crankcase was the 3-gear scavenge pump which picked up oil from 2 separate points at front and rear.
The water pump which set into the front engine cover had 2 outlets. Mounted at front was the Lucas fuel injection pump feeding a distributor which was driven by a cogged belt from a sprocket driven by an idler in the gears train.
Slide type throttles were used, for the first time on a GP engine. The engines supplied to customers were fitted with 4-downdraught Weber 35IDM carburetors.
Specifications:
Cylinders V8.
Bore 68.3mm.
Stroke 50.8mm.
Stroke/bore ratio 0.74:1.
Capacity 1490cc.
Compression ratio 10.5:1.
Con-rod length 104.8mm.
Rod/crank radius ratio 4.1:1.
Main bearing journal 57.2mm.
Rod journal 40.6mm.
Inlet valve 39.7mm.
Exhaust valve 30.5mm.
Valve lifts were 7.9mm for inlet valve and 6.4mm for the exhaust valve.
Camshaft had 150 degrees of overlap.
Inlet pressure 1Atm.
Engine weight 115kg.
Peak power 193BHP@10250rpm.
Piston speed corrected 19.8m/s.
129.5BHP per litre.
0.60kg per BHP.
the primotipo reference might be wrong in one respect ....
the 'flat' crankshaft aka flat-plane crankshaft is the enabler of a non-crossover 4-into-1 exhaust on each bank
the usual V8 crossplane crankshaft demands in F1 etc a crossover exhaust system
so the 1962 set-of-8 'stackpipes' implied a crossplane crankshaft - (as Ferrari introduced 8-8 on the V8 Lancia D50s)
afaik ...
the BRM 'flat' crankshaft came in 1964, with a switch to monocoque and to centre exhaust/side inlet
(but centre exhaust was late so exhaust apertures were made in the monocoque)
the draughtsman wrongly gave it counterweights as in a crossplane so crankcases only lasted 1 race before cracking
(the V8 Moto-Guzzi had a flat crank and cracked its crankcase - cured by going to a crossplane crank)
Coventry Climax Mk III switched to flat crank in 1963 partly to supply to the anticipated front-engine 4wd F1 customer(s)
accompanied by drastic shortening of the stroke (60mm to 51.5) forcing? a long 5.1" con rod (2.54 rod ratio)
on paper reducing the vibration but (I guess) a mismatch to the combustion at the higher rpm
the 1964 Mk IV and Mk 5 'big valve' was 72.4 x 45.5 as were the 'one off' 1965 4 valve VI and VII (Clark and Gurney)
seemingly all CC engines had slightly disappointing power and rpm - possibly due to the 'long' rod ratios
Tony Rudd said the BRM F2 engine was transformed by switching the original 4.625" rods to F1 4.125" - block lowered .5"
this 71.8 x 61.6 engine's rod ratio dropping from 1.91 to 1.7 (NB grandprix engines seem to be wrong in their account)
the motion being better matched to combustion, power increased 6% despite any increased friction
this paralled their finding in stroking the 1.5 litre F1 in its enlargement to 1900cc then 2070cc for 1967 Tasman and F1
yes both these developments initially broke piston rings until modified
TR said the Tasman/F1 2070cc was better again due to this as their F1 results showed (they ran 2136cc in early 1968)
the one-off CC 2 litre seemed far worse than the rather good 2.1 litre BRM engines
(Shell said) high rpm race car engines needed very advanced ignition timing suggesting inconsistent combustion
they helped BRM (and Ferrari) - measuring flame speed and turbulence benefits
then Cosworth had similar ideas
Last edited by Tommy Cookers on 13 Mar 2019, 15:25, edited 3 times in total.
1962 BRM P56 1.5-litre V8:- “Machined from EN40u steel and nitrided, the 5-bearing crankshaft had double counter-weights opposed each rod journal. The crank throws were spaced at 90 degrees, as was then customary V8 practice, to gain the best balance. This did not lend itself to extractor tuning of the exhaust, however, and BRM went through 1962 with several different exhaust-pipe layouts, including individual upswept stacks for each cylinder. 2-studs retained each main bearing cap, which was closely slotted into its crankcase web to provide lateral support”.
1962 Porsche 753 1.5-litre flat-8: Work on this engine began in 1960 for the 1.5-litre 1961 formula 1 season, but from the outset Porsche compromised its design, first by designing it to be expandable to 2-litres for sports cars racing use, and secondly by it being suitable for series production, and not just for optimum formula 1 racing. An estimated 10000rpm to produce 210-220BHP was arrived at. This led to the decision to provide 8 cylinders in a flat opposed configuration and air cooled.
A strongly oversquare cylinder dimension, the 753 had an individual crank-throw and journal for each con-rod, with 9 main bearings + a tenth ball-bearing at rear the crank had 20mm wide mains and 22mm wide big-ends. It was an intricate steel forging with 16 cheeks, plain bearings were used.
Valves placed at an included angle of 90 degrees were used, a shaft drive to the 2 overhead cams each side was used. One half speed shaft above the crank and one below it out on each side driven by pairs of bevel gears at the flywheel end drove the inlet and exhaust cams on each side of engine.
From the bevel gears on top shaft that drove right-hand inlet, another gear and short shaft rose vertically to drive an axial-flow cooling fan at 0.92 times crank speed measuring 250mm in diameter, with 17-blades that was made of fiberglass-reinforced plastic, its power demand being 9HP to pump 2970 cubic feet of air per minute.
Individual cylinders forged of aluminum were given chrome-plated bores, each cylinder was capped by a finned aluminum head casting and held down by 4 studs. The heads were symmetrical-including its twin spark-plug, about the vertical plane along the cylinder centerline. On all 4 heads on each side was a single large aluminum casting carrying the camshafts and valve gear. Valve covers were of magnesium.
The crankcase halves were split vertically down the middle, at the top 2 Bosch distributors and driven from the upper half-speed shaft were carried, the oil pumps were transversely placed just below and on both sides of the lower half speed-shaft, and driven from the shaft to the left hand exhaust cam. The 2 oil scavenge pumps in the left side of the crankcase, 1 drawing oil from the lower cam-boxes the other larger one scavenging oil out of the sump and pushing it through one of the frame tubes to the oil tank located in front of the car. In right hand of crankcase was located the pressure oil pump. That drew the oil back through the other frame tube.
A desmodromic valve gear was tested but not used. 2-38mm Weber twin-throat down-draught carburettors along each side was used.
Specifications:
Cylinders Flat 8.
Bore 66mm.
Stroke 54.6mm.
Stroke/bore ratio 0.83:1.
Capacity 1494cc.
Compression ratio 10:1.
Con-rod length 126mm.
Rod/crank radius ratio 4.6:1.
Main bearing journal 57mm.
Rod journal 57mm.
Inlet valve 37mm.
Exhaust valve 34mm.
Inlet opens 81 degrees BTDC.
Inlet closes 71 degrees ABDC.
Exhaust opens 81 degrees BBDC.
Exhaust closes 51 degrees ATDC.
Inlet pressure 1Atm.
Engine weight 155kg.
Peak power 185BHP@9300RPM.
Piston speed corrected 18.3m/s.
Peak torque 153Nm@7450RPM.
Peak bmep 187psi.
123.8BHP per litre.
0.83kg per BHP.
