The Fordson Tractor Pages Forum

TSG sent me a link to a prototype Tilling and Stevens engine which I thought might be of interest.

Tilling and Stevens built engines for Commer lorries in the 1950's and 1960's, they were a bit different being three cylinder and six piston engines. There were two pistons in each bore coming towards each other so there was no cylinder head and, because they were two stroke, no valves. They used a Rootes lobed blower (supercharger) to blow in the air and drive out the exhaust gasses.

Very popular lorry in England and its sound was unique, it vibrated the soul!

This article is about a further development the TS4 that never went into production. The test results are quite something for an engine that size.

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j& ... iR2lzEk_3g

Brian,

A very interesting article. I sailed on ships propelled by opposed piston 2 stroke engines, Built by Doxford and Burmeister Wain. B & W also built opposed piston double acting engines where combustion took place either side of the pistons!

These engines have now been superceded by large bore (900 mm bore 2.5 metre stroke), turbo charged, low speed crosshead engines.

Gerald

Out here in Oz the Commer 2T diesel was known by it's drivers and owners as the Commer Knocker - for obvious reasons. It had one very dangerous fault. Whilst the throttle [air intake] disc was spring loaded, if it broke, as it did on a number of occasions, the the engine revs climbed to their screaming max. This caused a number of driver fatalities - especially on the steep, twisty, downward 4 miles of Greenmount, which is the main road entry to Perth from the Eastern States of Oz. Even so, drivers of the day seemed to like them.
Pavel

If you want to see the video on TS OE 65, then either google or youtube "Rootes TS4" will get you there. TSG