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What is the advantage of a radial engine?
Air-cooled radial engines have quite a few advantages over their inline cousins. They’re lighter than liquid-cooled inline engines and since they don’t rely on coolant, they’re more damage-resistant. Radial engines are simpler – the crankshafts are shorter and they need fewer crankshaft bearings.
Why dont we use radial engines?
Why don’t cars use radial engines instead of horizontally opposed piston engines? Too complex, not space or mass efficient, hard to cool, hard to work on. Even horizontally opposed piston engines have some of these problems, only Subaru and Porsche use them, as far as I know.
Are radial engines more efficient?
According the REI, conventional internal combustion engines convert only about 30 percent of fuel into usable energy, with the remaining energy lost to friction, heat, and incomplete combustion. The RA-92’s radial design allows it be up to 20 percent more fuel efficient, so it creates power with less fuel.
Why are large radial engines have poor reliability?
It seems that most suffer from poor reliability of the engines even with them being looked after well and overhauled by some pretty good shops so it seems the engines are a little better maintained that during WW2. So why the problems, of course if they were being operated at 3500Hp, however most are running at maybe 60% for takeoff etc.
Are there still large radial engines in the world?
There are still a reasonable number of large radial engines being operated around the world, mostly on warbirds from DC-3 to B-29. It seems that most suffer from poor reliability of the engines even with them being looked after well and overhauled by some pretty good shops so it seems the engines are a little better maintained that during WW2.
Why do most radial engines use an odd number of cylinders?
Two-stroke radial engines do not need to have an odd number of cylinders. Surely a 1, 3, 2, 4 firing order (just like an inline-4) seems possible in theory, but [one of] the issues is the ring camshaft.
How many cylinders does a 300hp radial have?
Compare a 300HP radial to a 300HP opposed 6-cylinder and you’ll see that the radial probably has 9 cylinders and a big round crank case that must sit upright, facing into the air stream. That causes a lot of drag.