Engine Blow-Ups

[Lynn Eades]

On a much smaller scale than a ship, I remember a VW generator.
We (the N.Z Army) inherited them from either the British or Australian Army, when they pulled out from Singapore around 1974 - 76.
The unit was a hand crank arrangement with a Scintilla magneto. (5 kva?)
I can't even remember if it was a 1500 or 1600 cc.
If I recall they ran governed at 3600 rpm. (at night the complete exhaust system became incandescent and could be seen for miles.
Anyhow because they were so noisy, they were sited as far away as possible, from the camp.
On this particular night with no EME pers. around, this one consumed its oil and ran a big end.The infantry lads finally noticed the "knock". They left it running though because they still had lights in camp. I was called in from another camp to check it out. I shut it down immediately. It had been sitting on governed revs until then.
Back at the workshop when I pulled it down, one of the con rod eyes had amazingly stretched to a rough circle about 7 inches in diameter.
The damage was so bad that there was nearly nothing left of that engine.
It was either number two or number three cylinder that failed. The journal had rubbed off about 1/4" off one side, and the heat mark (blue) had gone down the other end of the crank.
That conrod had smashed the skirt off the opposite piston and carved a track through both halves of the crank case, along with the bottoms of both barrels. I have to this day never seen a conrod do that, to that extent, or seen so much damage in a motor that had to be physically shut down.

Rick, I made the assumption that that is from a ship engine.
Richard, there must have been a lot of Jag engines blowing up at one time. Our little army went through it's share of them.