Engineman's WW2 Aircraft Parts Quiz!

Ad: This forum contains affiliate links to products on Amazon and eBay. More information in Terms and rules

Snautzer01 said:
Uhmm no.
Click to expand...
OK. Here is some extra info folks!
ian has correctly id'd 1 R as a Merlin piston, 1 L next to it is from the famous WW2 American V12.
The second pair are from; the most numerically common engine of the Augsberg Eagle, and the other one powered most of the other famous German fighter!
Go for it!

Eng
 
I see that one at the upper left then must be from an Allison V1710.
 
Nice one Tony! V-1710. I am going to cover some details when we have covered the other two id's.

Eng
 
So, here is another big clue, in the second photo, you have pistons from the two most important German Fighter engines in WW2. The one on the left has a bore of 154mm, the one on the right has a bore of 156mm. If you look carefully you can read the part number that starts with the engine type on the right one!
Good luck!

Eng
 
So, well done all those who joined or looked at the Piston quiz! It does require considerable research to get detailed info about this subject, the Merlin is possibly one of the easier ones to research and the Rolls Royce Heritage Trust books are quite good.
So, starting with the 1 L piston, a Allison F-2R or L from a P-38. This was from a crash dig in Germany and shows a high-speed impact with the con-rod ripped-off!
That said, it is recognisable and carries a large number of marks, including the 6L installation marks which show it to be from the front Left cylinder, which is different to the RR numbering which has the front cylinders as number 1!
This is a historic relic from the daylight bomber escort war! These pics are from the engine manual online.

Eng

 
The next piston, 1 R, is a Rolls-Royce Merlin 25, which was basically a 24 with reversed coolant flow for the Mosquito. This is a late war built engine with late standard pistons. Rolls-Royce improved their product as developments were made and many improvements were incorporated into the later-built engines. The Merlin 25 was built for several years (1943-47) and this was probably built in 1944/45.
This is a crash engine and the crown is a bit corroded. This piston is stamped A 4, which makes it from the RH cylinder block, 4th back from the front. The illustration below is from the RRHT Merlin in Perspective book. You can see how early Merlin pistons were skirted, and how RR made many modifications. This piston is similar to the "mod 742" shown and is very similar to the pistons in the Merlin 100. A great piston.

Eng

 
Last edited:
OK, So Snautzer rounds this off with his correct call of DB 605 for pic 2 L.
This is a mid to late war example of the famous Bf 109 G engine. The DB 605 had a large number of developments and improvements and pistons were many times modified. Not least was the changes in material specification in the late war period. The strange thing is that the illustrations in the parts catalogue remained the same for the DB 605 A and in fact, the illustration used is an old DB 601 E one! However, this piston is a mid/late one, made to suit the updated DB 605 A/B from Autumn 1943 onwards. The design is skirtless, with a similar configuration as the late Merlin piston. The information on the underside of the piston pin bosses is good. This one shows a fairly common mid-war abbreviation of the engine number on the piston to 881, although the engine will have had a full 8-Digit engine number like, 00702881 which would be a Genshagen made late 1943 DB 605, but it could be a later built engine as we don't have the full number. It is also shown as cylinder number 11, which in the DB numbering of 1 to 12 was one pot forward of the rear left corner. You may also see the BAL ministry approval stamp, the weight of 1904grammes, the fitting size 153.57mm and other details.
This is from another recovered Bf 109 G engine and is suitable for re-use with refinishing and testing.
Overall, another historic item.

Eng




 
Lastly from this piston quiz, we have the BMW 801 D. This piston is from a mid 1942 built engine with the number 3701. The big 14 cylinder BMW did change a lot over the war period and the pistons changed between the C and D types, with them losing the ribbing on the underside of the crown. Another feature is the shallow dome of the 801 D piston crown, compared to the flat-topped 801 A and C pistons. This piston is from a crashed and recovered engine and it has some crash damages and marks from the recovery. However, it is in reasonable condition, with a considerable number of cast and stamped detail marks. This is another historic item.
Cheers

Eng

 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 1 (members: 0, guests: 1)

Similar threads

Prop Parts at FAAM
Replies
9
Views
442
Larrythepilot
E
Spitfire down parts
Replies
5
Views
727
EnneBi
E
D
Ally parts at RAF Oakley
Replies
3
Views
504
Detector
D
C
Bf110 F4 parts?
Replies
0
Views
615
CvdL
C
DB-601 parts revisited
Replies
12
Views
1K
Engineman
E
Menu
Log in
Register