Chieftain Moteur Leyland L 60
English Translation
Historique Voir ICI
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Le moteur Leyland L60 était un moteur peu fiable et peu piussant mais il atoutefois généré de nombreuses légendes Sa conception remonte à un projet Junkers de fin de guerre . ce projet fut récupéré par British Leyland car il fallait d'urgence trouver un moteur nouveau pour les chars. Rolls Royce développa son nouveau moteur V12 , mais il fallait compter sur encore 2 ans de developpement
Les européens étaient arrivés au constat suivant que le futeur moteur devait être polycarburant Par contre les anglais refusèrent cette option . Ce qui donna un moteur plus important en volume . Aussi les homme du REME furent formés à convertir ce moteur en combustion essence . Tache ardue et difficle .
cette conversion fragilisa le moteur sur divers points
Cylindres les soupages les segments de piston et le carter Ces defaut furent pour certains corrigés par British Leyland et progressivement le L60 est devenu plus fiable ,
While the L60 was undoubtedly a poor engine it has generated many urban myths around it. I have seen its parentage linked to Deltic diesel engine as used on UK railway, German bombers, and many more myths. The design came from a project from Junkers at the end of the war, and by various political means it (the new tank engine design) was given to British Leyland, partly because the need for a new engine for then ew tank was urgent. Rolls Royce were developing a new V12 engine but it would be 2 more years before it was ready. The the European nations came up with a wonderful idea (as they do) that all new engines must be multi fuel, every other country said ok then ignored it, except for UK, this made the engine slightly bigger with a knock on effect on hull design. Our REME were sent to do a conversion course showing on how to convert to petrol, their words on return are not printable.
There were 4 main areas of failure, cracking of clyinder liners,failure of clyinder lip seals, piston ring breakages and cracking of rear gear case. Some of these faults were blamed on the crew for a while but in the end it was accepted tha BL had to rectify the faults. Various programs were put in place to rectify the faults and gradually the L60 became more reliable, I had one fitted in the field and for 3 years it was perfect no leaks and plenty of power. Overall it affected sales to a extent, it should never have been accepted and mared Chieftain reputation.
Autre Photoscope (Other Walk Around ) 1
