A Sleeve Valve Almost Took Over A Poppet Valve Unit 

That radial engine stuck in the rocks... great way to start the week with some history. Sleeve valves, who would have thought?

Visio I have been watching your videos since 2015 or 2016. The fact that you not only document and upload everything related to combustion engines of all types and document what makes them unique when introduced and what still makes them unique/significant currently is what makes your channel so good and why I've been following your channel and content for so long. Thank you for the content and time and energy you put into creating it. I really really appreciate it.

Even Ferrari experimented with sleeve valves, for a Formula 1 engine, between 1989 and 1992. It gave good results, revving up to 11000 rpm, but unfortunayely the project was abandoned because they could not spend more money on that. By the way, Visioracer, your videos are always very interesting, good job !

The sleeve valve engine design is one of my favorites. If that design coupled with modern materials and processes were further developed, we would have seen some truly powerful and clean running reciprocating engines. By the way, you missed Voisin as another manufacturer that used sleeve valve engines.

Dude I love the amount of info you gather for engines and cars. Keep it up bud

Though being a car guy I love in-depth study of alternative engines from out-of-car usage like you do here! I feel respect for what history's inventors had to go through of test and failures before the combustion engine became how we know it today. Will we see a clip covering a variety of steam engines in the future...? The glove has been thrown...

Thanks for showing aircraft engines.

Thanks for that. Very well explained. I nearly understood what happens inside a sleeve valve . It' s the engineering these pioneers thought of that makes me wonder how did they know this would work . Amazing!!

I elect this subject for a revisit. Your English has improved dramatically!

Wow, never knew something like that existed. Great job dude😉!

Thank you for digging around and gathering all this information. I´ve never heard about this technology ! Great video , keep it up !

Too bad you didn't mention Avions Voisin. Voisin used sleeve valve engines for it's cars and before that it's planes. The Avions Voisin sleeve valve engine used the Knight principle but with some improvements especially to the lubrication. It was possible for a sleeve valve to fall into the crankcase if it became detached from the connecting rod. Voisin also had a solution to that problem.

I've always wondered how a sleeve-valve would do in something like a single-cylinder dirt bike engine. It *seems* like the simplicity of the design, the theoretical higher volumetric efficiency, ability to rev high, and removal of a lot of complication and weight on the top end combined with less of a focus on emissions would be a winning combination. More freedom in design of combustion chamber shape and removal of the hot exhaust valve might also allow running a bit more compression. A less tall engine would also help with packaging and lower the CoG...

Good video as always. Bristol also had the Taurus sleeve-valve engine (smaller and less powerful than Hercules).

Wow all these are forgotten UFO combustion technology worth re studying and re producing today!

The handicap of the two-sleeve design was that there are no sealing rings between the sleeves. The seal is provided by the lubricating oil between the inner and outer sleeves plus sludge and varnish accumulation. Motor oils back then were single viscosity grade, like SAE 30, SAE 40, non-detergent. A new engine used more oil than later when the sludge and varnish build-up improved the seal. This worked well until the sleeves were so worn that the sludge/varnish blew out despite compression ratios being only 4 or 5:1. The car would then lay down a smoke screen as it went to higher oil consumption. The only way to repair the worn sleeves is to disassemble the engine and replace the seals. While the motor is disassembled naturally the pistons and cylinder rings are replaced along with the sleeves. As is visible in the video the single sleeve design not only slides the sleeve up and down; it rotates the sleeve. This allows cylinder rings to seal the sleeve outer diameter clearance and the piston rings to seal the piston-sleeve bore clearance. Compression ratios can be considerably higher as the clearance seals do not depend on sludge, varnish and heavy oil viscosity for sealing. Single sleeve diesel engines can be made.

Fascinating stuff. I love your vids Visio.

They also played around with rotary valves for a while but they never took off either. It's hard to beat the relatively low mass of a poppet valve train, especially when you start getting into OHC engines.

Well I certainly learnt something new. Thank you.

Never heard of those until now..thanks!

Good video as always. I hope you wil make a rotary valve video in the future. Everyone knows 2-stroke engines with rotary valves but the least know about the 4-stroke rotary valve engine.

It is amazing how some innovative technologies are not made in our times but in the first 20 years of the 20th century, excellent video and greetings from Venezuela, I hope that your GT86 can return to its full form soon

From an aircraft engine viewpoint at least, the sleeve valve engine was not beaten by improvements to poppet valves, with all the main British manufacturers using sleeve valves for their last reciprocating engines. Rather it was the rapid development of turbine engines that made them obsolete.

Cool vid, glad someone finally made a vid like this. I have a sleeve valve lawnmower engine on my channel, it revs up to 6400 rpm :)

I'm always learning something new from your channel ☺👍

My father, born 1920, told me his father had a 1920's Willey's Night car. Pop said the car was very quiet when running, and got better (for a while) as the carbon built up in the engine. Cost of repair was higher as there were fewer cars with the sleeve-valve.

Wish one of those engines had a decent muffler on it. Very interesting design. I like these alternative engine design videos.

Hey visio, you may be intrested in rotary valve desing as well. It used a normal piston bottom end with rotating cylinders in the head for intake and exhaust.

Very good stuff. A+

Outstanding!

Burt was the chief engineer at Argyll Cars and he designed the single sleeve design. McColllum's design was rather different and I don't think that it contributed anything to the final design of the production sleeve valve design. Both the Knight and Burt McCollum systems were licensed to other manufacturers, e.g. Knight was used in the Daimler Double Six and Minerva etc. i can't at the moment remember those than adopted the Burt system but they were all European. Knight sued Argyll for patent infringement, the action costing both a lot and achieving little. This was one of the reasons for Argyll's demise. A few odd pieces of information: In a book on the RR Crecy 2stroke V12, it was said (I think by a RR engineer) that Bristol spent twice the money developing the best material from which to make the sleeve as Power Jets spent on the the entire development of the British gas turbine! The RR Crecy used an open ended sleeve valve that was very different to the Burt system. The sleeves did not rotate and the movement of the sleeves was achieved by a simple and elegant system. The 90 degree V allowed RR to use just one eccentric to drive 2 sleeves, one from each bank. The sleeves were open ended and did not use a junk head with ring to seal the top end of the sleeve, instead the sleeves were sealed by the expansion of the top of the sleeve due to combustion pressure! The whole engine was so unusual, it being a collaboration between RR and Harry Ricardo Engineering. There is a great book on the subject, my copy being currently unavailable. At this stage, I should mention that Harry Ricardo was the person responsible for sleeve valve aero engines, without him I doubt that anyone would have gone that way. Even so Ricardo did not push the sleeve valve until Argyll's patents had expired. In the Burt sleeve valve, the sleeve has 4 ports, the cylinder block has 5, 2 exhaust and 3 inlet. That means that one of the ports in the sleeve is alternately opening for very hot exhaust and cool intake charge. Apparently this did not cause problems but still it is a most unusual practice. The British government forced Bristol to provide assistance to Napier on sleeve valve manufacture. Bristol having spent a fortune on its development were not at all happy about 'giving' away their IP to a competitor. RR designed 4 sleeve valve engines, the aforementioned Crecy 2 stroke. The aircooled Exe and its bigger brother the air cooled Pennine. Both of these were X24 engines with sophisticated air flow designs . The Exe did fly for years in a Fairey Battle that RR used as what was essentially a commuter plane, performed well and was apparently very reliable. In the Pennine, RR had fixed the con rod issue that plagued the RR X24 Vulture. The last sleeve valve engine was the last piston engine RR designed, the Eagle22. RR's first aircraft engine was the Eagle, the Eagle22 signifying the 22nd piston aero engine designed by RR. The Eagle 22 was a H24 the same as the Napier Sabre. Internally the engines were quite different. For a start the Sabre's two crankshafts rotated in the same direction where as the Eagle22'a were contra-rotating. I will leave it to others to fight out which was better. The RR was probably better engineered but the Napier put out more power from less litres and although itself no lightweight it was lighter than the Eagle22. Sadly, there are no extant Crecy, Exe or Pennine and just a few Eagle22s, none operational. There are a number of Sabres on display and others in storage, non are operational and all the films and sound tracks of the engine available on the internet are wartime and rather poor quality. Nevertheless, as time goes by more and more information is turning up on the internet. Years ago when I first looked up the extraordinary Junker Jumo 223 and 224 there was one poor quality photo and very little information available on the engine, now there is at least 10 photos, considerable more information including that there was a turbocharged version (complete with photo), I happily learn something new every day, and sadly, forget more than I learn. >>:-)>> As a side issue the Sabre's crankshaft rotation and timing were such that at certain rpm the exhausts synchronized and the engine 'howled'. Indeed, like the Stuka before it, the Sabre's distinctive sound created a great deal of fear to those on the ground. I remember reading that one tank commander said "once heard never forgotten". But unlike the Stuka this did not require a siren , the Typhoon or Tempest V came out of the sky with its 36.7litres and 24 cylinders running at close to 4000rpm, the reduction gearing that drove the huge 5 blade propeller was straight cut and added a further distinct note when transmitting over 2000hp. In my opinion, the Exe ( designed by the engineering genius Rowledge) would have been a great engine but Hives at RR decided that production costs were too high (more than twice the costs of the Merlin). In this he was right, by far the best way in war is to produce quantity less than innovation. RR only put out two engines that reached mass production, the Merlin and the Griffon. If it had its way RR would have abandoned the Merlin and just produced Griffons. But the Merlin was used in too many planes, boats, and as the (unsupercharged) Meteor in tanks The Griffon was far better engineered even if it didn't sound right. Another problem was that the Merlin rotated in the opposite direction compared to all the other British aircraft engines. This was in some ways a happy event as US aircraft engines rotating the same as the Merlin. The Griffon rotated the same as the other British engines, something that caused a great deal of confusion and embarrassment for pilots changing from the Merlin powered Spitfires to Griffon powered Spitfires. There were many advantages of the sleeve and some disadvantages of the sleeve valve system. But the most serious problem was that the sleeve valve was not incumbent. The story about how much money Bristol spent on the material for the sleeves is a point. But there is also a story about how much money RR spent of developing material for the poppet valves in the Merlin, valve failure being a serious problem with early marks of the Merlin. There were many advantages in reliability and performance of the sleeve valve up to the end of the thirties. But vast resources were thrown at the poppet valve problems and by the end of the war the two valve systems were much closer. Still there were advantages to the sleeve valve. They have been investigated on and off through the years with Mike Hewland and Keith Duckworth having a serious look. I doubt there is any chance of sleeve valve use in modern engines, there is no reasonable way to alter the timing of sleeves and thus no equivalent of VVT. The poppet valve is pretty much fully developed, why spend vast amounts of money on another system? Consider Ford's 1litre, 3 cylinder, ecoboost engine. It hasn't won all those accolades and prizes by being innovative, it won them by applying every advancement in engine design since 1910 (why 1910? that is the year Earnest Henry first drew up the twin overhead cam 4 valve per cylinder design, some of his early designs rather resembled the modern pent head) to the engine, even the smallest detail considered. It, like most modern engines is manufactured by machinary with a precision undreamt of to the engineers battling the problems of sleeve manufacture in the 30s and 40s. It also uses materials through its design unknown just 20 years ago - coatings have solved so many problems even if they render the engine often unrepairable and a throwaway item. Also, there is the question of the future of passenger cars (at least) and what will be powering them - electric?, parallel hybrid, series hybrid? hydrogen? and should we manage the world in the future like we have in the past perhaps we may have to finally,fully develop, pedal power.

All my life I never new this design existed .Amazing design.

The Napier Sabre engine for the Typhoon planes in WW2 had sleeve valves. The engine maced out just over 4000 HP. I think we should bring them back you don't need to worry about breaking valves anymore for one thing.

I got to see, and hear, a Hawker Sea Fury at the Reno Air Races. They sound like nothing else.

that looks so incredibly overengineered.

Great vid.

The Sabre engine is super powerful. It's 2 H12 engines connect together. It can rev super high. It has small displacement but super high hp.

If monoblocks aren't the only thing interesting, it's also sleeve valve engines that catch my attention as well. Although there's one concept that I really wished made it into production to replace the poppets and that was the Coates Spherical Valves. Pretty muck all it was consisted of was spinning balls on a shaft. They worked just like Overhead Cams without the hassle of valve adjustments. I think the simplest of ideas however end up getting threw in the shadows because people are in favor of all the slightly complex stuff. Another example I will use is the Waissi and Revetec engines. Those have got to be, by far, the greatest concepts of all (in my opinion anyways). They still use Connecting Rods but they don't really have any piston rock (if any at all I should say).

Great video 👍

Not mentioned is the very slightly oblong cylinders/pistons. Surviving Sea Furies used for racing have replaced the Bristol Centaurus with Wright R3350s.

Beautiful

Wow! That's impressive but somewhat complicated at the same time. I still want to see what and how Infiniti's VCR engine would go down in history.

You always have handful of knowledge with many engine

Barr & Stroud made and supplied sleeve valve motorcycle engines (of the single sleeve type} to manufacturers in the early 1920s. Roy Fedden of the Bristol (Aircraft) Engine Company, bought one to try, before getting Bristol to start developing and producing sleeve valve type aero engines.

Good to hear mention of Rolls Royce's 26ltr 5000hp V12 2 stroke Crecy...focus was turned on the turbo Jet instead...shame, it was notably more fuel efficient than the Merlin (at half the power for the same size & weight) without the merit of yet being optimised or tuned

Seems overly complicated to me, maybe i am wrong. I believe the two stroke engines could and should have developed MORE than are SIMPLE with FEWER moving parts!!!!

Your video its so rare , greeting from indonesia , bali island

Incredible engineering for the date.

RSV 60 is a sleeve valve for model airplane. Only 30 engines manufactured "made in England" and I have one.

Its like a combination of Wankel-rotary and piston engines.

Wear of valves in early poppet valve engines was caused by the poor quality of available fuels; until the work by Harry Ricardo, cause of detonation was unknown, the low compression ratio in early engines had a high exhaust gas temperature, burning valves. Sleeve Valves allowed for higher CR with same gasoline, no hot spots in combustion chamber. Nothing compares to Bristol SSV engines, pls see interview with Mike Hewland, Car&Driver, july 1974.

The Burt-McCollum single sleeve valve engine used in the Scotish Argyll car was reliable and had better oil consumption than Daimler's double sleeve.

Pls more of These Videos

Wow, never even heard of this before, thanks for educating me ! :)

Very interesting

Oh & please please please.. can you do a countdown of some rocket engines? NASA,USSR & some nice spaceX stuff.. Would be awesome.. & your a Renaissance man of engineering - deep down you know you want to!

How thick were the Bristol Sleeves in their SSV engines? Some are left from the license-produced units by SNECMA, installed in 'Noratlas', now working for 'Tractor Pulling' contests. What about the Piccard-Pictet design, pat GB118407? Blessings +

any bishop valve engines?

James May approved.

The sleeve valves were used in the early steam engines. He took the design and applied it. To the gasoline engine.

We are starting to see an increased interest in older engine formats and designs. Who is to say teh Sleeve valve is not one of then.

My concern would be cooling. The sleeve would suffer from lack of heat dissipation due to lack of contact with cooling medium. Those engines were plagued with wear problems I'll bet.

Hey vis... I’ve been following you for about two years now. Keep up the great work.. because once we’ve all been subject to horrible EV’s thanks to our governments & the belief that the earth has a gazillion tonnes of precious metals,rather than oil. You’ll be our last bastion of hope by providing all these great countdowns & some history into real cars.

Gabriel Voisin used this principle for his car- and aeroengines (1930's).

Sleeve valves look good but complicated, but they are not much good for pressure boosting either. How about the Koenigsegg system or the rotating sleeve?

That's some pretty cool shit mate! Fucked if I know where you get this information from... let alone the time to make these videos. But keep up the good work.

3:40 That engine is a R3350, no sleve valve Bristol. Sawbones Reno Air Racer

I have a willies knight with sleeve valves

Super interesting video dude! Dont bother about the tard haters that make fun of the accent, your english is getting better every video you keep putting out! Can you make some more videos about motor history and what similarities or quirky differences were between big motor companies in racing history like in le mans? Great work bro! (btw, what are your thoughts on the megane? I hated it on project cars 1 XDD )

Talk about rotary valves

Like some 2 stroke engines?

how come the 2 stroke engine wasnt used in aircraft engines?

Wasn't Avions Voisin building cars with this kind of engine well up until 1930's?!

imagine modern cars using a sleeve valve engine

It is said that the sleeve-valve air-cooled Bristol Hercules despite its higher power output was not a success as an alternative engine on the WW2 Avro Lancaster bomber, due to higher fuel consumption vs. the liquid-cooled original Rolls-Royce Merlin engine

One small point - Centaurus is pronounced Sentorus. That's English for you!!! I understand that it took eleven years for Bristol engineers to perfect their sleeve valve design!

Napier Sabre H24 made up to 5000hp in its last version.

Mmmm Seafury! :)

A brilliant as they were sleeve valves were very Smokey engines and would probably never have stuck anyway given ever tightening epa pollution laws.

you forgot to mention that RR V12 and V8 engines were 2 stroke!!! it makes me wonder with materials and technoligy that are available now,what kind of sleeve engines we can produce.I bet that Bristol engine would been 500kg lighter and at least 700HP more powerful

will you make a new intro eith your new car

do most popular cars made into gassers...

@1:38 What's a "meckaleckle"?

Second bully me senpai

They sound different

Hay unos aviones Bristol (conocidos como la trompada voladora) con motores como los que describen, tengan la seguridad que no subo a ninguno de ellos por la inseguridad de esos motores, principalmente en la maniobra de decolage

Much horsepower

invention

hmmm... a part of me wonders if this concept would be picked again... The Volumetric efficiency advantage and greater freedom of combustion chamber design would be enticing. Considering the fact that modern car manufacturers are trying to get everything they can get out regular pump fuel. It is not all too crazy, considering recent crazy inovations they have come out with, Mazdas SPCCI, Nissans Variable Compression, hell... even camless engines might become a common thing! But still, its pretty far reaching, its unconvientinal and most importantly has sealing issues. But a man can dream...

How thick are the Bristol and other Sleeves? Please, go metric. Bristol SSV engines were the best reciprocating aircraft engines ever. Piccard-Pictet patented a similar single sleeve distribution system. GB118407; 1917. Blessings +

Why is that engine on the top of a mountain?

Why isnt this used for the 2 stroke engine

Very clever! Here's an interesting kind of engine you might want to do a video on- the axial "barrel engine". I saw one at the Air Force Museum in Dayton Ohio, where they have all kinds of interesting engines cut aways. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axial_engine

(2556*5252)/2700=4971! to produce 2556 hp at 2700rpm, the engine must produce 4971 foot pounds

That was a totally impractical design. COOLING PROBLEMS WOULD KILL IT . The 2 sliding cylinders would wear, leak lubrication and not conduct heat from the piston and sleeves . A total disaster for longevity. Simply increase the displacement.

слишком сложно, а преимуществ нет.

@ 0:28 he beleioh he Kol hamade it behher or kwieettie’r

3th kill me

First? Pls dont bully me for that

There is a specimen of a willys knight sleeve valve engine removed from the dirt at the property I caretake in Winton Queensland.