Top 5 Tank Engines | Rob Bell | Institution of Mechanical Engineers | The Tank Museum 

Hello Tank Nuts, we hope you enjoyed this video, what do you think of the ranking?

Top tank engine for me has to be Thomas.

Rob's a great presenter - I always enjoy the technical elements he brings in so well

this guy is such a great orator, would love to see more of him!

Great concept for a top 5. Would love to see top 5s for other systems such as guns, suspensions, etc.

One thing that stuck out in my mind when visiting museums was the engines they'd sometimes have on display. I remember going to the imperial war museum in London and they had a Merlin engine in a glass case, fully chromed up, perfect and spotless reflecting all the lights. Then I went to the Solent Air Museum in Southampton and they had a Merlin engine on display, clearly heavily used, it was black and heat blasted, smelled of petrol, had pipes coming off it. For some reason that distinction always stayed with me, I much preferred the real deal in the Southampton museum.

My favorite historical fact about the Meteor was how it began as a way to salvage something from the growing pile of Merlin engines that failed to pass flight worthiness inspections (few things improve reliability as drastically as derating an 1100hp engine to only 600hp).

V2 ended up developed into the powerplant for the T-72 when the advanced opposed piston engine of the T-64 proved uneconomical. It’s not only lightweight and diesel, but it’s very large displacement, allowing improved engines to keep up with modern modern but smaller competitors. They are still in service all over the world. Truly unprecedented service life.

My Dad worked on tank engines for much of his life, and used to come up interesting snippets of information. One that made him smile was other engineers explanation for why the Meteor engines con rod had a 1/8" hole drilled through it above the big end, most people believed it helped throw oil onto the cylinder walls. the real reason was to show it was a less than perfect casting and should not be used on the much higher powered Merlin engine. Nice video.

I have written to my State Representative and both Senators from North Carolina to ask them to investigate the possibility of getting the Tank Museum an Abrams. Even if it was just an M1 it would great.

Loved this episode, was a joy to watch. Hope you'll invite this chap again to give his opinion to some more engine designs used in the last century. Was a pleasure to see an engineers perspective on engine design for tanks!!!

Great video, loved the zeroth choice in the intro and was slightly surprised that a Brit wouldn't choose the Meteor as his number 1 but found myself agreeing anyway. Thanks for the lesson about diesel vs petrol too.

Very interesting,and refreshing to get an engineer's perspective on the heart of the tank. Liked his intro about the engine that operates the boiling vessel too ha ha.

The fact that the kharkiv v2 had 4 valves per cylinder in the 1940s, still blows my mind.

The 7 cylinder radials in the M2 Lights and M3 Stuart tanks provided plenty of power as well. The American radials could be found in many vehicles such the M2, M3, and M4 Medium, M2 and M3 Light, and the LVT series to name a few. There were actually Guiberson 7-cyl diesel radials as well.

Rob would have to be my favourite teacher of mechanical engineering. Love his docos, particularly on bridges. This is his usual entertaining, educational video. Also interesting choices.

As a mechanical engineer, this video is fantastic!

A "Top 5" featuring tank engines is a clever extension of your Top 5 series. I was wondering how many M4 Medium tank engines would be in the Top 5.

That first clip about the perkins engine and generator/BV and tea....so true. Was on Soltau training area....something went wrong with the power to the BV....My cmdr had the driver stop, then radio'd the REME....we didnt move until it was fixed.

this is one of the coolest tank museum videos. i like the technical detail over the generalized and highly situational field performance narrative.

I've watched this twice now as well as his first top5 and I've finally figured out who he reminds me of; he's a alternate universe Richard Hammond where he got into tanks instead of cars.

Really cool video and loved to see it! Engine characteristics always feel like one of the overlooked metrics when people are comparing tank vs tank, and it was great to learn more about them. Looking forward to a bottom 5 tank engines in the future, hopefully!

Nicely played, Rob! LOL! I rewound that first minute of the video three times thinking I had misunderstood you when you said the tank had a 50 hp engine! Lol! I finally played it long enough to get to your punchline.

Great video! As a former tank commander though, I’d have to say unequivocally my crew was the heartbeat of the tank.

I was waiting desparately for a vid regarding tank engines (and transmissions). The technical, the mechanical, the engineering part of the tank topic is extremely important imho, thxx.

I would love to see a bottom 5 too please

loved this one. I hope Rob can do more videos for you.

Incredible how distinctive camouflage can be, as soon as the Swedish Centurion came into frame the nationality was a given.

Really well thought out and presented!

This was pretty cool. I would be curious to see a top-five tank engines from the perspective of mechanics. Which tanks engine would they rate to be the most reliable

I'm amazed about how I correctly understood how diesel engines worked but how I simplified the process and had it slightly wrong all these years.

Before starting to watch this, i think we all already knew the "Leyland L60" engine was going to struggle, just a little, to get into the top 5.

bugger, there I was thinking this would be about tank engines, and it was about tank engines. it reminds me of the Ronnie Barker sketch where a customer asks for four candles, and the shop owner gives him 4 candles. He keeps insisting he wants four candles until he realises he'll have to elaborate. Finally he tells the guy he wants handles for forks. Fork handles in other words. Very good video though, thanks Mr Bell.

This was really well presented and informative. Thank you Rob!

I always thought the Ricardo was an amazing engine because it used petrol of such low quality 45 -50 octane it would barley vaporize - Ricardo fed it round the piston trunk guides to extract the heat and atomize it

The V2 was ahead of it's time; an all alloy diesel V12 with dohc, 4 valve heads and direct fuel injection. A worthy #1 in this video.

Thank you ,this was informative and enjoyable.

Great video Rob. So well explained. Thanks

Great video. Give this guy a much longer slot. I could have listened a lot longer as he went through the engines👍

Excellent. Good information with a good presenter. It would have been great to hear more about the T-34 engine, maybe with some cutaway diagrams. An engineers perspective is almost always interesting.

Great video. Would love to see more like it.

I was half expecting they’d put the Leyland L60 in as a joke Great video tho, I enjoy the technical aspect that the IME bring.

Great breakdown and plenty of scope for Rob to do more of these. Approaching tanks through the requirements and specifications context (explained correctly) can be fascinating.

Awesome! Thank you!

Really enjoyed this video well done

Fantastic Host. He was very entertaining and informative.

Those radials sound fantastic running around the arena.

I love this new take on top 5's

Excellent video. Thank you.

OMG i wanted to see this for a whole long time!!! THANK YOU I

An excellent tutorial!

The engine, maybe more than any other single factor, could make or break a tank design, so it's great to see the topic highlighted like this.

you know, i really like tank and tall richard hammond man.

Fascinating!!!

The meteor is quite the lovely sounding thing ❤️

An excellent video! In my heart, however, nothing beats the greatest tank engine of all... Thomas.

An excellent video!

Great video! Hope a follow on will come about more modern engines like turbo diesels and gasturbines for tanks will come in the future!

That was a very interesting view on tanks.

What an excellent video on a much ignored subject, thank you

This guy is an exceptional presenter.... He should be on the staff.

Thanks Rob.

great listen

A good series to do would to go over the basics of engine design as it applies to tanks and other armored vehicles. It would be good to see the progression of engine design through the years.

An excellent choice -

Very interesting!

Good video and great presentation. I'm slightly surprised there was no Maybach in there anywhere.

Excellent Video. Learned quite a bit. The only problem is, that I am now quite envious of the presentation skills of Mr. Bell :)

For me, Rob sounds, & looks a bit like Richard Hammond! 😁 Whereas Hammond talks about cars, Bell talks about tanks --- so, a taller version of Hammond, talks about a bigger type of vehicles... 🤣😂

You can see the joy in this man's eyes when he looks at all these engines.

This was very interesting, I would love him to present something on hydrolics.

Excellent video, but for my list, I'd make a few changes. First, I'd drop the Ford V8 and replace it with the Maybach HL120, and move it below the Riccardo. The Germans deserve *some* love. I'd switch the positions of the R975 and the Meteor, for several reasons: * The Meteor *ended up* as a great engine, but it wasn't until after the war that the reliability was fully ironed out. Furthermore, it never really became the engine of choice for a wide variety of vehicles the way the R975 did. * The R975 was cheaper to make, needed less and simpler maintenance, and was easier to work on when it did need work. * The Meteor needed extensive development work to make the transition from aeromotive to automotive, but the R975 used in ground vehicles differed comparatively little from the aircraft versions. And that last point is the main reason why I'd put it above the Meteor. The R975 was part of a huge engine *ecosystem* which *massively* simplified logistics for the Allies at every point in the supply chain, and this ability to deliver greater numbers of fewer *things* was one of the most important weapons the Allies had.

I was expecting an MTU engine at the top 😅

Wow, I had always thought that the Meteor powering one of the best tanks in history; the Centurion amongst others would be top, but I have to agree with your choice. Love this channel!

I loved this.

all good, lots of information about liquid cooled engines having liquid flowing through them and fins for air cooling increasing surface area for school kids interested in tank engines.

superb topic

Why this is the first of all of the top 5's that I have agreed with all the way. Good job Rob Bell, you are either right or we are both wrong, but I think you are right. Wish you had added in the history of the meteor the story that it was made from engines that were damaged and could not be used in a Spitfire anymore, would like to hear your opinion if that was real or just a folk tale

I'm looking forward to the Bottom 5 engines =)

I did not see this one coming, but a pretty interesting top 5 nonetheless! Mr. Bell really made these engines interesting with both a bit of background history, AND some technical aspects. Also respect to him for choosing a Soviet engine as his nr. 1, I did not realise the Kharkiv V-2 was still around in some form! Given the subject of this top 5, perhaps you could do a top 5 things (or even hats) with Mr. Smith next time? c:

Very interesting.

Another great Rob Bell top 5

Awesome.

You should do top tank cannons.

With all due respect ... the Chrysler A57 Multibank 30-cylinder 1,253 cu in (20.5 L) engine has much more interesting history to provide the american tanks with an engine with sufficient power at the start of WWII. And all that done in a very short span of time. Based on 6-cyl-in-line car engines there were several different of this multi cylinder "Monsters". Just to remind you ... at the begin of WWII, a 100 hp engine was a very strong engine for earthbound use.

I had a feeling the Ford V8 was gonna be on the list, but VERY surprised about the R-975.

great content now want to see his bottom 5 engines I'm looking at you Leyland l60 🤣🤣

This will be needed for my powered billy cart

A two litre auxiliary power unit is interesting. The WW2 American bombers had a tiny 7 hp ‘Putt Putt’ APU.

This was 👍

V-2 is truly a great engine! It deserves the first place.

A smaller version of the Meteor engine was developed and called the Meteorite. It was a V8 and was basically two thirds of the proven Meteor engine. Used in tank transporters. And other heavy duty vehicles.

Disappointed the Chrysler multi-bank wasn't in there, although it must have been a nightmare to maintain.

Yes Rob you are a great example for becoming an engineer even if not wearing a brown suit ha, ha. I went into Chemistry but your professional appraisals are intriguing.

It'd be nice to have tank chat on the Chrysler multibank. You know, when Chrysler wanted to build a tank engine, but all they had were loads of 6 cylinder engines lying around and they were bored......

I am a former US Army Engineer and I liked the video but would like something that expanded on the "tech" of each of the engines.

AV1790, 5TDF, that GIAT hyperbar hybrid -, interesting is good

Bits of damaged merlin aero engines could also be repurchased to be used in meteor engines

i love that joke at the start so british its brilliant

When we were on extended tank maneuvers in the Alps in the worst weather imaginable in the 1970s the worst thing was getting low on fuel. For that reason alone I'll take a diesel engine.