The Museum of the American G.I. is restoring the only original functioning Renault FT WWI tank in North America. Watch to see a running 100 year old engine!
That's impressive work by these guys to restore this incredible machine. It's actually a pretty fancy motor for something that's 100 years old. That tank was the first modern tank and it ended Germany's hope of winning the war in 1918. Good work fellas.
The tank had little effect on winning the war, Germany as a nation was exhausted and was loosing on every front, the soldiers were starving, their families at home were starving, Germany was running out of resources, their farms were having production issues, maintaining millions of soldiers is no easy task, also Germany was running out of young men to fight the war. The tanks did prove the future was gonna be armoured warfare but had very little impact on truly ending the conflict.
We recently had a 2500 original mile 1922 Olds Super Sport V8 in for service which also had an Aluminum Engine Block and cast cylinders. Pretty neat cast at the BOHN foundry in detroit.
Great video explained with no frills but comprehensively. I am astonished at the advanced French engineering particularly metallurgy - fusion of aluminium, brass and cast iron remarkable.
Awesome !!!! Perhaps you know already, but guys at the Saumur Museum who were working restoring a FT17 realize that the gearbox of the T34 is an exact copy of the one of the FT17, only scaled up. This is why on later T34 models the 4 gears original T34 gearbox got modernized with intermediate gears.
Thank you so much. I've been looking for a transmission to match a replica I'll be building. I've been working on finding the transmission for 2 years. Thank you
Brisco Llama gas rc boats do useba diaphragm type fuel pump but it's actually part of the carburetor. The water pump on a gas rc boat is alot like the fuel pump on this tank engine in that it uses crank case pulses to actuate a (rubber) diaphragm and it is not part of the engine...it's usually mounted to the stringers.
cartmanrlsusall You where not supposed to crank start is in the middle of the battle though. It was designed to cross the no man's land between the french and german tranches. It was quite a static style of warfare.
Do you know the reason for an aluminum block? For an aircraft engine I can see but a light tank? The only benefit I can see is that the engine would run cooler than cast iron block,
The Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome has an excellent M1917 Light tank which was the US version of the FT. There are several nice M1917 in the states. Our tank, however, is an original French FT.
Leaded fuel is a waste of time in this engine as leaded fuel only became available in the 1930s (15 years after this was built). Straight run unleaded would be better for an engine designed to run on 68 octane.
At 0:23-0:24 you state it is the "only running one in North America". Did your tank belong at one time to Mr. Hayes Otoupalik of Missoula, MT? If not, there are at least two (2) running FT-17 tanks.
Hayes Otoupalik has an excellent M1917 Light tank which was the US version of the FT. There are several nice M1917 in the states. Our tank, however, is an original French FT. There are several specific differences between the M1917 and the FT.
That would be a side valve engine. Not really very big to push 17 tons of tank up a steep hill. It is a shame there is no footage of the rebuild, I would love to see the engine opened up.
I cannot see a valve cover on any other FT Renault engine anywhere else. All others have exposed valves. Is this valve cover a fabricated modification for your engine?
@@harpomarx7777 on many engines up to the 30's was cylinder and cylinder head in one piece, was for example the case for all the Bugatti engines, was more difficult to built but avoid each head gasket problems who was a very usual issue...
Don’t know what happened to the French they used to be innovative. But after WWll they kind of melted down in a collective guilt. We owe them for helping out with the British during the revolution. Sure wouldn’t want to be in it if it caught on fire. Diesel would have been nice but can you imagine hand cranking a diesel?
You forgott that France was invaded and plundered from the nazis =many machining machinery and high value equipments was send to germany ...GB not, and the USA did never see a enemy or bomb on he's territory (except far pacific islands)...thats the difference...WW2 tanks did all use gasoline...except in soviet union and a limited number of Sherman...Light diesel engine did not exists in 1917, the first french automobile diesel was made in 1933 from Citroën for a small number of Rosalie 11UD...Crank a diesel is possible (is use on some tractors) but need a decompressor valve
look at any renault of the era, they used alloy cases on their cars too. 1915 renault 10cv for example. And in 1919 the torpedo . the engine was just a simple easily made design. Lots of European stuff that age was alloy or mag alloy
Renault used their existing truck engine for the FT and aluminum was actually a fairly common material for early engine and transmission cases because it had such ideal properties for what were essentially hollow boxes filled with oil that made it worth the expense. In a T-head engines like this one there is no block to speak of as the entire cylinder and all of the water passages were inside the cast iron head which meant no there was no need for gaskets and the engine case was just a bed you bolted the self-contained cylinders onto combined with a box for the oil and twirly bits. The Wisconsin A series T-head used in many US army trucks of that era had roughly the same HP and displacement and also used an aluminum case.
