THE ENGINE

THE MERLIN ENGINE

The Rolls-Royce Merlin Engine is a 27-litre, liquid-cooled V12 piston engine that powered iconic WWII aircraft like the Spitfire, Hurricane, Lancaster, and Mustang. Starting at roughly 1,000 horsepower, continuous wartime updates and supercharging pushed late-war variants past 2,000 horsepower, making it a defining engineering triumph of the Allied victory.

BW853 MERLIN RUNNING

This is a video of the Packard Merlin 29 Engine Dyno run up to 1700 RPM.

Looking at a problem with the Bendix-Stromberg PD-16 pressure carb which causes the engine to go rich when it transitions from slow running to the main fuel circuit. You can clearly hear it misfire as it goes rich at 1500-1700 rpm, depending on load, accompanied by lots of black smoke. Figures on the screen are torque in lb ft.

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Thank you to FlightEngineering1 for the use of this video.

MERLIN FIRST RUN AFTER REBUILD

This video is of the Packard Merlin 29 first start and first test run.

First start up in many years for this 1941 Packard-Built Rolls-Royce Merlin 29 engine, after partial rebuild, destined for a Hawker Hurricane project in the UK. This is an initial no-load run to check for leaks and allow the engine to run-in prior to applying they dyno load.

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Thank you to FlightEngineering1 for the use of this video.

 


 

 

 

MERLIN IGNITION TIMING

This video is of the Merlin engine - camshaft and ignition timing.

Peter Grieve of Flight Engineering (Leeds, UK) and founding member of the Historic Aero Engine group, explains how to time the Merlin engine. Peter is a joint founder of the HAE group. 

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Thank you to Historic Aero Engines for the use of this video.

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