One byproduct of Crosley's war effort was the production of a, lightweight four cylinder engine for auxiliary power for field equipment, aboard PT boats and B-17 bombers. The unique little mill was fabricated from sheet metal rather than cast iron. It had its beginning at Taylor Engines, Inc., Oakland, California. Taylor Engines was a 3 man company, consisting of a machinist named Jess, a draftsman named Joe Smith and Lloyd M. Taylor, the man with a dream. Taylor was a self-taught mechanical genius. Taylor knew the trouble with high compression engines had to do with thermal efficiency. At the high compression ratios needed to get lots of horse power out of a small displacement engine you could get violent denotation at unwanted times, sending shock waves through the block, canceling any gains in efficiency, and possibly destroying the engine. Taylor's obsession was to figure out why that happened, so he could make it stop. As he came to see it, the stumbling lay in the inherent properties of cast iron, the standard material for engine blocks. Technology of the time did not allow castings thinner than 1/4 inch, thicker in most places. Taylor calculated that temperatures could rise to over 600 degrees on one side of an engine block wall in spite of the coolant flowing past the other side. Hot spots around the combustion chamber acts as a spark plug, causing the pre-ignition. A thin, uniform wall thickness would dissipates heat rapidly, allowing higher compression.
X-24 Defender
On May12th 1942 a report was submitted to Ray Olson Jr of the Navy Department proposing an all new 24 cylinder aircraft engine, designed by Taylor Engine of California. This would be a fabricated block engine using ideas developed by Daimler and Mercedes-Benz in the early years of the autombile as well as the 27 liter Liberty V-12 aircraft engine during WW-1.
Un-Supercharged 1000 HP
Supercharged 32 In.* 1,250 HP
Supercharged 39 In.* 1,600 HP
Supercharged 48 In.* 2,000 HP
*Barry Seel, resident supercharger expert, thinks the In. notation is probably cubic inches of air per second.
The overall size with tapered nose for the prop and the rear accessory drive assembly was 76 inches and 45.5 inches in diameter. It was interesting to look at the drawings and see if the front nose and rear assembly was removed, the engine was almost a perfect cube and would have fit in a 36 X 35 inch box.
Four 6 cylinder banks 90 degrees apart.
Proposed for aircraft use but for any use where space and weight was a important.
Taylor 6 Cylinder
Taylor first built a 425 CI 6 cylinder with fabricated block hoping for a military contract. When the 6 was not accepted, he built a 4 cylinder version, based on the same principals, that he submitted for testing by the Navy. The Navy liked he engine but Taylor was not in a position to build engines in quantity, Crosley Corporation came into the picture and that is where we begin this family tree.
If anyone knows if the 6 cylinder unit survived or what happen to it, please contact me.
Mystery 6 Cylinder
Crosley Fabricated Engine - 1942 to 1945
Ray Olson Jr worked for the Navy Department early in WW II and was involved in the early development of the copper brazed engine for the Navy. He was also involved in the testing and manufacturing techniques required to produce the future CoBra motor. He often told his son about carrying the block from Washington DC to California.
CoBra Years
| Taylor Years | CoBra
Years |
CIBA Years |
Post Crosley | Big
Block Years |
