Coventry Victor Opposed Diesel

[pietenpol2002]

Greetings,

Anyone know anything about the Coventry Victor Opposed Diesel engine. Apparently no longer in production but parts are still available from the original manufacturer and the air-cooled version would certainly make a unique bike. In spite of the considerable aluminum utilized, it isn't a particularly light engine. But, oh how sweet it would look and sound tucked into a Ural/Dnepr/Bmw/Guzzi frame. You'd be the only one on your block with one.

Ron

Manufacturer's Website depicting the air-cooled version

http://www.coventryvictor.free-online.c ... ation.html
(Click on the diesel option)

Water-cooled version for sale in North Carolina

http://img1.classistatic.com/cps/l/kj/0 ... k0_20.jpeg

[andrewaust]

Yes Agreed !



A boxer diesel would be a really nice alternative, I've looked at the China Chang Jiang 750's and thought a diesel would slide nicely into one, after all they are a BMW/Ural/Dnepr design.

Marine engines are really gutsy too, along with the industrial variants.






A

[mark_in_manchester]

That's an inspiring picture of a communist flat-twin. Meanwhile, on planet low-budget, here's the unhappy reality

http://img155.imageshack.us/i/1060610.jpg/

This had snails living inside the fuel tank, despite a fuel cap being present. I got it going for the road, but I almost wish I hadn't painted it...it would have won rat-bike prizes, even at Cossack, MZ and Jawa rallies!
Mark, Manchester, UK

[Stuart]

Reminds me of that old Enfield engine we featured a while back. 15BHP @ 1800RPM and 1135cc.
A really heavy engine

[razzoman]

Stuart, I have a Coventry Victor HD1W Vixen flat twin diesel in a narrowboat. It's big, numb and lovely, but I suspect the dimensions are just too big for a solo motorcycle application. I'll measure it this weekend and let you know the exact details, but a narrowboat is 6'10" wide and the engine fills most of it. It's a good layout for a boat because it uses up less usable length than an inline engine. Quite a few boats were fitted with them in the fifties and sixties, and some were fitted when built with secondhand examples. Our boat dates from the seventies but the engine is older. You won't be surprised to learn that there is an element within the canal world which values old-fashioned "trad" diesels for their guts, superb sound and longevity. Favourites are Gardiners, Listers, Nationals, Kelvins, Russell Newberrys etc. The Coventry Victor was. I think, used widely in those noisy little dumper trucks that used to blat round building sites in the early sixties. When I first heard our engine running, it took me back immediately to the days when, as a kid, I used to walk past them and always heard that distinctive flat-twin sound.

[Stuart]

Yes,
I think one of our members investigated this kind of engine a while back and they are just too big. Shame that as this sort of config makes for a free reving engine. I've run a BMW before but used to own a couple of cars with flat fours in. Alfa Sud Sprint Veloce. Lots of wasted energy with pistons all pumping down in the same direction

Stuart

[razzoman]

As a further matter of interest, Coventry Victor started making flat twin (petrol) engines for motorcycles in 1912 and then from 1919 to the mid-thirties they also built their own complete motorcycles, in 500cc and 600cc ohv and 688cc sv versions. The 600cc model started life as a speedway engine, no doubt hoping to emulate the success of the dirt-track Douglas machine of similar layout. The engines were arranged fore and aft along the frame, but I think the Coventry Victor differed in that the gearbox was slung below the engine rather than above it like the Douglas. Apparently they were sound but very old-fashioned even for 1930. They are not to be confused with the Coventry Eagle, which was a different company also located in ... err, Coventry.

[Stuart]

This is back on the radar after I spotted a magazine which appears to indicate that there was indeed a diesel version of this engine capable of going into a motorcycle, albeit a bike with a sidecar.
I'll know more when I actually receive the magazine pictured.
Unlike the large Enfield engine this was apparently 688cc, just like the petrol version. The bike pictured probably has the petrol engine installed.

This last picture is from the Coventry Victor website. It may not be the 688cc engine in question.

[gilburton]

Dimensions here!!
http://www.oldengine.org/members/diesel ... orHDA2.htm

http://www.oldengine.org/members/diesel ... orHDW2.htm

I was a bit dubious about the cylinder length "A" so here is another link
http://www.coventryvictor.free-online.c ... itled.html
This last link is more like it 18 1/2" instead of 8 1/2" !!!
So it's 37" across the cyls.

[Stuart]

Yes, those are the 1488cc versions. Undoubtably big, like the Enfield, but if there was a smaller 688cc version as the magazine picture suggests then, well, that could be interesting
Come on Posty, get a move on with that snail mail!

[gilburton]

Yeah I was answering razzoman to save him measuring as the larger engines were fitted to boats.

[Stuart]

Nice to liven up these old threads eh?

[gilburton]

Ok who wants a challenge lol
https://plus.google.com/112118861354873 ... bmCBvK1gjv

[Stuart]

So here it is, finally, a photograph & write up proving conclusively that Coventy Victor did indeed convert their 688cc opposed twin cylinder motorcycle engine to diesel & showcase it at the 1932 Motor Show in Earl's Court, London. It produced 10 B.H.P. @ 2000rpm with a compression ratio of 19/1 variable down to 14/1 for easy cranking. Judging by the description, it was considerably smaller than the larger capacity diesels mentioned hereabouts. In the colour picture, the metal tea cup balanced on what looks like a 688cc petrol version has a Diameter of approx 3.5" & so I judge total length of engine to be about 20"?
It looks as if a certain amount of 'journalist licence' has been used by the writer in describing this as a 'motorcycle-sized' unit (as the company eventually marketed this as an outboard marine engine - see brochure) but that aside, there is no mistaking the fact that this engine started out in a motorcycle.
Coventry Victor produced bikes throughout the 1920's & into the 30's & also used the petrol version in 3 wheeled cars. I cannot find any reference to the diesel being used in such a vehicle.
More importantly, I cannot find any evidence or shots that one made it into a motorcycle either. But, if it's similar in size to the petrol version (as they suggest) then there is probably a better chance than even that one did get into a bike, even if it was simply to test it at the factory.

A 1928 petrol Coventry Victor.

A petrol 688cc (by the looks of it)

The engine as a marine outboard.

A typical advert of the period.

[zarquon]

Correct me, if I'm wrong. This is a very nice find, of course.

What do we have in the end?
- They build diesel engines for boats
- They have said they wanna show a dieselbike, back in 1932
- Nobody has ever seen it

So it could be, that, they announced it, but for some reason it never enters the stage.

[Stuart]

As I said, we have no diesel motorcycle but we have an 'overlap' of a few years before they ceased building motorcycles. Given that nearly all early diesel motorcycles were infact test beds for these engines, it's not inconceivable that one was tested in a bike. But that's pure speculation of course
So, if the English can build a motorcycle sized opposed twin Diesel engine back in 1932 why can't BMW do it now?

[zarquon]

I think they could build one, but they don't want to.

They prefer to build bikes that need a rain mode cause of their unusable amount of power. Strange but true.

[coachgeo]

I think they could build one, but they don't want to.

They prefer to build bikes that need a rain mode cause of their unusable amount of power. Strange but true.

rain mode??

[Blunt Eversmoke]

I think they could build one, but they don't want to.

They prefer to build bikes that need a rain mode cause of their unusable amount of power. Strange but true.

rain mode??

Electronic traction control that throttles off once traction is lost.