The Kneeslider

Doers Builders and Positive People

Russell Sutton’s 14 Cylinder Radial Engine Comes to Life – UPDATE – New Videos

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Russell Sutton’s turbocharged 14 cylinder radial engine

Digging back through The Kneeslider, I found the article with the first CAD drawings and patterns for this engine, a turbocharged 14 cylinder, two row, radial engine using the cylinders and heads from a Yamaha XV1700 Warrior. That was 10 years ago. It gives you some indication of the time, effort and perseverance necessary to bring a project like this from idea to running engine while making your way through the world events of the last several years.

One thing Russell makes very clear was the important assistance provided by the design and engineering work of Ian Drysdale. Most of you here are familiar with many of Ian’s projects and when Russell met him in 2007 and Ian saw Russell’s first 9 cylinder radial crankcase with Honda cylinders he was happy to offer his expertise going forward.

Raj Kumarsid (Ians employee) also very enthusiastic about the project, spent many hours CAD drawing the components required for the engine. The Crank (a masterpiece) Rods, Camplates designed by Ian’s imaginative talent. Believe me when I say they were keen to see what happened when I pressed the starter button.

Take an idea of an engine, add 10 years of design, engineering, hard work and persistence and you get this 14 cylinder radial engine.

Designing, building and assembling the mechanical parts is difficult enough, but then you have to come up with an ignition system to literally provide the spark and Motec support was the crucial element here and they’ll continue helping as the engine tuning process moves ahead.

I have to say, it makes me feel good to see this engine fire up after all of this time. All too often grand projects falter as years pass and they get pushed to the back of the shop, but this one wasn’t one of those. This one runs and everyone involved deserves a big thumbs up. There’s still much tuning work to be done, but getting it to this point means it’s on the home stretch.

For a better idea of the background to this point:
Previous posts on Russell Sutton’s radial engines
Previous posts on Ian Drysdale’s engineering work

The first video below provides a lot of technical detail, the second is the first startup with lots of smoke and mis-wired injectors, and in the third it runs better and provides a baseline for tuning.

UPDATE:

Videos added below where Russell explains the changes he made after the first startup and how it runs now. Much improved, sounds much better with little smoke, though two cylinders were not firing. He’s getting there.

Comments

  2. I can’t wait to hear it running smoothly. It’s already sounding decent and that’s with 2 cylinders wired wrong and fuel mapping that’s a complete guess…

  3. That is truly a thing of beauty! Incredible talent. I would love to see a biplane built around it.

  4. I stumbled upon an article about (this) homebuilt radial engine years (I didn’t think it was 10) ago. I subscribed to Kneeslider back than. I always enjoy. Who would of thought it originates from the town where I grew up.
    I thought you might get a kick out of this article

    https://generalaviationnews.com/2023/08/06/the-men-who-built-the-largest-piston-engine-in-the-world/
    I don’t really want to post this. I’m not savy enough to figure out how to send it to you directly.

    • Well, happy to see you’re still checking in.

      I’ve always been impressed with the Pratt & Whitney R-4360, but this one you’re referring to has 4X9 instead of 4X7. More power, too. Quite the beast! And all done with slide rules and protractors making it even more impressive.

      • The R4360 has 28 cylinders, 4×7. Incredible engine. Always has been a fascination of mine. In spite of complexity, used in many different aircraft in large numbers.

  5. Awesome Russ, remember when you were starting to get it happening. Hope you and Linda are going well mate.

  6. Kody !! What a terrific surprise to have you chip in.
    I think I drove every one mad talking about it.
    Back five yrs now in New Zealand Have settled in quite well but not as easy as one would think.
    We are both well . Hope this is the same with you and family over there
    Many Thanks.

  7. Would be nice to find out some performance figures, and also weight. That will give us a clue if it has appeal in the market place.