[AT] Dorman Ricardo diesel engine. was Allis Chalmers ED40 injector pipes

[James Peck]

Thank you, John, for forwarding Guy's response. This link talks about David Brown DB4 crawlers using a Dorman Ricardo diesel engine.



http://www.dbtractors.co.uk/tracklayers/



I would love to hear more from Guy.



John (JV) Maddock  Down Under AT List member  (agtronixjv at southcom.com.au<mailto:agtronixjv at southcom.com.au>); James  This email from my friend will provide some of that info:





"Evening John, Not sure of the protocols here about replying to James Peck's query about fitting glow plugs to 23c engines, so I'll reply to you. Otmoor Ironworks in the UK do the conversion. Richard Dixon, otmoorironworks at gmail.com .  They drill and tap the head and supply a set of glow plugs for about 100 pounds.

Some of the MF 35s with the 23c engines had glow plugs fitted from new, as did all the industrial versions. I believe they were fitted with 14mm thread plugs wired in series, with a resistor box somewhere under the dash.

If one plug died the lot stopped working. The 14mm plugs are getting hard to find; Land Rover ones fit if you can find and afford them.  I opted for drilling M10x1 for 12v plugs wired in parallel; you don't need the resistor but you do need a reasonably hefty solenoid. Wired in parallel, if one fails it should still start on 3.

There is a vast amount written about these engines, it seems the gist of it all is you have to get the timing spot on, and compression is vital. If the valves and seats have been re-cut a couple of times the valves are recessed  enough to lower the compression just enough to create problems. There is a school of thought that says the little hole in the combustion chamber leading to the Ricardo swirl chamber should be enlarged to about the size of a pea to allow the compression and combustion gasses easier access into and out of the chamber, and easier cranking. Care must be taken not to enlarge the hole so that it overlaps the gasket area.

I know that since a recent rebuild my tractor starts a lot easier, on a reasonably warm day (20deg. C) without glow plugs. I was super careful

(lucky) with timing. As the new timing chain and tensioner wear in this might slowly get out of sync. again, but at the moment it's fine.

The only downside with fitting the glow plugs is that I had to bend the injector lines to clear the plugs. Now several leak at the connections.

When I look at photos of similarly equipped 23c's the plugs must be shorter, because they fit below the injector lines. The 10mm plugs must be a little longer; the terminals  would have shorted out on the lines, hence the search for ED 40 ones-but maybe they were the same as the standard 23c ones.   Maybe I'd better try to fix the ones I have.Hope that is of some use. Cheers Guy "





What contemporary book?



What manufacturer pioneered the use of glow plugs?



Thomas Martin AT List Member (tmartin at xtra.co.nz); Well, I'm wrong!  :-( It may look like a Ricardo Comet type cylinder head, but according  to a contemporary book on the subject, the pre-combustion chamber or  air-cell is of the Freeman-Sanders type... So I don't know about the  Ricardo soubriquet, sorry. Ricardo refers to the cylinder head design which utilized the Ricardo  Comet indirect injection: The injector at 90º to the bore injecting  into a pre-combustion chamber. Buda engines in the early 50s used it,  it was a setup that was prone  to head cracking, AC when they bought  Buda in the middle fifties redesigned to direct injection. Improved  starting out of sight.



https://www.allischalmers.com/forum/search_results_posts.asp?SearchID= 20200201205126&KW=ed40 This calls the engine a Standard Ricardo.





 https://www.tractor.info/en/tractors/farm/allis-chalmers/allis-chalmer s-ed40



   https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Allis-Chalmers_Co



   Bo Hinch AT List Member (bohinch at gmail.com); For parts , call these  People

 https://www.yesterdaystractors.com/Allis-Chalmers-ED40-Tractor-Parts.html



   AÂ  story on the tractor  https://www.yesterdaystractors.com/articles/artint155.htm



  John (JV) Maddock  Down Under AT List member  (agtronixjv at southcom.com.au); Can anyone suggest where a new set of  injector pipes might be obtained for said tractor? That tractor used  the UK-built Standard 23C engine, with a modified head fitted with  glow plugs. I have a friend who has modified his FE35 by the addition  of glow plugs, but now the original pipes don't fit well, and leak.
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