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193:, thereby preventing detonation. The relative inefficiency of the T-head engine was offset by significant reliability gains and suited the lower travel and racing speeds of the era. With the entire cylinder bore and cooling passages often contained within the head, many T-head engines required no head gasket and fewer gaskets overall, reducing potential leakage. This reliability made T-head engines popular in early auto racing, where engine reliability was more crucial than peak performance. However, as other engine designs enhanced their reliability during World War I, the T-head's performance limitations led to its decline in racing applications.
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162:. It was relatively complex for its time, requiring separate camshafts for the intake and exhaust valves. T-heads were typically intricate castings, necessitating blind bores for the cylinders and valve chambers. This complexity made T-head engines more expensive to produce compared to the simpler L-head (flathead) engines. Moreover, T-head engines were heavy and inefficient for their displacement, producing less horsepower than a
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by its valve placement. In T-head engines, the intake valves are located on one side of the engine block and the exhaust valves on the other. When viewed from the end of the crankshaft, especially in a cutaway view, the cylinder and combustion chamber resemble a 'T', leading to the name "T-head". In
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L-head engines equally reliable, while also being more powerful, lighter, more fuel-efficient, and cheaper to manufacture. Despite this, T-heads remained in use in heavy equipment, large trucks, and fire trucks, being phased out of production only in the 1950s.
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before the spark plug could ignite it. Detonation, a leading cause of catastrophic engine failure, necessitated managing both the temperature and compression of the highly volatile gasoline vapor for maximum reliability.
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company introduced a production four-valve per cylinder T-head motor (Dual Valve Six) in 1918, one of the few, perhaps the only, multi-valve valve-in-block type engines produced.
237:. Stutz and White Motor Car Company both used four valve engines in 1917, developing 65 and 72 horse power respectively. The White Company engine was a mono block design. The
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available then, which ignited at lower temperatures than contemporary fuels. If gasoline vapor became too hot or was overly compressed, it risked pre-ignition or
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One reason for the T-head design's popularity from the late 19th century to the 1920s was the type of
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and the last T-head engine in production for personal cars was manufactured by an
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The T-head addressed these issues by placing the valves in open alcoves on opposite sides of the
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produced T-head engines for their fire engines until the 1950s.
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109:Learn how and when to remove this message
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16:Type of early internal combustion engine
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271:. Treasure. pp. 70–71.
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