chrysler multibank

starting the engine of a sherman m4a4.
this sherman is from the Brussels tankmuseum.

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• sherman
• chrysler
• multibank
• tank
• engine
• a57

[KingMopar7]

Being a Mopar Fan, it is an engineering masterpiece. Glad to hear it was reliable and not as bad as the radial. I would have though setting 5 distributors would be a PITA, along with 5 carbs. I take it the Ford GTAA was the top dog, as far as ease of maintaince/reliability.

[panzerbuff1]

it is indeed an engeneering masterpiece,

setting the distributors is not that bad, juo have to look at each block as a single engine and use the strobe like u do on a normal engine and the cyncronise the carbs u used twin vacuum meters.

the ford afcourse was the easyest but therefore not the most reliable.

[KingMopar7]

I imagine it would be a maintaince nightmare--but, when one has to run on the fly, you work with what you have.

[panzerbuff1]

kingmopar, the chrysler engine was no more or less a maintenance nightmare than the continental radials, we have several sherman in our museum and i find that the continentals need more maintenance than my chrysler. and they also suffer more breakdowns.

[mildude45]

sounds very smooth but doesn't want to idle, I guess it would be difficult trying to synchronize 5 carburetors.

[panzerbuff1]

it idles just great mildude its just happens my mate in the driverseat didn't let it. and synchronizing the carburators was actualy not to dificult.

[KrazyKuul111]

what kind of mileage do you get?

[FlaggerX]

Yeah but try to get all five motors working as one. Tuning them was a headache, and the history proved as much. Give me the GAA, although M4A4 sure beat the other Brit alternatives.

[dginia]

I recently read that the Ford motor was originally developed as a high power aircraft 12-cylinder engine. For whatever reason it was not accepted in those circles for that purpose. When more tank engines were needed, (space dictated ?) it was reduced to a V-8.

[panzerbuff1]

as a matter of fact, during a test with the dufferent engines at fort knox the chrysler engine proved to be the most reliable of them all, there are also after action reports that a sherman with 2 of the 5 enines shot to pieces still made it back on its own power.

[FlaggerX]

Much of the Sherman's design was dicated by the engine, originally the Continental radial. Engine shortages led to lots of experiments, the most successful being the Ford GAA V-8.  To keep production lines going, this engine was cobbled together and mostly used for training or were sent to Great Britain. It was a maintenance headache, but proved reliable enough in combat.