Saw a post done a while ago somewhere,About a engine that used 1 valve for intake & exhaust,Developed by American Monovalve,
Packard made the 4str Diesel & Guiberson made the Radial version,

How did this function & where was it used,Also has anyone got any pictures or schematics of it

Both the Packard and Guiberson were radial aircraft engines but I'm sure guiberson also made industrial engines.Maybe their industrials were conventional.I have photo's of these and some specs of the engines as described in 1937 in Dykes
automobile and engine encyclopedia.I'll follow this message with a description of the operating principles, and I can get you copies of the pictures.

I'm back.Looking at a section of "Diesel Engineering Handbook" 1934.The American Monovalve shown is of L-head design, 125 HP @1200 r/m.Looks like a flathead Continental with an injection pump.The cross section shows both the low inlet passage and the high exhaust manifold leading to the single valve."on the exhaust stroke the gases are discharged at high velocity into the venturi shaped exhaust pipe, the flow continuing through the upstroke of the piston, causing a vacuum to be formrd at the engine end of the manifold,broken by air through air filter into the exhaust pipe,scavenging and cooling the pipe with excess air.The venturi construction of the intake and exhaust manifolds creates a clear air seal between the incoming air and the exhaust gases." downstroke of the piston then draws in fresh air for the next cycle.The cam lobe pictured is very long as you may imagine since the valve would need to be open for a complete revolution.They speak of a truck engine with a blower driven off the cam shaft.They also speak of a lube system that varys the pressure and volume in proportion to speed, load, and temperature of the engine bearings.Man!
old ain't always plain is it.I'll gather some copies in the next few days and send them to whoever wants them.I'll need an address.Thanks for the interest.Maybe of our engineers can testify of experience with these critters.I saw a picture and
brief description of one of these engines as a power unit in Gas Engine Magazine 2 or 3 years ago.Maybe I can find that too.I never throw anything away but I sure misplace things.

Wow! Old Time EGR. LOL
Yeah you all think these things that are done now are new. Like the hot rodders using NO2. The Germans were doing that in their airplanes in WWII


Reminds me of the time I ran a 2 cycle gocart engine, crankcase port scavenged, with the carburetor off and the intake port covered. Told my brother it would run. Yeah kid stuff. Those rod bearings didn't like it though.

I wouldnt mind a copy of the schematics if possible, Click on my name for the e-mail address

It seems verry interesting. Could you post the schematics on the site?
Lilian

D8BOB, I got a similar 2 stroke lesson once to the amusement of the local service station loafers.I had acquired a well worn "Famous James" motorcycle with a villiers engine and didn't even know where spares were available.The carb had a terrible habit of flooding the crankcase if you parked without cutting off fuel supply and, clearing usually resulted in a wet plug.Well I stopped for gas and promptly recognized my mistake when I couldn't restart.I borrowed a screwdriver and removed the carb and thought I would just push it a little with gear engaged to clear the fuel out, when the thing cranked and I hung on for about 100 yds. at full song before the crankcase emptied and I had to push it back to get my carb. I just acted like I do it that way all the time but I can tell you I didn't do it again.Thank the LORD small town traffic back then was keeping an eye out for unusual situations.I'll find a way to put the monovalve pictures on the site soon and can post some info on the hesselman that someone mentioned.Did that message disappear? That reminds me I had a question about the Allis Chalmers oil engine.

Evidently the monovalve was chosen for aircraft diesel engines. To save weight, and the lack of air filtration requirements.
Another thing comes to mind. Years ago I remember seeing an article in a hot rod type magazine that showed a mono wire ignition system. Yes all the plugs were wired to the same source.

I have a copy of that issue and it was Hot Rod Mag.The engine was in a show rod with engine exposed and all the plugs on the V-8 were wired to one coil with the plugs all on a common wire.The heads were modified by having the plugs screwed into an ante-chamber like a diesel pre-combustion chamber that communicated with the main chamber by a small hole.It looked neat and the owner said it got a lot of comments like it can't run, but he said the engine knew best when to light the fire.I guess it ignited when the compressed gases were driven into the small chamber by the rising piston.Hey, D8 Bob you weren't one of them old hot rodders too.Lots of folks bitten by the engines and machines bug--never get over it on this earth, but I don't want to.

I never had the $ to do it. But have helped many others. I had a 1957 Chev Pickup in the good ole days. Had a 327 with a Rochester FI unit. You might say that was my hot rod. Yeah the good old Duntov 30-30 cam. Other than the truck 4 speed it all went pretty good. I might still have that magazine too some where. How about you EngineNut?

About the same for me not much $ but we did what we could and pulled wrenches on anything that was intresting, most of the time for peanuts or less.Learned to love engines and machinery but mechanical work in industry(chemical plant) payed the bills and fed the kids.Always wanted to hone some skills operating but too many other intrests and a job I couldn't afford to leave.I also got some practice with the old Rochester sprinkler system and still have my 1957 unit and my brother is about to put his 1958 Vette on the road with a 1962 unit on it.They were dirt cheap through the early 70's and I got to work on several that people would buy and run for a while.You had to be dedicated to love one sometimes but it was a satisfying thing to run.They smoothed a choppy cam some and usually got a little better gas mileage and that sound with a low restriction or no air filter was just plain great.The value on them now is out of sight--I sold a 58 passenger car FI air filter 8 years ago for 500$ to buy a 8 HP Fairbanks-Morse model N.I appreciate this site and the chance to learn from the varied experiences of you engineers.Keep up the good work.

Yeah setting that enrichment diaphragm was ticklish with that fluctuating manifold pressure. Albeit negative. LOL Wow you sound like me in many respects. Whats your age? And where abouts are ya? Wow I sure wish I would have known about that FI unit. Mine was a 60. Yeah missed the boat could have got lots of the parts then too. I paid $60.00 for mine. Do you know of anymore? Please email if you do.

Enginenut, so glad youre back. The Packard and Guiberson were both developed as aircraft engines origionaly, Guiberson went on to be fitted in ww2 STUART tanks there is one in a machine here in Australia. They were both fitted in "STINSON" aircraft. The "PACKARD" monovalve also utilised a unit fuel pump/injector, maybe thats where G.M. got the idea from.or maybe packard followed Winton.I have several bits of info with illustrations on all these engines. I was asking a few weeks ago at ACMOC on the GM51 series engine and was told you were the man to talk to.I have also rounded up info and section drawings on the X16-338 series sub engines.by G.M. and am on the hunt for the smaller pancake subchaser engines, Do you know anything about them???
Hope to hear from you soon. Ray.