For T34 fans on the V-2-34 engine used for the T-34
from Kampfpanzer.de
"First Appearance: 1939
Country: USSR
The V-2-34 is a version of the V-2 adjusted for the usage in the famous T-34 tank. It was a V-12 cylinder liquid cooled DOHC diesel engine with a max power of 500 HP at 1.800 RPM. The engine has the same design and output as the base V-2, it just received adjusted hull mounting, fuel and cooling connectors, as well as a refined clutch. The V-2-34 features an aluminum alloy body and is meant to be mounted lengthwise in the vehicle hull. Two cylinder banks with 6 cylinders each were placed in an angle of 60 degrees. The pistons are linked to the central crank shaft by wrist connecting rods, which means that only six rods are directly connected to the crank shaft. This special design also results in a slightly lower stroke in both sides of the engine. The right side has a stroke of 186.7 mm and 180mm in the cylinders on the left bank.
The V-2-34 is a DOHC engine, which means two overhead camshafts for each cylinder bank, one controlling the input and one the output valves. Each cylinder is has two input and two output ones.
The engine uses a dry sump lubrication system. Before engine start, the loader of the tank has to manually pump oil from the main reservoir into the engine. Once the engine is started, a mechanical lubrication pump takes over, which presses the majority of the oil onto the crank shaft and the connected rods. A smaller part if fed into the cylinder heads on the camshafts.
One large cooling radiators is mounted on each side of the engine, each responsible for one cylinder bank.
Two box type air cleaners were mounted to the rear of the engine. Each cleaner contained a cyclic filter, as well as oil soaking metal mesh for fine cleaning. Cleaning performance of this design was extremely bad, resulting in the low service life time of the engine.
Starting of the engine was done with an electric starter, mounted at the engine rear on top of the transmission. An auxiliary starter based on pressurized air was also available. It was using air from one tank mounted in the hull front. The tank was not equipped with a compressor, which meant that the tanks had to be filled using an external system.
Before starting the engine, the cooling liquid and the engine oil had to be brought to a certain temperature. This was mainly due to the fact that the oil used had a very high viscosity at low temperatures. As there was no pre-heater installed, the crews had two ways to heat up the liquids. First of all, the liquids could be taken out of the engine and warmed externally. A more combat like way was the use of a small stove. It was placed under the hull and a door under the engine was opened. The heat and smoke of the engine was flowing thru the engine compartment, warming it up.
The V-2-34 was a new engine, which had a negative impact on the performance of the T-34. The engines produced during the first years and until about 1943, didn’t come with a lifetime as expected. Normally, the engine should be able to run for 100h without issues. But due to material and quality issues the engines often didn’t came that far. Continuous improvements during the war increased the life time of the engine constantly to values of 300h and beyond.
One has to keep in mind that the complete manufacturing was shipped behind the Urals in a couple of weeks, which is a masterpiece on its own."
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goes to show everybody had problems with their tank components.
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Report quoted in the Duprey Institute
Most people who read this forum are probably familiar with the assessment which the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland did on a T-34 and a KV-1 in 1942. A recent article by Boris Kavalerchik about the assessment appeared in the Russian-language magazine Voenno-Istoricheskiy Arkhiv, issue No. 1, 2006. I found a couple of things striking. First of all, and this is not the striking part, Kavalerchik says that contrary to popular opinion in Russia which holds that the T-34s which were sent to the US and England were intentionally not of the highest quality, in the spring of 1942 five T-34s were specially prepared using the highest quality parts at the Ural Tank Factory (UTZ), which at that time produced the best T-34s in Russia. These five tanks were better than regular T-34s. One was sent to the U.S., one to England, two to the front, and one to the Peoples Commissariat for Tank Production and can now be found mounted on a pedestal in the yard of the Central Museum of the Armed Forces in Moscow.
The striking part of the article, to me at least, is this part, which comments on Aberdeen’s finding that the T-34 broke down beyond repair after 343 kilometers due to dirt getting into the engine’s cylinders. Apparently this was very good!
“There was nothing unusual about a tank breaking down after such a short period. At that time T-34 tanks were guaranteed not to break down for 1,000 kilometers, but in practice this number was unattainable. According to a report by the Scientific Institute for Armored Equipment (NIBT) to Ya. N. Fedorenko, the chief of the Red Army’s Auto-Armored Directorate, the average distance a T-34 traveled before requiring overhaul (capital repairs) did not exceed 200 kilometers. The Aberdeen T-34 exceeded this.
In 1942 the quality of Soviet tanks had significantly fallen for many understandable reasons. These included the difficulty of reestablishing production by the evacuated factories at new locations, factories switching over to new production, the loss of many supply lines and sources of raw materials, a sharp drop in the average qualification of workers due to losses among experienced workers and the hiring of many new, inexperienced workers including women and teenagers. These new workers worked tirelessly and did everything they could for the front, but they were not qualified. Producing the most tanks possible was the priority, which was understandable since the heavy losses of the initial part of the year had to be made up. Therefore the requirement for quality was reduced, and the military accepted any tank that was built. As a result, in 1942 some 34’s could only go 30-35 kilometers before needing an overhaul.
To a certain degree this was justified because tanks, as a rule, did not survive until the expiration of its overhaul life, short as that was. The life of a tank on the front line was not long – on average 4-10 days (not counting time spent in transit on rail road and being repaired), or from 1-3 attacks. In 1942 the average mileage before being put out of service due to combat was 66.7 kilometers, which was less than half the average mileage before needing an overhaul. The majority of tanks simply didn’t live long enough to break down.
The V-2 diesel engine which equipped T-34s and KV-1s was still suffering growing pains. At that time its designers were struggling to extend the diesel’s service life to 100 hours, but in reality it seldom lasted more than 60. The engine of the T-34 which was tested at Aberdeen broke down at 72.5 hours, of which 58.45 were under load and 14.05 were while idling. The KV’s diesel lasted 66.4 hours. One of the deficiencies of the B-2, besides a short guaranteed life, was an increased fuel consumption (12% above norm), and, especially, a completely unacceptable over-consumption of oil, which exceeded existing norms by 3-8 times! Therefore the range of a T-34 in 1942 was limited not by fuel, but by oil: according to the averages at that time from the technical department of the People’s Commissariat for Tank Production, a T-34 carried enough fuel for 200-220 kilometers, but oil for only 145. At the same time German and American tanks didn’t require any additional oil; it was simply changed every 2,000 kilometers.”
[This message has been edited by Gary Dickson (edited 02-04-2006).]
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despite what folks may think of my posts I have always been impressed by the T-34 and its use against the Germans but
reality is what it is for ALL tanks in WW2.
