Ricardo cylinder heads

[crankedup]

My recent aquisition Vauxhall is apparently fitted with an Ricardo head, all I can find out about the head is that the port shaping is modified. Can anyone please enlighten me about Ricardo, which I assume was an early tuning Company. Please excuse my ignorance.

[davepen]

Not sure of the cylinder head, but I'm sure I have a book at home.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Engines-Enterprise-Life-Ha...

Also company still going - I thought they just made seats - but they were going to do the TVR Speed 6 engine...

http://www.ricardo.com/en-gb/About-Ricardo/Our-His...

[MX7]

davepen said:

Also company still going - I thought they just made seats

I think that's Recaro.

[crankedup]

The man was an brilliant engineer then, thanks for posting. I have since learnt that his cylinder head porting design extracted the same horsepower in the side valve engine as its equivelant overhead valve engine! Clever stuff eighty odd years back.

[a8hex]

crankedup said:

The man was an brilliant engineer then, thanks for posting. I have since learnt that his cylinder head porting design extracted the same horsepower in the side valve engine as its equivelant overhead valve engine! Clever stuff eighty odd years back.

Ricardo is a serious heavy weight technical consultancy company. I think they troubleshoot lots of stuff for the auto industry.

[srob]

Ricardo were involved with Triumph motorbikes in the 1920's. Ricardo developed the OHV head I believe, which was 4 valve rather than the (slightly!) more common twinport as they appear.



Said to be an amazing bike to ride and performance way ahead of their years.

And yes, the company is still going.

(Apologies if I'm repeating what's in the link - haven't got time to check it at work!)

Edited by srob on Tuesday 26th January 15:22

[crankedup]

Seems that the clever money in the 1920's was in engineering development (like Lotus today) and selling it on. Ricardo, that name still sounds contempory and the motorcyle image - Wow what an great looking bike.

[Gaspode]

Harry Ricardo was the man on engine design - it was him wot developed the Octane system. I've got a copy of his "The high-peed internal combustion engine", it's a real heavyweight technical read, but fascinating stuff.

[crankedup]

Sounds a little like the Chapman of his era.

[//j17]

crankedup said:

Sounds a little like the Chapman of his era.

I'd have said more akin to the Al Melling of his day, what with the engine (as opposed to chassis) focus.

[tempus]

The company did a lot of `bike work in the `70s and more recently were asked by TVR to work on the Speed Six.