Intake burnt, oil gasket leak.

Originally Posted by Voyager

Just because it was more complicated doesn't mean it was superior. Any engine configuration with inverted cylinders tends to trap oil and other fluids in the inverted cylinder heads, leading to hydraulic lock on ignition and other fun things. There are reasons why there is only one surviving DB60X engine.

well actually the DB engines weren't more complex. The inverted cylinders solution had its valid reasons:

1) improved fwd visibility: your nose section is tapered upwards and your exhausts are not bang in your face like on the Merlin.

2) better protection of injection system: Hurris and Spits caught fire like torches because of the inlet pipes being on top of the engines, in a very vulnerable position. In the DB engines they were under the engine, in a more protected area.

3) Room for cannon: the space below the engine meant you could actually fit a big ass cannon on the plane axis, which was accurate being in the roll axis and wouldn't affect manouverability like cannons on wings. The narrow section on the top meant easy installation of machineguns very close to the roll axis as well.

4) oil recovery on the DB engine is quite clever and efficient.


the fact that there aren't many DB engines in working order surviving today is for two simple reasons: spare parts availability and airframes to be fitted to. Merlin and P&W engines were produced and maintained well after WW2 and there are still factories and maintenance shops that keep or produce spare parts stock. The engineering of the components is quite a sophisticated thing to do (see if you can find the assembly diagram of a DB crankshaft to have an idea of what I'm talking about), and if there's not a market request for it then there's no market, simple..