Tractor Pulling 18-Cylinder Aeroplane Radial Engine: Curtiss-Wright R3350 32W Twin Cyclone SOUND!

This is nuts, I love it

Let's appreciate How they get 80year old Engines running at 5times their designed load... reliably.

As an aircraft mechanic I find this use of these powerplants to be interesting. They are aircooled needing forward flight to stay cool with a large propellor. Compression ratios are relatively low, so the methanol fuel mixture must be to keep them cool. Working on radials is very labor intensive and there are lots of things to go wrong with 70+ year old technology. Pretty wild.

Spettacolare questa disciplina. Ho visto che c'è stato un evento ad Agazzino, a pochi km da casa mia. Nei dintorni di Piacenza, c'è un trattore tipo questi, non so però che motore abbia, sicuramente di derivazione areonautica.

Ciao Matteo, ma che video!!!!!😨😨😨😨. Wooow, poi quell' Allison che mi sorprende con l'effetto candelabro!!!!!!!😨😨😨 sono senza parole........

Если приглядеться, то в один момент из выхлопа видны диски Маха.

Diese alten Sternmotore haben gefühlt Leistung ohne Ende.

Many years ago, I flew DC-7s as air tankers that dropped retardant on forest fires.

These planes had 4 - R3350s and if I remember, each engine would produce 3400 HP for takeoff and 2800 or 2900 HP continuously. 2800 or 2900 RPM. They were supercharged, 2 speed. Low speed was for under 12,000 feet and high speed was for higher altitude. At takeoff on a hot day, the manifold pressure was just short of 60 inches.

They had the turbo compounds, also known as 'power recovery turbines' too. Mechanics absolutely HATED the PRTs, apparently they were pretty hard to work on.........

They would burn from 1 - 4 gallons of oil per hour during normal operation and leaked quite a bit onto the ground when they were not running. An old joke was 'fill it up with oil and check the gas'........lol

The propellors were 14 feet in diameter. There was a gearbox in the front that was 16:7 engine to prop.

They burned 115/145 avgas, it was purple. Since we flew only in the summer, the oil was 80W. It was 60W for winter but there aren't forest fires in winter......At normal cruise, they would burn around 100 gallons per hour.

If you treated them properly, they would give very little trouble but they were not very tolerant of any sort of abuse. Especially applying takeoff power when the heads and/or oil was not up to temperature yet.

These engines were designed in the mid 1930s, the first one ran in 1937. They didn't have computer drafting back then, not even calculators. If close was good enough, you used a slide rule, if it needed to be exact, you wrote out the math on paper. Pretty amazing for an engine that would produce more than 1 HP per cubic inch of displacement.

This video brings back very fond memories of these planes and the engines that powered them........

Good

why are they smoking in pullers ? Not that much smoke in aircrafts

Insane.

Dat sound... <3

Edit: finally, someone found a way to record the sound of these engines with something resembling reality. Well, not really, but better than anything else I found on YT... I've never been to tractor pulling events, but to airshows. That radial sound... goosebumps!

Idiot keeps putting up the cc during the video action.

THE EXHAUST IS MAKING SHOCK DIAMONDS FROM EXITING AND HYPERSONIC SPEEDS

I don't use Fakebook. I can only "follow" you here. So post more videos. Radials kick ass. Can 3350's be paired? 36 cylinders. Frankenstein. It would absolutely destroy all competition. Including zvedza dragon fire. It would be the final word in tractor pull. Unless somebody paired a couple zvedza's. 84 cylinders Insane. Need a bigger lead sled.

are these engines better then the multiple v8s and turbines used in tractor pulling? thanks

What is the lever the crew pull up before starting and back off when stopped?

If you don't like the sound of radial engines then I guess you must have never had sex.

If you don't like the sound of radial engines then I guess you've never had sex.

I love radial engines! We have one that’s part of east cost pullers called the radial reactor! It’s awesome

I don't think these engines are very well suited for tractor pulling .

those engines sound soo evil.

They sound mean!! Love it

what are they setting/adjustinf right before and after the pull ? Mixture?

I notice on the radial engines one of the pit crew flips a lever on the carbuerator just before the pull and many times someone flips it back at the end. Anyone know what that lever is for?

These engines do NOT have turbo compounding-you can see the exhaust from each cylinder is directly exhausted to the air.

Some of those are running so pig rich. Black smoke everywhere. Way to rich for good power. Don't they know how to tune these things?

Not a whole lot of wheel speed that is typical of the diesel pulling tractors... 🤷‍♂ It just kind of bounces around and unloads the tires. 🤔

Chega formar shock diamond acima dos tubos de escape.