External Publication
Visit Post

Thank you Joe! Here's the cool story he just shared in the comments on the Coffman Starter

Just A Car Guy [Unofficial] April 4, 2026
Source

_

_

Joe wrote:

I have a friend who salvaged an air-cooled rotary 9 cylinder diesel engine that was being used as power for a rural Wisconsin sawmill.

He told me the engine had been started life in a WW2 Sherman M4 tank. After rebuilding the engine and the diesel injection system he looked at the handful of old "shotgun shells' for the starter but instead welded pipe fittings in place of the shell receiver and starts the engine with a surge of nitrogen gas from a high pressure bottle.

The giant paperweight is mounted to a wheeled stand and he occasionally rolls it out and fires it up to rattle the neighborhood.

Thank you Joe! I wish there were photos!

_ _

This photo borrowed from https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-media/NASM-A19710893000-NASM2015-01753-000001

I don't think I've ever heard of the Sherman tank having a radial engine though... the diesel radial was aircraft focused

the engine in the photo above was publicly shown for the first time during the Detroit Aircraft Show in April 1930.

The Packard Diesel Model DR-980 won the 1931 Collier Trophy.

The Packard Diesel DR-980 was the first compression ignition, oil-burning engine flown. It powered such aircraft as the:

Stinson SM-1DX Detroiter;

Packard-Bellanca Pacemaker;

Verville Air Coach;

Ford 11-AT-1 Trimotor;

Goodyear Defender airship;

Towle FA-3 Flying boat;

Stewart M-2 Monoplane;

Waco Taper Wing;

and Consolidated XPT-8A aircraft.

Discussion in the ATmosphere

Loading comments...