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http://www.network54.com/Forum/47209/thread/1339248075/Leyland+L60+engine+reliability
copied from above site.
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]L60 myths
[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica][/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]June 9 2012, 6:01 PM [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica]While the L60 was undoubtedly a poor engine it has generated many urban myths around it. I have seen its parentage linked to Deltic diesel engine as used on UK railway, German bombers, and many more myths. The design came from a project from Junkers at the end of the war, and by various political means it (the new tank engine design) was given to British Leyland, partly because the need for a new engine for then ew tank was urgent. Rolls Royce were developing a new V12 engine but it would be 2 more years before it was ready. The the European nations came up with a wonderful idea (as they do) that all new engines must be multi fuel, every other country said ok then ignored it, except for UK, this made the engine slightly bigger with a knock on effect on hull design. Our REME were sent to do a conversion course showing on how to convert to petrol, their words on return are not printable.
There were 4 main areas of failure, cracking of clyinder liners,failure of clyinder lip seals, piston ring breakages and cracking of rear gear case. Some of these faults were blamed on the crew for a while but in the end it was accepted tha BL had to rectify the faults. Various programs were put in place to rectify the faults and gradually the L60 became more reliable, I had one fitted in the field and for 3 years it was perfect no leaks and plenty of power. Overall it affected sales to a extent, it should never have been accepted and mared Chieftain reputation.
As a foot note it worked well in the Eagle and Vickers Vijiyanta, I also have documentation with the IDF praising it and opening negotations to buy it for the fleet.
Rob Griffin
Chieftain and others etc.
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I was an A Mech in REME and have to agree that during my time in BAOR working on the things (from '75 - 84 when Challenger was being phased in), they were hopeless!
The problem seemed to stem from the fact that the L60 was originally used as a generator engine on ships, running at a constant speed in a relatively controlled environment. However put it in a tank hull, give it a hard life, up and down the rev range, and pretty soon the cylinder liners would leak coolant into the cylinders, throwing out plumes of white smoke. The other problem was with the fan drives - one of my first jobs on being posted to 13/18H was to remove the fan belts on all of our squadron's tanks, drill holes in the belts to weaken them and refit the belts - this was so the belt would break before it pulled the fan drive housing off.
I can remember that in my early days ('75 - '77 when with 13/18H) sometimes an L60 might last only around 100km before needing replacement...which was a 3 hour job as a minimum, longer at night in a forest (which is when I lost the ends of my fingers under the rear mounting block)!
Incidentally, the worst job for a mechanic on a Chieftain? Replacing the two large fire extinguishers mounted inside the hull next to the drivers position - working by touch and feel alone, and as the pull cables had to be fitted before the exts could be secured in place, there was a chance that the ext could fall over and go off, therefore becoming a projectile in the drivers compartment. I saw this happen once, and the guy who was actually doing the job had his hand flattened by the ext, crushing his hand againt the hull.
Ah, the memories...
Graeme