The Austin D and K series engines are a

straight-six engine The straight-six engine (also referred to as an inline-six engine; abbreviated I6 or L6) is a piston engine with six cylinders arranged in a straight line along the crankshaft. A straight-six engine has perfect primary and secondary engine bal ...

made by the British Austin Motor Company between 1939 and 1968. It was developed initially for the lorry market; but was used in a number of automobiles in its later life. It was an

overhead valve An overhead valve (OHV) engine, sometimes called a ''pushrod engine'', is a piston engine whose valves are located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier flathead engines, where the valves were located be ...

non-crossflow cylinder head design. Both block and head were made out of

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron– carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impu ...

. All engines had a forged four

main bearing Main may refer to: Geography *Main River (disambiguation) **Most commonly the Main (river) in Germany * Main, Iran, a village in Fars Province *" Spanish Main", the Caribbean coasts of mainland Spanish territories in the 16th and 17th centuries ...

crankshaft.Porter (1985) p64 The engine was developed under the close watch of Austin chief Leonard Lord. The design was inspired by the

Chevrolet Stovebolt engine The Chevrolet Stovebolt engine is a straight-six engine made in two versions between 1929 and 1962 by the Chevrolet Division of General Motors. It replaced the company's inline-four as their sole engine offering from 1929 through 1954, and wa ...

which was an inline six cylinder engine that was used by General Motors British subsidiary

Bedford Vehicles Bedford Vehicles, usually shortened to just Bedford, was a brand of vehicle manufactured by Vauxhall Motors, then a subsidiary of multinational corporation General Motors. Established in April 1931, Bedford Vehicles was set up to build com ...

. In the late 1930s, when rival Austin decided to get into the 2-3 ton payload lorry market and in a crash development programme based the design on the basic architecture of this "Stove Bolt" engine. Austin however made detail improvements to the Chevrolet design. Austin's engineers added detachable shell main and connecting rod bearings and pressurized lubrication. The initial design had a

engine displacement Engine displacement is the measure of the cylinder volume swept by all of the pistons of a piston engine, excluding the combustion chambers. It is commonly used as an expression of an engine's size, and by extension as a loose indicator of t ...

of 3460cc. During the Second World War, Austin increased the bore and stroke to enlarge it into a 3991cc engine which produced 87 bhp. The larger engine was put in military trucks beginning in1940. Both engine sizes were in production after the war. When the carburettor was changed from

Zenith The zenith (, ) is an imaginary point directly "above" a particular location, on the celestial sphere. "Above" means in the vertical direction ( plumb line) opposite to the gravity direction at that location ( nadir). The zenith is the "high ...

to Stromberg, it produced 100 bhp. Truck engines had K designations and car engines had D designations

Applications

The engine was first used in the Austin K30 light truck and

Austin K2/Y The Austin K2/Y is a British heavy military ambulance that was used by all Commonwealth services during the Second World War. Built by Austin, it was based on the 1938 Austin K30 30-cwt light truck which as the K2 chassis was built during the w ...

military ambulance 1939. After the war, it continued to power the later Austin Loadstar 1-ton truck and the 4x4 variant K9. Post war, it went on to power a number of cars such as the Austin Sheerline and

Princess Princess is a regal rank and the feminine equivalent of prince (from Latin '' princeps'', meaning principal citizen). Most often, the term has been used for the consort of a prince, or for the daughter of a king or prince. Princess as a subs ...

luxury vehicles, Jensen Interceptor and Jensen 541. The last car to have it was the 1968 DM4

Vanden Plas Vanden Plas is the name of coachbuilders who produced bodies for specialist and up-market automobile manufacturers. Latterly the name became a top-end luxury model designation for cars from subsidiaries of British Leyland and the Rover Group, ...

Princess Limousine. There were four cylinder engines based on the D-Series six cylinder engine in various capacities using common parts from 2199-2660cc petrol to 2178-2520cc diesel known initially as the 2.2-litre Austin BS1 OHV. They powered cars such as the

Austin 16 hp The Austin Sixteen (also Austin 16) is a 2.2-litre motor car that was built by Austin from 1945 until 1949. It was the first 'new' car to be produced by Austin following the end of the Second World War. Apart from the name, it shared nothing w ...

, A70 Hampshire and Hereford, A90 Atlantic, the

Austin-Healey 100 The Austin-Healey 100 is a sports car that was built by Austin-Healey from 1953 until 1956. Based on Austin A90 Atlantic mechanicals, it was developed by Donald Healey to be produced in-house by his small Healey car company in Warwick. Hea ...

-4 and the Austin Gipsy, a generation of commercial vans beginning with the Austin K8, as well as some models of the iconic London black taxi such as the

Austin FX3 The Austin FX3 is a taxicab that was sold in the United Kingdom by the Austin from 1948 to 1958. It was designed to comply with the Metropolitan Police Conditions of Fitness for London taxicabs, but was also used in other towns and cities in the ...

and

Austin FX4 The Austin FX4 is a hackney carriage that was produced from 1958 until 1997. It was sold by Austin from 1958 until 1982, when Carbodies, who had been producing the FX4 for Austin, took over the intellectual rights to the car. Carbodies continu ...

. At some point during Michael Edwardes reconstruction of British Leyland, the plant producing the engine was sold off to

Standard Motor Products of India Standard was an Indian brand of automobile which was produced by Standard Motor Products of India Limited (SMPIL) in Chennai, Madras from 1951 to 1988. Indian Standards were variations of vehicles made in the United Kingdom by Standard Motor Comp ...

where it was used to power a locally-built Standard Atlas based commercial van known as the Standard Twenty and planned for use in the Standard 2000 (a rebadged

Rover SD1 The Rover SD1 is both the code name and eventual production name given to a series of executive cars built by the Specialist Division (later the ''Jaguar-Rover-Triumph'' division) of British Leyland (BL), under the Rover marque. It was produ ...

), later being re-imported from India to be used in the refurbished Carbodies version of the Austin FX4 known as the FX4Q during the 1980s.

References

*{{cite magazine, title=The A, B - and D of Austin Engines , date=February 1985 , first=Lindsay , last=Porter , magazine=Thoroughbred and Classic Cars , url=https://chicagolandmgclub.com/history/pdf/ab+d_austin_engines_t+cc_feb85.pdf , format=pdf , via=chicagolandmgclub.com

External links

D-series Engine rebuild story
D-Series engine Automobile engines BMC engines

Applications

See also

References

External links