Spool Valves

[Guest Robin Coleman]

I know from my childhood association with old auto historians that there were a number of autos that used spool or rotary valves instead of poppet valves. Can any of you tell me which cars had these type valves? Was it the fact these types were not very good or was it because they were complicated to make and service that these valves are no longer used?

[Dandy Dave]

Spool valves were a design used mainly in steam engines. Not sure of any gas engines that used these. Dandy Dave!

[Guest Gary Hearn]

The only spool valves that I am familiar with are on the hydraulic systems of my track loaders.

[DLynskey]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Robin Coleman</div><div class="ubbcode-body">...spool or rotary valves instead of poppet valves.</div></div>

Are you thinking about "sleeve" valves as used in the Willys Knight? My dad always talked about them because his father had owned Willys Knights. They lived on a remote mountain and he could always tell when his father was coming home by the distinctive sound of the sleeve valve engine. Like you, I never bothered to understand how they worked.

Don L.

[Mark Shaw]

Yes, Willy's Knight cars had sleeve valve engines that worked, but not as well as "poppet" type valves we use today. The major advantage of poppet valves is speed & simplicity of operation. They open and close quickly and can be made with much less expense than sleeve valves in engines.

[Rusty_OToole]

There were quite a few sleeve valve cars including Willys, Falcon, and Stearns Knight in the US, Daimler in England, Argyll in Scotland, Voisin in France and Minerva in Belgium. But I do not know of any spool valve or rotary valves that made it to production.

The exception would be a rotary valve 2 stroke, some of them were used in motorcycles in the 60s such as the Bridgestone 350. But I think that is a different type of rotary valve.

[Guest Robin Coleman]

You are right, I meant sleeve valves. If anyone here has a diagram or some other visual aid about them I would very much like to see it.

[Guest Robin Coleman]

Rusty; I am very familiar with the rotary valve two stoke bikes and have restored a few. Bridgestone was a very well made scooter but I did not care for its rotary shift trans. Kawasaki made many models with rotary valves, but they grew into disuse because they added a lot of width to the engine cases and were impractical for multi cylinder enginge.

[Dandy Dave]

The first manufacture to use a "Knight" Sleeve valve engine was Stoddard Dayton, with the introduction of the Stoddard Knight. Very few were produced as the company was part of Brisco's United States Motors which went bust in 1913. Only Maxwell survived to become Chrysler Corp. Dandy Dave!