Featured Al-Khalid and 6TD-2 Engines: An Informative Article

[Reichmarshal]

VT4 as T59 replacement?


How are you defining obsolete fleet here?

take out AK, t80ud, and to some extent, t85 from a fleet of almost 2500 tanks, and you have serious problems.

do they know weak points of their customers by the region, hence categories of the stunners?

besides, VT4s will be front line, not T59 replacements.

stunts like these don't work with professional armies like PA. otherwise we would be seeing oplot in our fleet.
Baki a cup of tea is a cup of tea n business is business.

 

[Adnan ash]

can anyone confirm from an authentic source about the engine of our VT-4 tanks......?
1300HP,1400HP or 1500HP

 

[Paul2]

can anyone confirm from an authentic source about the engine of our VT-4 tanks......?
1300HP,1400HP or 1500HP

Type 99, whose derivative is VT4, was made with sole goal of accommodating bigger engines than Type 90, and use single gearbox+conventional tank steering.

Type 90 was super-glued to its Ukerainian engine with 2 gearboxes, and there was no way to upgrade it without basically re-engineering the drive train entirely, or making a Chinese analog to the engine, its cooling system, its hydraulics, its steering computer, its ECU, and etc, which was beyond Norinco's means.

So they just made a new bigger hull, which is Type 99. It has conventional drive train, one gearbox, conventional cooling, and does not use hydraulics as extensively.

Honestly, I doubt Norinco will agree to to undo the very point of Type 99 design just to continue AK programme.

So, if new AK will be Type 99 derived, it will have regular engine. If they keep using Type 90 hull, then they will keep the engine.

 

[Dustom999]

Chinese homegrown engines for tanks appears to be better, based on information available in public. I studied bit about engine electronics used in newer light tank.
As a package, These engines are lighter by atleast 30% than Russian / Ukrainian design that use cast iron Blocks and heads, while Chinese have moved on to ASCT( advanced semisolid casting) for having high strength aluminium blocks with spl alloy inserts for holding crank. Use of adaptive electronic control for fuel injection and engine Temperature management + other features like automatic anti stoll etc.
But i believe bigger leap over is use of electronic controlled automatic gear boxes that Chinese have employed on newer tanks, they are a big step ahead of manual dogboxes used in Russian ones.

 

[Arthur Curry]

View attachment 690688
The Al Khalid derived from Norinco Type 90IIM MBT. It was in the early 90s, when India started to test their Arjun MBT. Pakistanis looked for a MBT design that could be produced by herself.
Norinco provided their own Type 90IIM prototype, this is an MBT design which comprised many Western components, such as engine and transmission.

There were 4 prototypes for Al-Khalid development, namely P1, P2, P3 and P4.
P1 has a Chinese tank diesel engine with ZF LSG3000 transmission.
P2 has a British Perkins CV12 Condor diesel engine with French SESM ESM500 transmission.
P3 has a Ukrainian KMDB 6TD-2 2-cycle boxer engine with its own twin planetary gearbox.
P4 has a German MB871 engine with ZF LSG3000 transmission, similar to South Korean K1 MBT.

Norinco and Pakistanis planned to adopt one of the Western powerpack at first, but due to CoCom (Coordinating Committee for Export to Communist Countries) restrictions, China is under embargo, which means China would not import weapons form Western countries. Obviously P3 powerplant would be the only choice. All those descriptions on the internet about ESM500 in Al-Khalid is fatally wrong.
View attachment 690685
The Al-Khalid pre-production batch and production version all equipped with Ukrainian KMDB 6TD-2 powerpack.
It is an extremely compact design, the engine laid transversely in engine room, twin planetary gearboxes connect to both left and right end. The 6TD-2 has two crankshafts: the front one drives the mechanical supercharger, while the rear one drives the gearboxes. The cooling system covering the whole engine room, the engine itself has no mechanical connection to the cooling system, and the cooling system doesn't need mechanical drive. The cooling system based on a unique principle: exhaust gas driven ejector. The exhaust gas from the engine is injected through the outlet ducting, produce a low pressure in the outlet side, that will suck in cold air from the inlet side. This principle is also used in the T-64, T-80UD and T-84, but as far as I know, Swedish Ikv 91 is the only western tank that have similar cooling principle.
View attachment 690671
As a result, the total length of powerpack is significantly shortened, much more shorter than the European powerpack mentioned above. This leads to a spare storage room between the fighting compartment and the engine compartment. This storage is for extra ammunition and fuel, when turret points 3 or 9 o'clock, the top cover of the storage could be opened from outside, containing 10 rounds for main gun, with projectiles on the outsides, semi-combustible charges on the inside.
The data table from HIT also describe the ammunition capacity as 39+10, means that 22 ready rounds in the T-72 type carousel autoloader, 17 backup rounds scatter around the fighting compartment, and extra 10 rounds could be carried in the storage room.
View attachment 690687
The driver of Al-Khalid control the vehicle via steering wheel and an automatic gear control box. The steering wheel and gear control box send electrical signals to the computer, then computer control the hydraulic servo actuator to perform engage and disengage of brakes and clutches, making steering and gear changes, as well as adjusting the speed and torque of the engine.
View attachment 690686
Mechanically the gearboxes are nearly the same as T-64s and T-72s, but have different side reducer unit. The KMDB side reducer unit is designed as a secondary gearbox, acting like a forward-reverse selector. When both reducers were put into reverse, the vehicle can reverse using the normal forward ranges. From 1st gear to 4th gear, all could be used as high speed reverse, and that's why KMDB said this is a 7F4R gearbox system. And if only one reducer was put into reverse, the track will be driving in opposites direction, causing the vehicle turns within its tracks, a.k.a. pivot steer or center steer. T-84 also applied this driving and steering system.
The advantages of Al-Khalid's powerpack is the versatility: 2 types of MBT in the Pakistanis arsenal, T-80UD, Al-Khalid, share the same engine and gearbox.

It doesn't have the exhaust gas forced cooling system . Cyclic rotor fans are bieng installed in the exhaust vanes , to propel air from the cooling system . Tanks suffered from overheating problems .

 

[Arthur Curry]

View attachment 690688
The Al Khalid derived from Norinco Type 90IIM MBT. It was in the early 90s, when India started to test their Arjun MBT. Pakistanis looked for a MBT design that could be produced by herself.
Norinco provided their own Type 90IIM prototype, this is an MBT design which comprised many Western components, such as engine and transmission.

There were 4 prototypes for Al-Khalid development, namely P1, P2, P3 and P4.
P1 has a Chinese tank diesel engine with ZF LSG3000 transmission.
P2 has a British Perkins CV12 Condor diesel engine with French SESM ESM500 transmission.
P3 has a Ukrainian KMDB 6TD-2 2-cycle boxer engine with its own twin planetary gearbox.
P4 has a German MB871 engine with ZF LSG3000 transmission, similar to South Korean K1 MBT.

Norinco and Pakistanis planned to adopt one of the Western powerpack at first, but due to CoCom (Coordinating Committee for Export to Communist Countries) restrictions, China is under embargo, which means China would not import weapons form Western countries. Obviously P3 powerplant would be the only choice. All those descriptions on the internet about ESM500 in Al-Khalid is fatally wrong.
View attachment 690685
The Al-Khalid pre-production batch and production version all equipped with Ukrainian KMDB 6TD-2 powerpack.
It is an extremely compact design, the engine laid transversely in engine room, twin planetary gearboxes connect to both left and right end. The 6TD-2 has two crankshafts: the front one drives the mechanical supercharger, while the rear one drives the gearboxes. The cooling system covering the whole engine room, the engine itself has no mechanical connection to the cooling system, and the cooling system doesn't need mechanical drive. The cooling system based on a unique principle: exhaust gas driven ejector. The exhaust gas from the engine is injected through the outlet ducting, produce a low pressure in the outlet side, that will suck in cold air from the inlet side. This principle is also used in the T-64, T-80UD and T-84, but as far as I know, Swedish Ikv 91 is the only western tank that have similar cooling principle.
View attachment 690671
As a result, the total length of powerpack is significantly shortened, much more shorter than the European powerpack mentioned above. This leads to a spare storage room between the fighting compartment and the engine compartment. This storage is for extra ammunition and fuel, when turret points 3 or 9 o'clock, the top cover of the storage could be opened from outside, containing 10 rounds for main gun, with projectiles on the outsides, semi-combustible charges on the inside.
The data table from HIT also describe the ammunition capacity as 39+10, means that 22 ready rounds in the T-72 type carousel autoloader, 17 backup rounds scatter around the fighting compartment, and extra 10 rounds could be carried in the storage room.
View attachment 690687
The driver of Al-Khalid control the vehicle via steering wheel and an automatic gear control box. The steering wheel and gear control box send electrical signals to the computer, then computer control the hydraulic servo actuator to perform engage and disengage of brakes and clutches, making steering and gear changes, as well as adjusting the speed and torque of the engine.
View attachment 690686
Mechanically the gearboxes are nearly the same as T-64s and T-72s, but have different side reducer unit. The KMDB side reducer unit is designed as a secondary gearbox, acting like a forward-reverse selector. When both reducers were put into reverse, the vehicle can reverse using the normal forward ranges. From 1st gear to 4th gear, all could be used as high speed reverse, and that's why KMDB said this is a 7F4R gearbox system. And if only one reducer was put into reverse, the track will be driving in opposites direction, causing the vehicle turns within its tracks, a.k.a. pivot steer or center steer. T-84 also applied this driving and steering system.
The advantages of Al-Khalid's powerpack is the versatility: 2 types of MBT in the Pakistanis arsenal, T-80UD, Al-Khalid, share the same engine and gearbox.

It is not a boxer engine , it is an opposed piston layout. The opposed piston layout is the most efficient engine layout possible . West is adopting it now in the Achates Power Advanced Combat Engine , while East is using it since the 80s

 

[Paul2]

It is not a boxer engine , it is an opposed piston layout. The opposed piston layout is the most efficient engine layout possible . West is adopting it now in the Achates Power Advanced Combat Engine , while East is using it since the 80s

Vickers also used one https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leyland_L60

Napier tried to copy Junkers engine in just before the WW2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napier_Culverin