Wiley,
The Bristol Frightener and the Varsity, Valletta, Viking all had Hercs but the Sea Fury had Centaurus ( same as the Ambassador - 2,650 Hp!!)
Lu, I dont know if the web site shows it but the sleeve describes an ellipse. Its driven by a crank pin from a gear wheel. I suppose after a conventional P&W the system seems a bit more complicated but in the real world it was much less trouble. No valve to burn out , no tappits to adjust every 200 hours, no push rod oil leaks etc etc! When I first got involved I could not believe that the very small crank pin that drive the sleeve would not fail every 50 hours but in over 8 years of the beasts ( Herc and Centaurus) never saw a pin fail. Also on the Centaurus as I mentioned earlier never changed a cylinder and had 1 premature removal ( super charger drive shaft seal failed and pumped all the engine oil through the supercharger)
We did over 50,000 engine hours
The Reno Sea Fury had the Centaurus and I think they managed to get well over 3,000 HP
