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Latest comment: 15 years ago7 comments2 people in discussion
I suspect (I'm not an expert) the engine is more usually known as a Mercedes D.IIIb, which Gunston mentions as producing 185 hp. He has it as a six. The Wiki article on the Mercedes D.III does not mention the b subtype but all its D.IIIs are sixes.TSRL (talk) 21:03, 3 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
Green and Swanborough, my only source on the matter, calls the Daimler D.IIIb an 8 cylinder water cooled engine in 5 consecutive entries (Daimler L6, L8, L9, L11, L14). Furthermore, I'm looking at this picture of the L6, and I can see 4 separate tubes in the exhaust manifold, that makes me pretty confident in the 8 cylinders. -SidewinderX (talk) 21:17, 3 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
Umm! Take the point about the L6, aka D.I as in Daimler D.I; we (WiikiP) have the engine there as a V-8. Gunston does not mention a V-anything in his (brief) article on Mercedes, though there was an inline 8 according to WikiP, and has nothing under Daimler. DB are there, of course but only after 1926. May need to explore the Austro-Daimler catalogue rather than the Mercedes one, though these, too seem to be inlines.TSRL (talk) 21:50, 3 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
It's the Daimler D.I page (Daimler L6) that introduces the Vee possibility. In the meantime, I've seen Gunston has a Benz article in which he talks about a Bz IIIb (1918, " only" 200 hp) which was a V-8 with small cylinders. See Benz Bz.IIIb. Maybe that is the L6 engine, and , if so that of the L11 and L14 also. It's the only other IIIb I've found so far. Somewhat confused, but it's starting to make sense,TSRL (talk) 22:30, 3 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
Been browsing, and think the original notion that it was better known as the Mercedes IIIb (Daimler engines usually were, since Daimler was the parent Co. of Mercedes) was right. The D. that is sometimes included (Mercedes D.III) is of course D for Daimler. The Mercedes III, produced in large numbers was mostly named this way, not as Daimler III. Everyone agrees there were variants, like IIIa/u, but only Gunstone mentions the IIIb in the same breath as the III, implying it was a straight 6. But the engine in the photo you found has to be a Vee 8 (4 exhausts per side) and I have seen (non-citable) mentions of a Mercedes IIIb which was a (not very successful) V-8. Not long ago I'd have thought a Mercedes IIIa and Mercedes IIIb would be substantially alike; but the Benz Bz IIIa was straight and the Bz IIIb a Vee, so not so. Be good to get some hard data on the D.IIIb to add to the Wiki D.III article, if only as an aside. Hope this makes sense.TSRL (talk) 10:07, 4 October 2009 (UTC)Reply
In the hope of getting details I've put out an enquiry on the WikiProjectAircraft page. Somebody out there must be a 1918 German engine expert.TSRL (talk) 10:17, 4 October 2009 (UTC)Reply