Leyland

LEYLAND MOTORS LIMITED

Leyland Motors Ltd logo.
In 1896 the Lancashire Steam Motor Company was formed. In 1907 it joined the Coulthard and Co. engineering firm of Preston and was renamed Leyland Motors Ltd. By the 1950's Leyland had become Britain’s biggest manufacturer of bus, coach and truck chassis and commercial vehicle engines. For a full history of Leyland click here.

The Leyland O.600 diesel engine was essentially an enlarged version of their pre-war ‘E181’ engine (a 7.4-litre diesel). The O.600 engine was introduced in 1946 and remained in production until 1972. In 1957 the slightly bigger, but similar O.680 engine was launched.

Specification
The O.600 engine got its identification from its displacement in cubic inches (US technical influence during WWII led to British commercial vehicle makers using Imperial dimensions until the late 1960's). The ‘O’ stood for oil engine - a British engineering term for compression-ignition engines, (rather than ‘diesel’, derived from the German inventor Rudolf Diesel). The 600 cubic inch swept volume equates to 9.8-litres. 

The O.600 had a 4 4/5inch bore and 5½ stroke. In its usual application, the engine was rated at 125bhp at 1,800rpm, with peak torque of 410lbft at only 900rpm. In coach applications it was uprated to 130bhp at 2,200rpm This output meant that the engine was under-stressed, capable of giving lively, yet economic performance, with unprecedented (and it seems) unsurpassed ability to run hundreds of thousands of miles between overhauls. A major structural feature of the O.600 was the dry-liner cylinder block and crankcase which was a single cast unit. This was the first UK production heavy vehicle engine to feature this. 

The O.600 is a six-cylinder direct-injection pushrod overhead valve unit. The cylinder head is split into two, with each head and gasket unit covering three-cylinders. Other important features designed to enhance reliability are a gear-driven camshaft, mounted lower in the block; a nitride crankshaft running in strip-bearings and chromium-plated piston-rings. 

Over the years this engine had many modifications. In 1960 Leyland launched the Power-Plus version, with spheroidal combustion chamber cavities which gave more power and greater fuel efficiency. 

From 1946 the O.600 engine was first fitted in Leyland truck chassis (Beaver, Hippo, Octopus, Steer, etc.) and from 1947 into PS2 Tiger (single deck) and PD2 Titan (double deck) bus chassis. 

Horizontal applications
In 1947 the horizontal O.600 was developed. Laid on its side the engine is 1foot 10inches high. The main difference from the vertical model was a redesigned sump, longer engine oil filler spout and dipstick. Auxiliary units, (alternator and fuel pump), air intake and exhaust manifolds were relocated and slightly redesigned to be more accessible from the side. 

The first horizontal O.600 engines went to Swedish bus maker Scania-Vabis in 1947. Leyland then introduced the horizontal O.600 to British customers at the 1948 Commercial Motor Show (Earls Court), where the new Leyland/MCW Olympic integral bus was fitted with it. 

The horizontal O.600 engine was also used to power these Leyland bus and coach chassis: Tiger, Royal Tiger, Worldmaster, Titan, early Leopard’s, early Atlantean’s and some Panther’s.

RED & WHITE use Leyland O.600 engines
Between 1951 and 1953 RED & WHITE bought 68 Leyland Royal Tiger saloons powered by the horizontal Leyland O.600 engine. They were impressed with their performance on arduous hilly routes in the South Wales valleys, so when these buses came up for replacement in 1967 the company bought 21 Bristol RESL’s with Leyland O.600 engines. LAX 101E is now the only survivor.

Later in 1967 the company bought 5 RELL’s with O.600 engines. Then in 1968 RED & WHITE ordered 10 Bristol RELH coaches (including our OAX 9F) and 20 RELL buses all with Leyland O.600 engines. Finally, in 1969 they took delivery of another 11 RELH’s with O.600 engines.

Few companies bought Bristol RE’s powered by the Leyland O.600 engine, those that did included: 
  • Cumberland (37), 
  • Luton Corporation (30), 
  • Newport Corporation (8) 
  • RED & WHITE (67). For full details click here (PDF). 
All other bus operators (e.g. Bristol Omnibus) that bought Bristol RE's powered by a Leyland engine, choose the slightly more powerful Leyland O.680 unit.

Postscript
By the mid 1970’s RED & WHITE did recognise that the O.600 engine was a bit under-powered for coach work and introduced a programme to retro-fit all its Bristol RELH’s with Leyland O.680 engines. However, our coach never gained the larger engine. So, it's now the only surviving Bristol RELH still running with a Leyland O.600 engine.

How we know it's a Leyland O.600
The engine block has a large ‘600’ cast in it, whereas all O.680 engines have ‘11.1’ cast in them (for 11.1-litre).

Component suppliers
Leyland Motors Ltd made most of the engine themselves, in their own foundry and factory in Leyland, Lancashire. However, like all manufacturers they bought-in certain specialist parts. CAV supplied diesel injectors, fuel lift & injection pumps, 24-volt starter motors and 24-volt alternators.

Gearbox
From 1951 Leyland Motors Ltd had a shareholding in Self-Changing Gears, a Coventry-based manufacturer of vehicle gearboxes. Find out more about SCG here > 

Much of the technical information has been drawn from the ‘Leyland Bus Mk 2’ book by D. Jack (published May 1984).
The engine in OAX 9F was rebuilt in the spring of 2017 - for details click here.
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