Chaps,
Need some help.
Was out collecting WW2 items on an old WW2 airfield yesterday and my 7-yr old son picked up a ‘glass’ object. We cleaned it up and it is a ‘Protek Plug’, made by Chandler-Evans Corp, Meriden, Conn. It has an ‘AN’ serial code, so I assume it’s WW2-era. It’s also plastic, not glass.
There’s very little available on a Google search, other than it seems they may have been ‘Dehydrator plugs’ that were screwed into the spark plug ports in engines while in storage to prevent rust and corrosion.
Any idea fellas whether they were used on Pratt & Whitney, or Allison engines? …or both?
Shabby
By: Arabella-Cox - 9th September 2013 at 17:44
The Protek plugs were fitted when an engine was either new or off overhaul. The sparking plugs not being fitted until the engine was “dressed” ready for installation on the aircraft.
The silica gel crystals mopped up any residual moisture in the air in the cylinder to keep it dry. They were threaded 18mm for the American engines and 14mm for the British ones. We found loads of them on the old Burtonwood airfield dump years ago as they were discarded when the engines were prepared there as it was a massive maintenance base during and after WW2.
Being of spark plug thread size they were used on any engine of the correct thread, not any specific engine type so you would, potentially, be able to find them on any airfield which, at one time or another, re-engined aircraft. As far as I know they were disposable though I would suggest that they could have been re-used if warmed in the appropriate oven to dry the crystals out. But, knowing the way the Yanks operated it was quicker and easier for them to chuck them in the bin.
Anon.
By: ShabbyAbbey - 8th September 2013 at 23:14
Hi ShabbyAbbey, have seen these before ‘protek plug’ link to an earlier post … I hope ?
Keith.
http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?100432-Dug-up-at-Deopham-Green&highlight=
Cheers Keith. I guess if they are at Deopham Green and there’s loads of ’em, they must be off Wright Cyclones and not the ‘lovely’ Allisons (ignore my earlier post mentioning Pratt & Whitneys)… unless you had a P-38 Group up there I was unaware of! 😉
BTW, the one we found looks the same as the top one in your photo.
By: keithnewsome - 8th September 2013 at 22:37
Hi ShabbyAbbey, have seen these before ‘protek plug’ link to an earlier post … I hope ?
Keith.
http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?100432-Dug-up-at-Deopham-Green&highlight=
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September 8, 2013 at 10:11 pm