Blackburn - Turbomeca - Rolls Royce Palouste Mk101 conversion to Mk102 and refurbishment
**Newly added**
An history of the development of the Turbomeca range of engines.
I am often asked how to turn Palouste or Artouste engines into turbo jets because people have heard that they are the same as this or the same as that. To answer these questions I have uploaded a potted history of the turbomeca engines of similar architecture that illustrates exactly what came from what and which features were maintained between each engine. I was sent a picture of a coupled Turmo 500/600 the other day (that has the same compressor casing as the Palouste) and told that my Palouste on the site is not an air producer was actually a turboshaft. When I explained that the early turmo 500/600 used the same casing but the core of the Palas with a single stage larger turbine rotor the sender disbelieved that the same casing would be used for more than one engine type.....read on.

Please click on each of the pages below to be directed to each page of the article I hope they are of interest.

Over the years I have lost count of how many of these engines that I have refurbished, modified and overhauled, it is over 30. A version of the very early Palouste was the first engine that I ever purchased (in a fully dismantled state ie bearings apart, seals dismantled etc) refurbished and got running. (which has lately returned to me for another overhaul having been stripped and damaged by an inept college who shall remain nameless). I am fortunate enough to posses or have access all of the tooling and the spares to fully re-work these engines and test them under load with a variable metering orifice. This is the most recent engine which can be seen in its arrival condition on a pallet by clicking
***HERE***
This engine began life as a MK101 and arrived in a very poor state and completely seized. As is so often the case with Palouste and Artouste engines that turn up these days it required a rear bearing and lab seal change and a front bearing re-seal before refurbishment and conversion to a MK102. These engines have a very common fault of oil leakage into the compressor via a damaged lab seal or bearing pack seal. They are known to run away by burning this oil if it leaks in sufficient quantity. This results in seizure (not the Roman emperor), chunks thrown from the rim of the compressor or if you are unlucky, a compressor burst if the clearances are large enough that it does not seize first. The gauges were also seized and in poor condition. So after a little spit and polish the engine below was the result. If all of the parts are to hand it takes approximately 30 - 40 hours to fully rework a totally "dead" Palouste, this includes manufacture of the running rig, rotating assembly removal and blasting to remove stress, bearing pack refurbishment, gearbox refurbishment, re assembly and testing. I usually have a few rotating assemblies hanging around already balanced and measured ready to chuck straight in.