By 1960 Gleniffer were ready to put behind them their less than happy experiences with vee-engines in the 1930s. In 1962 Gleniffer re-entered the vee-engine market with their 8-cylinder vee-form engine the DHV8. The marketing emphasis was on the shorter length of the engine. Although comparable in output (at 160bhp) to the in-line DH8 turbocharged engines the DHV8 measured only 7ft to the reverse coupling, making it three feet shorter. Gleniffer had recognised that their market (the owners of the smaller ships) wanted more room for amenities, storage and/or passengers etc, and less room for engines.

The hollow disc-web crankshaft is a spherodal graphite iron casting.

   The DHV8 featured an extremely short, very stiff, hollow disc-web crankshaft, which was a spheroidal graphite casting. Big-end bearings were 4in diameter and main bearings 11 in diameter. These engines incorporated many of the virtues of the inline Gleniffer engines: quiet and smooth running due to the Gleniffer clerestory combustion chambers and to the exceptional rigidity of the whole structure. The bearings were white metal and lightly loaded, even under full pressure.

   Lubrication of the dry sump was in duplicate with pressure and scavenge pumps at the aft end of each of the two crankshafts. The main oil reservoirs, or sumps, occupied the whole of the space between the two banks of cylinders. Oil was fed through the pressure pumps and Bowman coolers (duplicated for each bank) to gallery pipes on each side of the crankcase, which conveyed oil to the main bearings (hence connecting rods and big ends) and via connecting rod drillings to the gudgeon pin and piston crown. The oil was then scavenged from the crankcase by the two pumps and fed back to the oil reservoir between the two banks of cylinders.

   The design of the DHV8 perpetuated the Gleniffer objectives of accessibility and ease of maintenance. Normal servicing and even major overhauls could be carried out without moving the engine from its seating. The main market for the DHV8 remained the same as it had been for all Gleniffer engines for over 30 years - the propulsion of small ships.

DHV8 Cross Section