Quote:
Originally Posted by StainlessSteelCynic
On a side note, I've been trying to get better info on those Argentinian upgraded Shermans.
Even looking through Jane's for the relevant years there's not a lot of information but I do have the following for the powerpack that was used.
Paraphrasing from Jane's Armour and Artillery 1986-87, page 950
Poyaud 520 series engines developed to a requirement of the French army although weren't used by the French army. Based around a common cylinder of 135mm bore and 122mm stroke. The modular construction of the engines allowed them to be offered in many configurations for many different vehicles (including Soviet) chiefly naturally aspirated (NS suffix), turbo-charged (S1 suffix), turbo-charged with charge-air intercooling (S2), turbo-charged with oil-cooled pistons and intercooling (S25) and turbo-compounded using the "Hyperbar" process (S3).
All variants were apparently direct injection and water cooled.
It seems as though the engines could be supplied to a buyer in kit form for assembly at their point of destination.
The Argentinian upgraded Shermans were fitted with the 520 V8 S25, meaning they used the turbo-charged, oil-cooled piston, intercooler version. This developed 2500rpm at 570HP (420kW). It looks as though this engine was designed for US vehicles of the post-WW2 era e.g. M4 Medium, M36 and M41.
I haven't found anything to state these were petrol/gasoline or diesel except for the article I originally linked. I'm inclined to think diesel because they were all direct-injection but that's just a guess. I'm hoping someone with a better knowledge of engines than me (which pretty much means just about everybody!), can make a better assessment of that.
What all of that means for game stats I'll leave (again!), to people with a better understanding of engines.
I haven't found anything specific about the 105mm gun except for the article I linked that states it was a French gun. Given that the French had tested a 105mm on the AMX13, they certainly would have had the tech knowledge for designing one suitable for refitting to the Shermans.
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The Poyaud 520 is a V-8 diesel engine. The Sherman Repotenciado's gun was a license-built version of the 105mm from the AMX-13, the coax was a MAG-58, and the pintle MG an M2HB. Many of them were rebuilt Sherman Firefly, since England repaid some of its debt to Argentina by giving them Shermans at scrap metal cost. To make room for the gun upgrade and increased shell size, it had no radio operator (not a big deal with modern radios) and no loader (big deal, since it didn't have an autoloader). It's not really relevant to this discussion, but a lot of the Shermans in
Saving Private Ryan were Repotenciadoes.
Paraguay is (or was, as of 2015) still using three of them as ceremonial vehicles for the Presidential Escort Regiment. The three in use are SN 15919 (built by Baldwin in September 1943), SN 40351 (built by ALCO in November 1943), and SN 6057 (built by Chrysler in November 1942).
There were also Chilean Shermans (which Paul has listed under the Israeli tanks, since they're modified Israeli Shermans). They bought Israeli M-50 and M-51 Shermans and re-engined them with Detroit Diesel 8V71T engines. The M-51 (105mm) was kept with its existing armament, but the M-50 (75mm) was re-armed with IMI's 60mm HVMS cannon (which was also used in Chilean Chaffee tanks).