I am currently working for a company restoring 2 Churchill tanks, one to be put together as a tank again, and one restored in its mine clearing capacity.
Having worked on both, and indeed a third which is already restored, including removing and sripping one engine completely, I am suprised to see the engine described as horizontally opposed. Even in your photos the piston heads are clearly visible. This surely defines a flat 12? There is one large and very heavy crankshaft, unlike the 6 cylinder vertically opposed and indeed supercharged K60 diesel engine,(installed in the 432 armoured personel carrier) which has two.
Am I missing something?
Finally does anyone have a spare engine, or parts for sale? It would really help for the Flail rebuild.
As a non-engine expert I can't say I have a problem with the desciption, there are after all 12 cylinders aranged in in two banks of six - horizontally opposed.
Indeed 'horizontally opposed type' is how the engine is described both in the Churchill Service Instruction Books (MkIII/IV, V/VII and MkVII/VIII) and by Vauxhall in their account of the engine design. The Service Instruction books also make mention that the 'flat twelve layout results in smooth runinng' so it would seem that both terms were generally applied to the Churchill engine.