Got hired by Union Pacific out of Roseville but in the meantime been working for a company in Stockton building Detroit 2-Strokes. So interesting how times change, I'm working with one other mechanic 69 years old and he's been at it since the 70's but he can't last much longer. Such beautiful engines in my opinion, the 53, 71, and 92...just sayin...strange to be working on these engines in CALIFORNIA where they have become practically obsolete.
thats awesome good old engines but ............EPA has hurt the poor man running them!
The engine that just keeps giving . They will be around for long time . HeavyEquipmentForums It's the engine that won't Shut up ! LOL
One has to give credit to the designers & engineers that created such a versitale platform. There has ever been (or will be) a commonized engine design that has powered the machinery that a 2 stroke Detroit has. Just keep adding cylinders, ok, make it a "V", keep adding cylinders, more power?, make 'em bigger cylinders. Ed
In my own excitement I forgot that there was already a good thread goin on these engines, and I had already commented on it. !!Duh.
I liken them to the small block Chevy. 52 years old and still the same basic block design. Detroit and SBC prove the old adage: "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". Mike
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Back in the 70"s I worked for a Detroit Diesel distributor. Once in awhile old 2 valve 6-71's would come in for rebuilding that had the word "Battle" stamped in the throttle. I was told these came out of WWII landing crafts and that setting allowed more fuel so the boat could ram the beach at a higher rate of speed and get the troops in closer.
Now that would be cool. I'm fascinated with them, have been since the first runaway I heard about 20 years ago when I worked for the crane company. Never heard anything like them up to that point. Not too many engines capable of powering everything you own and have so many common parts. In the bush they'd be ideal IMO.
That doesn't quite add up...if the injector racks go to full travel in the course of normal operation how could they add more fuel in battle condition? Did they have some kind of rack stop so they did not go quite full unless in battle mode? Or was battle mode perhaps higher RPM in the governor instead?
SSHHHHH.. that's military secrets.. I aint touchin that one..
Good ?, guessing increased RPM. @Junkyard fast forward to 4:07
I just heard a drone flyover....
Oh hell yeah. Buzzin dozen baby! For those who understand no explanation is necessary. For those who don't, no explanation is possible!
http://www.dieselduck.info/historical/01 diesel engine/detroit diesel/#.WS4icOTat4I
That was a cool article. Thanks for the link!
I found that article and one other the only references to the "battle governor". 165 HP normal/225 HP battle. That is quite a jump. Neither article seems to mention how it was accomplished.
Scrub, that is a very interesting read!! Thanks!! Mike
Yeah that article is great. Exactly what Im talking about how the Detroits go way back and are connected to to the Designs of Charles Kettering and Wintons 201A locomotive engines. Super cool.
I've never believed it, but was told by more than one "old guy" (of which now apparently I am one) that some of the old Greyhound GM buses had an override in high gear that pushed the governed rpm way up. One old guy I worked for claimed a bus passed him late at night doing in excess of 90 mph, as he was rolling well past 80 in his big Mercury sedan back in the sixties. Could be true, the detroits would probably hang together running under constant load at higher than normal governed rpm though I am sure it would shorten the lifespan.
I've heard the same myself. That would have been something as the person being passed and the passenger on the bus!
Also funny to see a "hot tank" still being used in California. It got so hard to dispose of the chemical, no one here I know of has used one of those in 20 years
Lan, us old guys don't really tell lies, we merely intentionally misremember the truth.
Haha, I know. But seriously, I think the chemical inside the tank is actually "compliant" with CA. Though honestly I don't what the rules are, I think I did at one time. In my area there are actually 3 machine shops that have BIG OLD HOT TANKS, ??????
That governor was used on all the small boats I worked on back in the USN days. In normal operation the engine ran at 1,800 RPM. If you needed high boat speed you moved the quadrant over to allow the throttle lever to move to the high set speed which was somewhere around 2,150. I watched a 40 foot utility boat one time fly across the water at near 26 foot personnel boat speed. I changed the springs in the governor so that couldn't happen again but not soon enough. Apparently an old injector tip that had blown off from water in the fuel in the past and was stuck in the piston decided to come loose and it ended up in an exhaust valve. The first class I worked for then said speed kills.
Heck, a few years back I had a 6V53 brought to me that was literally spraying diesel out the exhaust... goofy thing almost sounded like it was running just fine but I could hear a slight miss. Turned out the 2R cylinder had dropped a valve head, destroyed the injector tip and somehow passed the valve head into the muffler. The piston had a few dents and the liner was undamaged, threw a new head on it and kicked it out the door... It's still running.
It's caustic soda (or it was caustic soda at one time). You could "kill" it by throwing aluminum in the tank be disposing of it (a load of used pistons) but the stuff still ended up being loaded with toxic metals and crap. The best way to clean engine parts though. The "dishwashers" that replaced them just don't do as good a job.
The flame rotisseries for cast iron parts followed by the paddle wheel steel shot chamber (they say they can be used for aluminum too) do a pretty good job you have to admit, just burn everything off of it....
ARMEX Soda Blasting https://www.armex.com/
In the early 70's a truck owned by the Seminole Indian Tribe came into Pacific Diesel Power in Portland OR with a blown up 8V71. They did not have the cash or credit for a rebuilt/exchange so the two drivers brought what parts they could afford and went through the scrap box for whatever else. When they left to go back to FL they were running on 6 holes with 2 that did not have rings with those injectors disconnected from the rack and hammered over in the no fuel setting. It took them a couple 3 days parked outside the shop while they wrenched and slept in the sleeper. I never did hear about them again, but if they made it home, good on them.
My worst Driptroit experience was a buddiy's, decided one week he wanted to make some 'Easy Money' go to N Arkansas and buy a trailer load of watermelons then sell them in St. Louis at the Produce Row. 1967 GMC Cabover 6L71 Went behind his Dad's barn got a old Cracker Box GMC sleeper with a rubber band tag setup out of the brush and weeds, took the plates off a grain straight truck and a little utility trailer then hooked up to a single axle 32' short side tarp top trailer. Put two CASES 30wt in the sleeper, topped off the diesel single fuel tank and off we went from South St. Louis County down the old highways. Had bungiecord door holdbacks, no radio and had to stop every 50 miles to rearrange what shook loose then top off the oil in the 6L71. Used ALL the oil to get to Arkansas farm he knew of, bought three more cases at a farm store in buckets. Nose of trailer was dripping off the entire front edge with oil. We made a little over $200 apiece for the two day trip on the melons and did not get arrested! Turned out the truck had not been started or moved in five years, the oil spray was from all the dried out gaskets and loose covers, the guy eventually got the truck from his Dad's estate some years later and rebuilt it from the ground up. Had 600,000+ miles on it had NEVER been overhauled before.