I know one of you will just take one glance and tell me. I've dug around a little bit and it's supposed to have an 8 digit serial number, but this doesn't. It runs simply amazing, starts right up and will spin the tires w/o any effort at all. so what is it? And no, it's never for sale as I love my old graders even if tires are near impossible to come by out here on the west coast. I have a couple of these Austin Westerns..
4-71 Detroit Diesel Allison engine.
4-71
I'm thinking 4-53. That starter looks monstrous if it's a 71.
That's where the boost power comes from.
sweet grader!
By the governor at the front and the valve cover held on with knobs on top its a 71 series. If the other side of the block has 4 inspection covers its a 4-71, if it’s only got 3, its a 3-71
53’s have wider valve covers, balance & camshaft accessory drive pulley’s are visible outside the head. Best way to tell the difference between the 2 models is the front end‘s are completely different
The 53 valve cover is held in place by several 1/4" bolt the 71 has two long 3/8" bolts with aluminium knobs that are visible in the picture.
Yeah it's a Detroit. More pictures of the grader!
No idea what that b*****d contraption of an engine is.
Quit being a big baby.
Oh........just give me my juice box.
Strained applesauce or peas to go with.....
100 HP never seemed so good (or heavy)
I've listened to too many Detroits screaming, but I'd rather listen to a 71 series than a 53 series any day, the 53 series is just noise, nothing but noise.
The Arrows-Crap that comes around goes around.
At least it has reasonable parts availability. Because it's a "Detroit diesel", it's post-1965. Before 1965, they were marked "GM Diesel" - because in 1965, General Motors reorganised and re-named their diesel engine manufacturing business from "GM Diesel Division" to "Detroit Diesel Engine Division". In 1967, GM celebrated the one-millionth GM Diesel/Detroit Diesel engine produced. The first one appeared for sale to buyers in early 1938. In my collection of brochures I have a superb 1938 glossy sales brochure for the "new" GM Diesel. You would've been King of the Road or the Construction site with GM Diesel power in 1938 - but strangely enough, the 1938 GM Diesel sales brochure makes no mention of fitment of the new diesel engines to trucks or construction equipment. The brochure aims the new engine specifically to buyers as a fixed power unit - for generators, ice and refrigeration plants, and industrial uses such as driving irrigation pumps, crushers and other major on-site power needs. I don't know when the first truck appeared with GM Diesel power as standard or an option? I don't think it was until after WW2? I do know that Allis-Chalmers rapidly seized on the GM Diesel as a power plant for their tractors not long after it was introduced. A-C had been having trouble trying to sell its A-C "Oil engine", which used a combination of spark and diesel injection - however it wasn't a true diesel and it was relatively low compression. In late 1938, A-C built 10 prototype "LD" model tractors fitted with GM Diesels and tested them extensively for nearly 12 months. The results were conclusive, the GM Diesel was a winner. In late 1939, the "LD" prototype tractor moved into full production as the "new" HD14 A-C tractor. The U.S. Military was the biggest buyer of GM Diesels during WW2, and the majority of those diesels went into landing craft, and a modest number of military tanks. Interestingly, Australia ordered the largest percentage of its WW2 tanks with GM Diesel power, as the diesel was much more fuel efficient, and had a much longer fuel tank range, than the tanks fitted with an aircraft radial engine. Australian WW2 military chiefs were greatly concerned about the long distances the tanks might have to travel in Australia during wartime, with limited fuel supplies along those routes.
I need to do a video on this twin set, similar to the twin set in WW2 tanks
The LCIs (Landing Craft, Infantry) had twin screws with 4 6-71s on each. So eight of 'em screaming away, and they crossed oceans. Truck Shop's worst nightmare would be crew on one of those!
A big mineral explorer and mining contractor here, built his own road train hauling prime mover (truck tractor) in 1958 - using Twin 6-71's out of a General Grant (M3) tank! This prime mover truck was the biggest truck ever produced in Australia - and it was totally "home-built", with not a single blueprint or engineering calculation ever made for it! It was produced using chalk outline plans drawn on Masonite sheets on the workshop floor of D.F.D. Rhodes contracting. Don Rhodes was a multi-millionaire mineral explorer, mining contractor and investor, and he owned a manganese mine way out in the boondocks of the North West of W.A. This mine is called the Woodie Woodie mine, and the manganese ore needed to be hauled to the nearest port at Port Hedland so it could be shipped to overseas buyers. Google Maps Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps. www.google.com It's around 350kms (217 miles) from the mine to the port, and in 1958, there was no decent road between the mine and the port, it was just a goat track over largely flat semi-desert. So the idea was to haul 2 trailers and pull about 200 tons gross of manganese ore at a time with this rig. The road today is a fully sealed major highway, and if you use Google Street View, you can probably pick up the 4-trailer road trains currently using it. The truck was called the "Rhodes-Ridley", because Don Rhodes financed it, and his workshop supervisor, Harold Ridley was the "brains trust" who designed it, and oversaw its construction - from scratch! Just about every single part of the truck was handbuilt, apart from the engines, transmission and diffs, which all came from the M3 tank! Unfortunately, local traffic laws changed just as the truck was finished, and as the truck was 11 feet 8 inches wide, it was deemed too wide to allow it on any public road! 8 feet was the maximum vehicle width allowed in those days - so the truck never got to do any ore haulage, and so it was fitted with two large gensets on its back for mine site power, and it was used to move crushers around the minesite as required. The Rhodes Ridley was effectively abandoned and left to decay, until a few guys got together and decided to save it and restore it in the mid-1990's. The restoration was funded by the Rhodes family, and it took several years to restore it. But now she's back to her original glory and she regularly entertains truck and machinery lovers at shows all over the S.W. of W.A. https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=533910312153550 Rhodes Ridley a tank of a truck Trachmach member Perry Joyce, Boyup Brook, debuted the famed Rhodes Ridley truck at the recent Dowerin GWN7 Machinery Field Days. www.agtrader.com.au The Rhodes Ridley - Discover the amazing story of The Rhodes Ridley Discover the story of The Rhodes Ridley. Built in 1958, she was the largest truck in the southern hemisphere & was built by earthmoving company DFD Rhodes. rhodesridley.com.au
Thanks! That cab, LOL. Me and 4 of my chums cruising the town.
I enjoy your posts, Mr. OzDozer. Some how we drifted from old graders to Australian Mad Max prime movers. And it’s awesome. Just want you to know two days ago I saw a vehicle that will haul that tanker.
Enough of that detroit stuff. Once upon a time there was this guy with too much ambition. He had a design in his head and a few scribblings on paper with a few measurements. He had no help, he wanted no help. He constructed a frame from scratch plus all the crossmembers, designed it for outside frame power steering. Completely rebuilt the inside of cab and changed 90% of that. Built the hood and fender extensions from scratch with no real plans. Clutch linkage right down to the hand made square tube mirror brackets. Powered by a Cummins not a Mack or a Cat or a Detroit. The only long hood B model on the planet that's 78" from cowl to grille, which he also made along with the custom stainless bumper he polished from raw. Incorporated electric wipers which are timed. So many little parts and pieces made from scratch because Mack never built a long hood B. Just one of his many endeavors along his life's rocky road. And he is proud of it.
That Mack surely is a labour of love and a work of art. It's amazing the skills and dedication of some people. Of course, that hood looks long enough to hold a 16V-71!! Longtime diesel mechanic builds one-of-a-kind 1960 Mack truck Mike Flake used parts from several trucks, as well as parts he built himself, to piece together this unique take on a classic rig. Check it out on Overdrive. www.overdriveonline.com
Truth be known I thought about a 12V71, I know where one is setting. But I also thought about a N14 525 too but it needed CAC so the other default was a KTA.
Nice