Pete McCluskey.
Lifetime Supporter
The worlds most powerful Diesel engine
- Thread starter Pete
- Start date
Jim Rosenthal
Supporter
Years back, I spent some time at Norshipco in Virginia working as an occupational medicine doc there. They had pistons from marine diesels that were aluminum and easily 2 1/2 feet across. Ring grooves an inch square. I spent some time trying to figure out how to steal one and take it home and use it as a coffee table, but no luck.
I've seen similar videos in the past. In one of the ships in the yard at Norshipco, the starter for the ship's big diesel (actually bunker oil engine) was a Detroit Diesel 8-V92- same engine that powers a lot of fire engines etc over here. About 500 hp and 1500 ft/lbs- that was the starter motor.
I've seen similar videos in the past. In one of the ships in the yard at Norshipco, the starter for the ship's big diesel (actually bunker oil engine) was a Detroit Diesel 8-V92- same engine that powers a lot of fire engines etc over here. About 500 hp and 1500 ft/lbs- that was the starter motor.
There was a military power station around here that had six massive marine 20 cylinder diesels to generate electricity for their own grid. There was a problem with them when cooling down for maintenance , they used to crack piston rings. Anyway it was heads off and pistons out which were bigger than dustbins on a regular basis. After about twenty years of this an engineer came up with the idea of building a common manifold across the front of all of these engines so that when they were shut down they would open a valve and keep the engine at its working temperature by feeding it coolant from one of the others on line. The company I was an apprentice with got the job and I was fortunate enough to have been involved with the project which for a wide eyed nipper was amazing . They dont run on diesel as we know it they run on what looks like bitumen which has to be kept heated with steam to keep it flowing through the fuel lines. If for any reason the steam fails it takes days to bring the lines back up to temperature and get the "diesel" flowing again. I remember a small spillage of the fuel that ended up in a puddle, the engineer on site left it an hour to cool then went back rolled this black mat up and put it under his arm like a carpet. That job was one the best working experience`s of my life :thumbsup:
Bob
Jim Rosenthal
Supporter
Yes, the engines I saw ran on bunker oil which must be like bitumen- they had to heat it to get it to flow. It is very dirty fuel but there is a lot of energy in all those huge molecules.
And they had that preheat system you are talking about as well, to keep them up to temp in all the working parts. Evidently if you "lose the plant" on a marine diesel (stall it out) it takes days to get it going again- during which time you are anchored if you are lucky, drifting if you're not, or aground if you are really unlucky. Or, worse yet, sunk.
And they had that preheat system you are talking about as well, to keep them up to temp in all the working parts. Evidently if you "lose the plant" on a marine diesel (stall it out) it takes days to get it going again- during which time you are anchored if you are lucky, drifting if you're not, or aground if you are really unlucky. Or, worse yet, sunk.
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