How many cylinders does a mordern diesel engine have? They have to be massive, anyone have a picture of the internal parts? I used to go to an automotive machine shop that had a intake valve about 2 feet long as a display piece shop owner thought that it came out of a train but was not sure. Anyone have any pics.......
I don't have any pictures, but typical modern American Road engines have between 12 and 20 cylinders. This has been pretty much the range of sizes since the 40s. Switchers go down to eight. EMD rates their 2-cycle engines based on single cylinder displacment in CID. So the 567, 645 and 710 displace 567CID, 645CID and 710CID respectivly. For reference. A clasic Ford 5.0 Displaces 302CID for all 8 cylinders combined and the Chevy Mouse displaces 350CID While the RAT typically displaces 454CID So, to give you a mental image, a single cylinder in an EMD GP/SD-50,60,70,80 or 9043 Displaces as much as two entire Corvette engines.
Here's a shot, showing a complete motor. And a close up of something gone drastically wrong!! [ 22. October 2004, 08:06: Message edited by: Keith ]
That looks like it would have been a big bang As an aside on cylinder sizes, I had a friend who was chief engineer in the merchant navy. He is 6ft tall, and could just lay across the top of a piston in one of the ship's engines!!
Here are a couple of good websites with diagrams of diesel engines: http://sdrm.org/roster/diesel/mrs1tour/index.html http://travel.howstuffworks.com/diesel-locomotive.htm Also, check out the "Engineer Classes" forum here on TrainBoard for a lot of detailed info on loco operation. Regards Ed
Yoho, Keith , Alan and Ed, Cool info and pics, I like the small block Chevy comparison talk about a massive piston I sure would like to have one of those on display in the garage... Those pics are awsome its hard to tell if they are a straight or V pattern engine but certainly huge.... Anyone know what caused that engine to blow? It looks like it had fire in the air inke or is that a fuel rail.... Thanks all Jack
We've got similar engines in our powerplant across the street from my office. They're diesel/natural gas dual fuel units. Most are 1 MW in-line units that were originally designed for shipboard use, and they turn at 327 RPM. Our larger unit is 7MW in a V-16 configuration, and turns at 450 RPM. Pistons are about 16" diameter. The crankshaft weighs 15,000 pounds, with the entire engine weighing about 550,000 pounds. All units are turbocharged. In case you're wondering, the machining tolerances are the same for these big boys as it is for your passenger car. The largest engine will grow 2" in length from heating under full load! Starting and stopping these guys is murder on them. Locomotives are mainly in-line designs to fit on the chassis. The largest are just now getting up to 6,000 hp, but still have to bow down to the largest steamers. Mark in Utah
