2-Stroke Diesel in Mexico?

[DavidC]

Quite a cool video. The only thing I ever heard about detroit diesels was how hard/leaker on oil they were. Don't know if there was any truth to any of that.

 

[mwilson]

Some were leakers, the old saying was "If it's not making a puddle you damn well better check the oil!!" was true more often than not.

But, many puddles were a result of oil dripping out of the air box drains. Extended idling resulted in colder cylinder temps which meant the rings were not tight against the cylinder walls....the blower didn't care and kept the pressure up in the air boxes....which forced oil out...

 

[mwilson]

Down here I noticed that a lot of the Class8 Trucks sound very special, even Uphill they sound like on a Jake Brake.
Is this 2 Stroke?

Weird noise, at night one thinks a Helicopter is approaching.

I would suspect that CARB regulations forced the sale of many perfectly good 2 Stroke Detroit powered trucks, probably right across the border.....

 

[mwilson]

#ad


The retainers for the wrist pin will cause oil consumption if not properly installed. That was always my personal pucker point during an overhaul.....

The positive pressure in the air box / scavenging system would create a venturi effect bringing oil through an improperly installed retainer.

That positive pressure thing also makes for some pretty spectacular runaway engine scenarios, when they spin fast enough they will literally suck the oil from the base and burn that for fuel...

 

[JR]

And they are spectacular. Spectacularly scary when you have a load on the hook when one decides to light off!

 

[jhenderson]

We had 2 Mountain Logger ML130 Skidders with the 453 Detroit and a Prentice 410 Log Loader with the 453. One day I had my youngest son with me when I was loading a truck, he was about 3 years old. He asked me if the loader motor was the same as the skidder. I said yes, how do you know that? He said "because it hears the same", I will never forget that

At the risk of causing much butt hurt among the faithful, in my opinion, the 4 and 6 BT were the best thing that ever happened to the logging industry. I can’t even count how many Clark, Timberjack, Tree Farmer, and Franklin skidders and forwarders I’ve seen that have been converted from 3 and 4 53 series Detroits.

 

[NIsaacs]

At the risk of causing much butt hurt among the faithful, in my opinion, the 4 and 6 BT were the best thing that ever happened to the logging industry. I can’t even count how many Clark, Timberjack, Tree Farmer, and Franklin skidders and forwarders I’ve seen that have been converted from 3 and 4 53 series Detroits.

I agree. My loader received a 6bt, 130 hp Cummins, courtesy of me

 

[Wayne M.]

For about 40 years, the ol screamer, in all her variants was the anchor for lots of equipment.

 

[Wiredawg]

I can't run with the big dawgs on this one, but the 6V71s and 8V71s 2 cycle greyhound buses used to scream. And, nothing like the smell of diesel (exhaust) in the morning. Not too many mosquitoes in the wake of one those old scenicruisers.

Cheers, Ron

 

[mwilson]

At the risk of causing much butt hurt among the faithful, in my opinion, the 4 and 6 BT were the best thing that ever happened to the logging industry. I can’t even count how many Clark, Timberjack, Tree Farmer, and Franklin skidders and forwarders I’ve seen that have been converted from 3 and 4 53 series Detroits.

No doubt that the two strokes time had run its course, but they provided cheap reliable power for decades. And stood up to some horrendous abuse.

The increase in parts prices together with some serious availability issues for a couple years before MTU bought them out didn't help either. Plus DTNA and MTU did not factor in just how many of the old screamers were still in use and would need parts for decades to come...by the time corrective action was taken many had be pulled and replaced with Cummins or John Deere engines.

They did the same thing with the Series 60, built 1,300,000 of the damn things and then seem surprised at the continued demand for replacement parts...who would have thunk it???

Quality control had slipped terribly in the early '80s, that didn't help the two stroke cause either.

One of the first things that Roger Penske did after buying Detroit Diesel in the mid '80s was to lay off about 3/4 of the workforce in the plant...then started over...

 

[TFucili]

I never owned any, but was around them and even helped do some cylinder heads at my buddy's machine shop. I am as anti-GM a guy as you'll find, but I have to say the whole concept was genius. Modular, reversible, and versions able to run laying on their side, etc. They were an engineering freak of nature.

 

[Ozymandias]

Screaming - yes that's to correct term for the sound. Right on the spot.

 

[SnoKing]

I never owned any, but was around them and even helped do some cylinder heads at my buddy's machine shop. I am as anti-GM a guy as you'll find, but I have to say the whole concept was genius. Modular, reversible, and versions able to run laying on their side, etc. They were an engineering freak of nature.

The lead engineer's name was Major Motors, after WWII he was elevated to General Motors! The Blower was of symmetrical design also. The early mechanical fuel pumps could be use on a right hand or mirrored left hand engine by simply removing two plugs and swapping the spring and check ball from side to side, and putting the plugs back in. The whole concept of a 1-71, 2-71, 3-71 4-71, 6-71, 6V71, 8V71, 12V71, 16V71 all with the same bore and stroke required a lot less parts to be stocked. The 4-71 head is the same head as the the 8V71(2) and 16V71(4) heads. The 6-71 and 12V71(2) uses the same heads.

On and on!!! Nothing sounds as cool as a 40' Coast Guard Patrol boat with two 6-71's that had little or no mufflers. Early ones were wooden hauls and later ones steel hauls.

I grew up in a Coast Guard town, so had lots of exposure to the different vessels. They brought a 95'er into the boat haven for open house on a holiday. These had four diesel engines with two shafts, and in normal maneuvering they only had one engine active on each shaft. WELL the city fathers were all standing on the dock behind it when it was ready to leave with ALL 4 ENGINES online. The skipper dropped both engines in gear and the prop wash came up over the dock and hosed down the city fathers!!!

We sent 26 82' Patrol boats to Vietnam for near shore patrolling.

One was shot up be USAF friendly fire.

"Point Welcome was about three-quarters of a mile south of the 17th parallel, in the limits of the Vietnamese Demilitarized Zone (DMZ),[20] when she was attacked in the pre-dawn hours of 11 August 1966 by three U.S. Air Force aircraft while on patrol in the waters near the mouth of the Cửa Việt River.[21][22][23][24] Her commanding officer, LTJG David Brostrom, along with one crewman, EN2 Jerry Phillips, were killed in this friendly fire incident.[25][26][27] Brostrom and Phillips were two of seven Coast Guardsmen killed in action during the Vietnam War.[5] The ship's executive officer, LTJG Ross Bell was severely wounded leaving Chief Boatswain's Mate Richard Patterson in charge with several of the crew injured.[28] A South Vietnamese liaison officer, LTJG Do Viet Vien, and civilian freelance journalist Tim Page, were aboard during the incident[29]"

I have a friend that was on another 82' that came to the Point Welcome's aid, this occurred in the same time frame as we were building the Loran C chain in SE Asia. I was an ET on the construction crew to the master station in Sattahip, Thailand. We were 4 miles off the end of the U-Tapao (B-52 base) runway and 3 miles to the side. 8500 USCG personnel served in the Vietnam War.

 

[jhenderson]

While they were reliable and pretty much the Swiss Army knife of engines for multiple equipment brands and lines, the novelty of of a 353 screaming at 6:30 in the morning wore off quickly for me.

 

[Regcabguy]

@JR we are on the Baja right now, yes everything fine, check our homepage for the latest news.

Baja's nice this time of year. The Pacific side is warming up and the gulf side cooling down.
It's always fun with a semi coming your way on that Trans-Peninsular Hwy. I remember taking my wife down there and told her "it'll be quick. No lingering on life support." Great people. Cops nope.

 

[Ozymandias]

@Regcabguy yes the roads are as narrow as in Switzerland, feels like home.
I like Mexico so far, a little dirty, a little chaotic but nice helpfull people. Similar to Italy or Spain.