Yesterday's Weapons Forums

1977 turbo charged 12 cyl Detroit Diesel/Allison. It drives a pretty hefty 600 V 3 phase generator.



1977 turbo charged 16 cyl Detroit Diesel/Allison. It drives an even larger generator that powers 9 passenger and 2 freight elevators.

We have 3- 2 v-16's, and one v-12. We load test them once a month, and the noise level is the same as a diesel powered railway locomotive...

Regards,

Doc Sharptail

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"Ain't no Half-Way" -S.R.V.

"Oh Yeah!.....All Right!" -Paul Simon

i could use a nice generator like that when we have power failures

Probly blow up ya house with one of these.
Definitely need a transfer switch and a mighty big transformer to step down the 600 V to the 110-220 that your house uses.

I was told roughly the h/p ratings a loooong time ago ~

The 12 is rated around 680-720, and the 16's are nudging the 900 mark.
Torque, rather than speed. The 12 redlines around 2000 rpm, and the 16's around 2100.
Load speeds are 1775 rpm for the 12, and 1850 for the 16's...

Regards,

Doc Sharptail

_________________
"Ain't no Half-Way" -S.R.V.

"Oh Yeah!.....All Right!" -Paul Simon

For perspective, the motors in current GE C44ac locomotives are 16 cylinder. Each cylinder is 745 CID. 4300 drawbar horsepower @ 1050 max RPM. While slogging up grades with 19000 trailing tons, there was plenty of time to crunch numbers & with fuel consumption as measured by a digital gauge @ 10 gallons in 3 minutes, I discovered each time a cylinder fired, it took a tablespoon of fuel oil.

Which was very low grade diesel. You wouldn't want to try it in your new powerstroke Frod. Keeping up with 10 gallons every 10 minutes, you'd break a sweat pouring it in with a 5 gal bucket.

That engine ran two alternators - main alt for traction motors & aux alt for traction motor blowers (keep the TMs somewhat cool under load) and misc. small items.

There wasn't a dedicated starter. The main alt ran straight off the flywheel, so to start, current was routed to the alternator which spun and with luck it would light.

Worst RR setup I saw was the Electro-motive SD-45 with 20 cylinder engine. What a piece of feces! It was maybe okay for yard switching if rather big for that, but it flat could not handle a heavy load. They were known for bending crankshafts, and the supply of those soon dried up. Mechanics hated them.

And yes, they were noisy under heavy load. SW

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Slava Ukraini!!

Set up's shown are designed to fire up under no power conditions.
24 V starter is visible on the engine block at lower right in 2nd pic.
They crank a bit, even with the coolant block heaters operating properly.
Transfer lag is about 45 seconds in summer, and a shade longer in winter.
All are sensitive to fuel grade. Each has 2 fuel filters at the engine.
I would not want to be the mechanic replacing starters on these. It is most definitely a 2 man job.

Fuel consumption I've never done the numbers on. Still not sure of our tank size, but it's big, and above ground. 5 months of full load testing at an approximate engine run time of 20 minutes for all 3 at each test will drain the tank to about three quarters from complete full. I do know the capacity is enough for 8 hours at full load, which is in the original system specifications.

In the last 33 years I've been there, they have run under emergency no power conditions exactly once, for about 2 hours. A squirrel got into a transformer at the downtown converter station, and shorted out most of the downtown area....

Regards,

Doc Sharptail

_________________
"Ain't no Half-Way" -S.R.V.

"Oh Yeah!.....All Right!" -Paul Simon

Squills - always someplace they shouldn't be! SW


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Slava Ukraini!!

https://winnipeg.ctvnews.ca/lone-crow-c ... -1.4727845

Didn't affect us at home or work. Ravens have a curiosity level equal to, or exceeding that of squirrels...

Regards,

Doc Sharptail

_________________
"Ain't no Half-Way" -S.R.V.

"Oh Yeah!.....All Right!" -Paul Simon