Detroit 12V71 Diesel

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the other day I took the Charlotte-Essex ferry across Lake Champlain, on the SS Governer George D. Aiken. Looked it up on their website later. Found out that it's a Detroit 12V71 diesel. Nothing sounds like one of those big marine diesels.
 
Such a beast... I've only ever been around a series 60 Detroit out of the vehicle (truck engine) and it shook the ground running on the engine stand. It's wonderful
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Gawd... the racket of 2-stroke Detroits on a work boat is enough to make your ears bleed after 30 hours or so. I once was on a research vessel that had two 12-v-71s for main propulsion, two 3-71s to power the deck crane, an 8-V-71 generator, and two I-6-71 hydraulic power units. We were all stark raving mad by the end of that trip.

The most amazing powerplant of a ship I've been on? Twin EMD V-20-710s (ocean-going tug). But a good old Cat D398TA (800-1000 horsepower) is pretty impressive too. And another one had twin EMD V-16-645s.
 
Originally Posted By: 440Magnum
Gawd... the racket of 2-stroke Detroits on a work boat is enough to make your ears bleed after 30 hours or so. I once was on a research vessel that had two 12-v-71s for main propulsion, two 3-71s to power the deck crane, an 8-V-71 generator, and two I-6-71 hydraulic power units. We were all stark raving mad by the end of that trip.

The most amazing powerplant of a ship I've been on? Twin EMD V-20-710s (ocean-going tug). But a good old Cat D398TA (800-1000 horsepower) is pretty impressive too. And another one had twin EMD V-16-645s.
Those EMD engines roar like beasts at full throttle, all 900 rpm's lol Gotta love the sound though!
 
I hate those old diesels, they are loud as can be and when you start them up smoke half the marina out.

Give me a modern computer controlled CAT, MTU, Cummins or Volvo any day of the week. Being able to actually hold a conversation at 1800rpm would be a nice start and worth the price.
 
IIRC, that engine was the starter motor for the GE derivative 25MW gas turbines that I got to play with 20 years ago.

I liked the starting process the most.
 
I used to absolutely HATE the sound of 2-stroke Detroit 71 and 92 series engines... and if they were still common I might still hate them. But its getting to where I go so long without hearing one these days that I'll actually stop, look around, and listen on the rare occasions when I hear that fingernail-on-blackboard scream.
 
They are still very common on boats. Although the TIB's were junk and didn't hold up to well.

To much power out of the motors pushing heavy boats, they just didn't hold up.
 
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Originally Posted By: Shannow
IIRC, that engine was the starter motor for the GE derivative 25MW gas turbines that I got to play with 20 years ago.

I liked the starting process the most.


First engine in attached vid.



Press start on the 25MW gas turbines, and the air starter would spin, when the diesel caught, it would do two big revs, then fill the fluid coupling attaching the GT, then full noise until the Gas Turbine was dragged up to self sustaining speed (about 1,100 RPM IIRC)
 
A Ford C6000 with a DD 6V53T running full whack and 3000RPM was memorable.

My uncle used to wrench and has seen some scary governor setting. Worst was a dude that replaced a 4-71 in an irrigation pump with a little 3-53. It wasn't strong enough (gee, wonder why?), so he cranked the RPMs, and kept cranking until it worked the way he wanted it to. Bear in mind: this thing would run for hours and hours and hours on the governor, using a 55-gallon drum of water as coolant. It had been cranked to 4000RPM!
 
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