[rader1]

Hey guys, not exactly automotive but interesting none the less.

I work for the only non-manufacturer ran General Electric locomotive overhaul facility in North America and I figured I'd share a few pics of some of the cool stuff I get to work on.

I mainly work on GE 7FDL16 series engines. They are 10,700CID V16s rated at 4,400hp/20,000ftlbs@1055RPM. Each locomotive is rated at ~140,000 pounds of tractive effort(pulling force.) Total locomotive weight is 400,000lbs.

This is a complete engine setting next to the alternator that will bolted to rear of the engine and provides the power necessary to turn the traction motors. Combined weight is ~65,000lbs.


This is just the bare block. The holes in the top are where each Power Assembly sit. The square holes in the side provide access for inspection/ repair.


This is the crankshaft. It is ~11 feet long and weighs 4,200lbs.


The pistons are a 2 piece design where the crown and skirt are bolted together. Combined weight of crown and skirt is ~50lbs. This particular piston had a failure of the wrist pin causing damage to both the skirt and cylinder walls.


The turbochargers weigh 1,900lbs and are designed to provide 36psi of pressure in two separate 11ID intake manifolds.


Here are a couple pics of the turbo mounted. One from the front, one from the rear and one of just the exhaust manifold.

The pics from the rear is obstructed on the left by a power assembly and on the right by a water to air intercooler.

Exhaust manifold


I love working on this stuff and if you guys have any questions I'll be happy to answer them to the best of my abilities.

[BMW269]

Cool !

At Abbott I saw some huge Mercedes V12 engines. Don't know what they were for.

[Doctor///M]

holy moly, this is impressive! Will have to read up more before I can make more of an educated contribution here, but how rapidly is power delivered from these engines? I assume that 4400hp supplied to the driving wheels all at once wouldn't work so well?

[Amir87]

Hmmm...wonder if there's a JB4 for that?

Impressive pics and machinery!

[rader1]

Originally Posted by S3RI35

holy moly, this is impressive! Will have to read up more before I can make more of an educated contribution here, but how rapidly is power delivered from these engines? I assume that 4400hp supplied to the driving wheels all at once wouldn't work so well?

Locomotives use a throttle lever to control power. It ranges from idle to "8th notch" with 8th notch being wide open. Normally a locomotive on its own, or when coupled to one other locomotive/empty freight cars, will start from a dead stop in 1st notch. As speed increases you begin notching up the throttle.

Really, the engine is there just to turn the alternator to power the traction motors. In 8th notch it puts out about 2,400 amps and 1,200 volts.

[ragingclue]

Originally Posted by rader1

2,400 amps

Good Lord.

[NYC6]

Very cool pics.
Especially that crank and turbo! Amazing but still dwarfed by a show I saw on the tube about a luxury liners piston engine. There where doors in the crank case so workers can walk inside the house sized engine!

[sn0pea]

First ever GE 7FDL 3-series engine swap. I'll take two

[ragingclue]

Originally Posted by NYC6

Very cool pics.
Especially that crank and turbo! Amazing but still dwarfed by a show I saw on the tube about a luxury liners piston engine. There where doors in the crank case so workers can walk inside the house sized engine!

haha yeah I saw that one too. I couldn't believe the sheer scale of things....

[Greenkirby21]

holy crap thats a huge engine

[rader1]

Originally Posted by ragingclue

Good Lord.

Yep, its nuts. There's so much current flowing through the electrical contractors that they develop a magnetic a field so strong that it requires air pressure to assist in opening the contractors when required.

[MisterSkiMask]

Thanks for sharing, I love commercial grade stuff!

[c0nstant]

this is amazing. please post more pictures and whatnot. i love this kind of stuff

[DSB335d]

Cool stuff!! Only 36psi? Needs a manual boost controller. Lol

[ejheverest]

Nice pics!!

We have(4) Wartsila 32 V18's and (2)V12's at my work.(320mm cylinder bore diameter) Here's a few pics of one after the connecting rod bolts loosened up while under load @ 720 RPM's

Ended up having to order a new block with all new parts...

rated at 10k HP

[positiveions]

wooo. talking about a turbo.
Thanks for sharing. A very interesting and complex engineering.

[ejheverest]

Notice the conn rod is bent in a circle...

The crankcase door is blown off and the block is cracked...

[rader1]

Originally Posted by ejheverest

Nice pics!!

We have(4) Wartsila 32 V18's and (2)V12's at my work.(320mm cylinder bore diameter) Here's a few pics of one after the connecting rod bolts loosened up while under load @ 720 RPM's

Ended up having to order a new block with all new parts...

rated at 10k HP

That's some awesome stuff. Am I right to assume that the engines are mechanical fuel injection and at the end closest to the camera is the governor/governor drive?

Originally Posted by ejheverest

Notice the conn rod is bent in a circle...

The crankcase door is blown off and the block is cracked...

Damn, I've seen the same thing myself dozens of times. When these things go they GO lol
We actually have a means of repairing block damage like that(depending on severity, of coarse.) My shop is one of only two facilities in the world that does "stitch" repair. We machine the entire damaged section out and insert a blank casting by means of using metal stitch pins to secure new section in place. It very tedious and time consuming work but it works.

Here's a con rod of an engine that over sped and starved of oil. The piston crown seized in the bore and broke off of the piston skirt. The push rods are now bananas lol

[ejheverest]

Yes, they are mechanical injection, all our diesel gens. onboard are 4 strokes, V type, except for our inline 6 R 32 Emergency Diesel Gen.

Yes-governor is closest in the photo, we have diesel-electric to power our plant loads.(6 thrusters, motors, all drilling equipment, etc.) 58600 hp total.

I used to work on container ships so I've been in side a few 900 mm bore Inline 9, 2 strokes. They have ladders in the crankcase and you can walk the airbox from one end to the other. I have seen the 2 stroke technologies where they use hydraulics to open/close the exhaust valves and don't have any camshafts.

In our industry, they cut a 50' hole in the deck and remove the block, order all new parts to build up a new engine, including turbos(2). Pocket change for them, Wartsila techs would also fly out for that type of job since we still have the rest of the power plant and rig floor to take care of.

[ejheverest]

Yes, they are mechanical injection, all our diesel gens. onboard are 4 strokes, V type, except for our inline 6 R 32 Emergency Diesel Gen.

Yes-governor is closest in the photo, we have diesel-electric to power our plant loads.(6 thrusters, motors, all drilling equipment, accomodations, etc.) 58600 hp total.

I used to work on container ships so I've been inside a few 900 mm bore Inline 9, 2 strokes. They have ladders in the crankcase and you can walk the airbox from one end to the other. I have seen the 2 stroke technologies where they use hydraulics to open/close the exhaust valves and don't have any camshafts.

In our industry, they cut a 50' hole in the deck and remove the block, order all new parts to build up a new engine, including turbos(2). Pocket change for them, Wartsila techs would also fly out for that type of job since we still have the rest of the power plant and rig floor to take care of.

[delio13]

This is awesome cause my job as an operator in a coal terminal is to operate the locomotives, most of the time there are two coupled together or sometimes there's three depending on the amount of coal cars. Two locis usually 112 cars three locis usually 175 cars. A load of coal cars is 105 tonnes and the car alone is I believe 40 tonnes dead weight. Yeah the sheer power of these engines are amazing. Thanks for posting the pics I am also a millwright and a welder by trade so it is so cool to see how it works

[Terraforce1]

That's one big a$$ turbocharger. Thanks for sharing, I found it interesting