Quote:
Originally Posted by rwthomas1
Very interesting, nice machine work but I have a few questions:
I would have expected deeply skirted block, for rigidity, 4 bolt main caps, and more than 4 head bolts per head. That said, if you can get it all to stay together over time..... Marine diesels live a hellish life. Pushing through water is like pulling a steep grade, all day, every day. Nice to see an American company doing work like this even in todays economic environment. RT
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Glad to see you all like this thing as much as everyone else does
As for the above questions:
The pan rail is aluminum, but it is bolted on with 3/8"-16 Grade 9 SHCS that run through it into the carrier. The design of the rail makes it very rigid as well.
When I first came to work here, I asked the same question about the 2-bolt instead of 4-bolt mains. After looking at our caps, I think we're fine. The main bearings that we use are the same part used in a 20L Cat D342 engine. The main caps are held on by 5/8" Grade 9 SHCS. We haven't seen any reason yet to worry about them.
The reason for only 4 bolts on the heads is also part of the design. The bolts on our engine pass completely through the head and jug and into the main carrier. These bolts are again 5/8" Grade 9 SHCS. The position of the jug in relation to the carrier is held by 2 dowel pins as is the position of the head on top of the jug. The reason other companies use more bolts is because their heads are one large chunk of cast iron. As soon as it heats up, any stresses in the material will try to warp and bend it. They need enough bolts to keep it held down without getting deformed. As for the pressure, we have used a pressure sensitive paper (cool thing to use to messure surface pressure
) placed between the head gasket and the jug and between the gasket and the head. When all 4 bolts were tightened to 140 ft-lbs of torque, the pressure applied on the gasket was thirteen thousand (13,000) psi. We've not seen any reason to worry about that seal either.
Quote:
Originally Posted by diametricalbenz
I was just reading your article writeup in DieselPower magazine. Did any of the 3-4 cylinder prototypes make it into a light/medium duty truck?
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Not yet. We still need a little more testing and some more tweaking.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mister Byrnzoil
Looks to me like the little camshafts run perpendicular to the crankshaft, not sure I've ever seen an engine design where the camshaft didn't parallel the crank.
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I think you are getting a little confused. You are seeing our rocker shafts and rockers. The cam is mounted inside of the main carrier, parallel to the crank.
Keep the questions coming! I'll be glad to clear up any confusion
