This will be our final part on the Delta plant, this week highlighting the plants largest engine, the 31A18

Part I – https://vintagedieseldesign.wordpress.com/2020/09/27/delta-municipal-light-power-part-i/
Part II – https://vintagedieseldesign.wordpress.com/2020/10/14/delta-municipal-light-power-part-ii-fairbanks-morse-33-engines/
Part III – https://vintagedieseldesign.wordpress.com/2020/11/26/delta-municipal-light-power-part-iii-fairbanks-morse-32e14-engines/

The F-M 31A18 was Fairbank’s largest production engine. In the very first post on this blog, we looked at the design of the engine: https://vintagedieseldesign.wordpress.com/2019/06/02/fairbanks-morse-31a18/

Engine #7 at Delta is a 10 cylinder, 3500HP, Dual Fuel engine. The engine is rated for only 277 RPM, and has an 18″ bore and a 27″ stroke.

Click on all of the photos for a larger version.

The creative use of old stop signs are covering the exhaust ports, which would turn and enter into the flood in the circular covers.

One of the fuel injection pumps. A camshaft in the box underneath drives these, with a copper line out of the top leading to the fuel injection nozzle in the head.

The engine drive a Fairbanks-Morse 2130kW, 2400V AC Alternator. The excitation generator is belt driven off off the end.

Looking down at the top of the cylinder head. The large pipe leading into the top of the head is the incoming Natural Gas supply. Going clockwise, is the gas admission valve driven from the upper camshaft, the air start check valve, with the air supply under it, jacket water exit into the upper water header, above that is the cylinder relief valve. In the center is the fuel injection nozzle. According to the builders plate, this engine is a 31A18 – FM documentation calls the Dual Fuel engine a 31AD18, maybe this engine was converted after installation?

The pipes in the foreground are the previously mentioned exhaust pipes, which were removed for remediation.

Just outside of the engine hall, is a small clean air room. Inside, is the scavenging air blower for the engine (all 10 cylinder engines used an external blower) – a Roots-Connersville 24″ centrifugal blower. The blower, is rated at a whopping 300HP and moves 17,500CFM of air.

Be sure to read our post on Roots Blowers from a few weeks ago: https://vintagedieseldesign.wordpress.com/2020/10/03/who-is-roots-and-why-does-he-have-a-blower-named-after-him/

Just how big is an 18″ piston? Here it is with a dollar bill for reference..

Gauge and alarm panel – Just not as cool as those 1930’s era ones on the 32E engines..

The photos here simply do not do this engine justice, and just how BIG it is!

Lubrication chart for the engine. I would LOVE to add one of these to my collection. Anyone got one they want to sell?

This concludes our tour of the Delta Municipal Light & Power Plant. Thanks again to the guys for the fantastic tour! I can only hope that this plant can be saved, or at least some of the engines. I would love to see the 31A18 saved, but realize that would be one hell of a feat, due to the shear size. That little 4 cylinder 33 would be a neat museum piece as well.. I may make another post down the road with some other random photos in the plant I took.

Next week starts a new series – Historic Boat Profiles, with our first featured boat being the tug M. Moran, Moran Towing’s first twin screw tug.