The Gray Marine Opposed Piston Diesel

July 19, 2020July 20, 2020 vintagedieseldesignLeave a comment

I mentioned last week that I picked up a bunch of drawings recently, and in the group was a microfilm reel with a rather interesting engine…

Yup, it is indeed an opposed piston engine, and an experimental US Navy engine at that.. And I can not find one single thing about this engine online, anywhere. Gray Marine is pretty well known for the work they did during WWII, specifically with the Detroit Diesel 6-71. Gray Marine would take engines built by Detroit, and convert them to marine use, one of which being the 64HN9 – a 6-71 with a high output governor, used on the Higgins Boat: The LCVP, or Landing Craft Vehicle Personnel.

I cant say I know alot about Gray, but I do know that they would commonly take off the shelf engines (like the 6-71 above), convert them to marine use, and slap their name on it with a new model number.

So, just what is the deal with this engine? Well, I have no idea, and I really hope some of the viewers can help with this one. I have never seen an opposed piston engine like this one. Its a 2 cylinder opposed piston, but note that each crankshaft (4 of them!) drives a bevel gear set, which in turn drives the main center shaft. Holy moving parts, Batman, this thing could almost give a Napier Deltic a run for its money. On the back end, is a reverse gear.

Unfortunately, I have not spotted a spec sheet yet in the drawings. It is not a very big engine though, only 26 1/2″ tall and only about 64″ long. So it could not have been that much of a powerhouse..

These are pretty big drawings, so click on them to see the full size. The one top view had to be spliced together from 4 separate ones.

So, anyone with ideas on this thing…comment or email!

Cleveland 16-338 Teaser

July 7, 2020July 7, 2020 vintagedieseldesign2 Comments

Recently I was able to acquire a full set of blueprints (more then 2,000 sheets!) for the Cleveland 16-338 thanks to the eagle eyes of my co-author Jay. The 338 was a vertical quasi-radial 16-cylinder engine that developed 1000HP at 1600RPM. The engine has it roots in the EMD designed 16-184A engine developed by EMD during WWII. The 338 only had one purpose, as a generator engine on a very small handful of submarines during the 1950’s. We are working on a much more in-depth post about this engine, so for now enjoy a sample blueprint of the top of the engine looking down, showing its tiny profile.

Scrapyard Finds – The Answer

June 12, 2020June 12, 2020 vintagedieseldesignLeave a comment

As I suspected, it took about 25 seconds before it was figured out what it was. Yup, Its an EMD 567C or some flavor of 645. Unfortunately, I know nothing of the story as to why this engine was in a Brooklyn junk yard in July of 2019..but, makes for an interesting conversation none the less. Its not often you see a Teal painted engine, so I am kind of assuming it was some sort of stationary application that got scrapped out. Here is some more photos, click them all for larger views.

On the top Left is part of the crankcase/airbox, top Right is a blower with a chunk of crankcase next to it, below that is a liner and the crankshaft, and on the bottom Left is some more crankcase chunks.