One of the initial inspirations for starting this blog/website was to do a writeup telling the history of Cleveland Diesel, from start to finish. The history of Cleveland Diesel begins with Alexander Winton, and his Winton Gas Engine & Manufacturing Company founded in Cleveland Ohio, in 1912. Not happy with the engines of the time, Winton went on to design and build his own line of engines. Winton would supply numerous engines to power gas, and later diesel electric railcars for Electro-Motive. Winton was purchased in 1930 by General Motors. Under GM, Winton would continue to develop new models, and started to turn to fabricated engines and later more compact two stroke diesel engines. The company was renamed as the Cleveland Diesel Engine Division of General Motors on 12/30/1938. Cleveland would continue to focus on the larger marine and stationary side of things (with EMD handling railroads, and Detroit Diesel handling the smaller engines). WWII was very good for Cleveland, however the end of the war crippled sales. There were so many brand new or little used engines to be had, and cheap. At the same time, EMD was making leaps and bounds advances with their 567 engines. Cleveland Diesel Engine Division was folded into EMD in November of 1961. Click the following photos to take you to each page.
The following post is a good primer on the history of Cleveland Diesel. A goal for this year (2023) is to expand upon this.
Cleveland Diesel Engine Division – GM’s war hero turned ugly stepsister – The Story of Cleveland Diesel
https://vintagedieseldesign.wordpress.com/2019/12/07/cleveland-diesel-engine-division-gms-war-hero-turned-ugly-stepsister/
Fixing a bearing – Rebuilding the babbit motor support bearing on the Tug Cornells WWII surplus propulsion motor.
https://vintagedieseldesign.wordpress.com/2019/07/13/fixing-a-bearing/
Missing Parts… – A surprise find in the Cornell
https://vintagedieseldesign.wordpress.com/2020/01/20/missing-parts/
Winton & Cleveland Diesel: The List – Every engine built. Updated version coming soon! (4/23)
https://vintagedieseldesign.wordpress.com/2020/03/23/winton-cleveland-diesel-the-list/
Cleveland 16-338 Teaser
https://vintagedieseldesign.wordpress.com/2020/07/07/cleveland-16-338-teaser/
Don’t mess with our engine – A Winton Anecdote
https://vintagedieseldesign.wordpress.com/2020/08/10/dont-mess-with-our-engine/
The Winton 201 at the Century of Progress
https://vintagedieseldesign.com/2021/01/02/the-winton-201-at-the-century-of-progress/
Comparing the 278A to the 567B Internally
https://vintagedieseldesign.com/2021/03/05/comparing-the-278a-to-the-567b-internally/
Cleveland Diesel’s 498 engine is one of the least known, high horsepower 2 stroke Diesel engines of the 1950’s and 1960’s. The following 4 part series dubbed A Turbocharged Failure documents this engine.
Note – A part 5 of this will be coming later in 2023. We have since found a bunch more documentation, brochures, proposals, as well as the original design paper on this engine!
Part I – History
https://vintagedieseldesign.com/2021/05/29/a-turbocharged-failure-the-story-of-the-cleveland-498-part-i/
Part II – Design
https://vintagedieseldesign.com/2021/06/06/a-turbocharged-failure-the-story-of-the-cleveland-498-part-ii/
Part III – Users
https://vintagedieseldesign.com/2021/09/03/a-turbocharged-failure-the-story-of-the-cleveland-498-part-iii/
Part IV – Tug Idaho
https://vintagedieseldesign.com/2021/09/11/a-turbocharged-failure-the-story-of-the-cleveland-498-part-iv/
Be sure to visit the Historic Vessels and Vintage Advertising pages for more Cleveland Diesel history!
Vintage Diesel Design 