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MG MGB GT V8 Factory Originals Technical - You want power? I'll give you power!

I'm not a big fan of diesel engines, but how does 108,920 hp at 102 rpm sound?

Might be a bit of a squeeze in an MGB though, at 89 feet in length and 44 feet high. Weight might be a problem too, at 2300 tons! The crank alone weighs 300 tons!

http://www.bath.ac.uk/~ccsshb/12cyl/
Dan Masters

Imagine the size of the block heater needed for that engine in the colder climates.
Michael S. Domanowski

There is another problem to overcome, the standard MGB fuel tank would empty in 2 minutes ! (and it would have a ruddy great hump in the hood !)

Mike

Michael barnfather

In my younger days I worked as an apprentice on such engines. They are very impressive and imagine climbing down in the crankcase to do maintenance. To decoke, we crawled into the engine and showeled the grime out. Nasty business. We once had to pull a piston, down in the roaring fourties. For those of you who know. These waters are´nt calm. Compared to these pistons they were small, only 900mm in diameter.

Erik
Erik

What do they use for a strate? A 800 hp 572 ci big block Chevy?
Bill Guzman

Actually, that is a good question. I assume Bill means "starter" so, as Erik seems to be the resident expert on these things; how do you start them?

David Boniface

You want the power?...You can't handle the power!
Jack Nicholson

Given that 5,000 - 10,000 HP and up
electric motors are quite common in industrial applications, I would assume they would use an electric starter just like the ones we use on our MGBs. But a LOT bigger! And with a different engaging mechanism, not the pre-engage pinion.

Some of the starter motors we used on our standby diesel generators were pretty impressive.

Erik?
Dan Masters

Dan,
Big marine diesels use compressed air for startup. Engaging reverse is either done by stopping the engine and simply cranking the engingine backwards. An alternative means of reversing is by a variable pitch propeller. If a variable pitch propeller is used, the engine is operated at constant speed. In this case at 102-120 rpm, but a governor is used to control load/rpm.
The ring gear of the crank, you can see in the pictures of the Sulzer engine is there fore shunting purposes. An electric motor is manually connected to the ring gear and the crank is slowly turned. This is mainly there for maintenance purposes. It can be used to make a given piston reach the top dead center before you lift it out etc. etc.
As for heating (Michael S), these ships have huge boilers to keep the engines heated.
When running in open seas they use bunker oil, very heavy oil. When nearing coasts and when the engine is to be manuovered they are switched over to operate on diesel. Electric power is generated either by auxillary enginges connected to alternators or by alternators geared to the prop shaft

Erik
Erik

Don’t remember where I picked up this web site form but it’s the opposite end of the internal combustion engine spectrum.

http://nvbackflow.com/engines/
Jim Miller

I use to work on an island 65n miles of the coast of Ca. called San Nicolas, you will not find the island on a map, Navy stuff, you may be able to find it now since the cold war ended.
anyway, the electric power came from 1500 kw generators, these generators they had their own cetrifuge to clean the oil while they were running.
I once went and look around at these beasts, two cycle GM diesel power engines, the air boxes look like small doors and they also had blowers to enhance their power output.
They use compress air to get them started, it took a while to get them in line.
The exhuast was imense and the heat from the exhaust was pipe to heat some of the buildings, no gasses, just the heat. The cooling was done by huge radiators with huge electric motors driving the water pumps and fans. The generator by itself was as large as MGB if not larger.
Bill Guzman

Bill,
65 Nm off Calif, that explains why we had our radars jammed and f16:s taking pictures when we were on the southern approaches to LA. Many of the big Ro/Ro ships I worked on in the seventies, is nowadays owned by the US auxillary Navy. They form a substantial part of the cargo hauling capacity of your armed forces logistics. The old sailors in Pacific Australia Direct Line (PAD) told me stories of Pentagon officials (Pentagon is as close we get to Octagonal business this time) coming to study those RoRo ships with angeled aft ramps. They were over their heads with entusiasm of how many armoured divisions that could drive on, be parked and shipped. The "Paralla" ( The moon in an Australian Aboriginal dialect) was the first of its kind in the world and is now US owned, named "Cape St Edmonts". The Paralla did not have those huge low revving engines, but instead they had three French SEMT Pielstick V18 diesels rating 9000hp a piece at 450 Rpm. They were said to be subengines. The British also used similar ships in the Falkland conflict as low budget aircraft carriers. They harboured Harrier jump jets. Anti Aircraft capacity was mounted in ordinary shipping containers.

Have a nice day

Erik
Erik

Small world we live in. Yes, Russian fishing boats, were jam, and perhaps blew their equipment.
I have a friend who worked on redisigning the elebators to fit the Navy needs on onew of those cargo ships. I saw one of them in San Diego about 8 years ago and in Port Huaneme Ca. Very impressive. I think the Marines anf the CB's (construction Batallion) adopted one of them during the Desert Storm

Thanks for the memories Erik
Have a great day.
Bill Guzman

If I were to use a motor instead of air, I would think a Diesel or gasoline pony motor would do good to prewarm the main engine over a electric unit.... If i were to use an electric motor, I would consider building it to double up as the ships generator for the ships primary power source and leave it engaged continuous.
Any which way, you have to figure there is a compression release on that engine, and probably compression release for each individual cylinder in case there is a problem with a given cylinder that will not allow it to run but will still allow it to let the rest of the motor turn over.

-BMC.
BMC Brian McCullough

This thread was discussed between 19/03/2004 and 26/03/2004

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