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old screaming de...what?....SCREAMING DETROITS!

millercross3

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Joined
Jan 11, 2013
Messages
132
Location
North Dakota
Occupation
Traditional Farm/Ranching...Trucking/Construction
why were the old detroits so cotton pickin' loud versus the ones of today? even the old ones with mufflers, I assume they probably blew the innerds outta them. an old neighbor had a field tractor with a jimmy, we knew he was out in the field from 2 miles away. there was no sneaking around with those things. ear plugs with ear muffs over top are a must
 

euclid

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 7, 2008
Messages
284
Location
Maryland
Occupation
Engineering
Two stroke verse 4 stroke for one. and also technology in todays industry.
 

millercross3

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Joined
Jan 11, 2013
Messages
132
Location
North Dakota
Occupation
Traditional Farm/Ranching...Trucking/Construction
did they change cylinder diameter quite a bit too? were the old ones as leaky as the newer ones? joke in our area was, that you never had to change a filter, just add oil.
 

euclid

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 7, 2008
Messages
284
Location
Maryland
Occupation
Engineering
I knew a man who was a 6-71 turning doctor and he said that you can RTV that engine all you want but it will eventually leak oil. He said it was designed that way? Not sure but he could fine tune those things like no tomorrow. He said you really don't need to over haul a 6-71 you just replace the piston sleeves and work on the injectors and you are good to go.
 

dozer12216

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Joined
Mar 19, 2013
Messages
66
Location
Concord, NC
Occupation
Currentlly clearing some 50 acres for farmland.
I had a 6v53 in a old excavator. the engine was drowned twice and oil pan froze and busted. it came back to life each time and loaded itself on trailer for final destination. Two cycle has twice as many power pulses as 4 cycle. The turbo quiten em down somewhat in later years.
 

Scrub Puller

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 29, 2009
Messages
3,481
Location
Gladstone Queensland Australia
Yair . . . There are several threads on this board on Detroit Diesel noise.

Age creeps up and it is hard to realise there are blokes working in trucking and earthmoving who know little about what was the most common equipment/truck/boat engine . . . they seem to be hanging on a bit in boats.

As others have said they are two-stroke so there are twice as many firing strokes and the cylinders are not enclosed in water and then of course there is supercharger noise.

They were American Engineering at its very best and the 71series was the most versatile engine line the world has ever seen. They were available from two cylinders up to twenty-four cylinders, could be configured to rotate either way, lay on their sides or with verticle crankshaft.

I know of a dredging/earthmoving/trucking operation that specified all equipment with 71 series Jimmys, v twelves in the dredges, two and three cylinder in the workboats, sixes and v eights in the trucks and ran Wabco, Euclid, and Clark for their other gear.

All that equipment ran the same basic components and the fitters knew the engines inside out and back to front.

The engine "family" able to support a variety of applications (with all it's advantages) seems to have gone by the board these days.

Cheers
 

DMiller

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 21, 2010
Messages
16,432
Location
Hermann, Missouri
Occupation
Cheap "old" Geezer
Most common sizes 53, 71, 92 and 110, all Cu In per cyl, no matter V or L(inline), whether turbo supercharged(T) or just blower natural aspirated. I worked on these for over fifteen years with tools in my box I will probably never handle save to move around again. As stated all 2 cycles, dubbed as 'Double Breasted Yamahas', or Drip-Troits. The engines had simple drawbacks, as the engine wore it developed blowby, that also equated to blower box slobber so the engines had designed in blower air box(engine block) slop drains, when the engines ran these would steady dribble to the ground, plug those and a runaway was inevitable as the raw oil filled the airbox. The engines had a harmonic vibration due to the fast firing rate, that would back off every cover bolt on them and inevitable leaks would prevail, if piston wrist pin seals failed excess crankcase pressure would flow oil to the surrounding area, trailer nose, engine compartment, ground or road, have witnessed that many times in my days.
 

BDFT

Senior Member
Joined
Sep 12, 2010
Messages
265
Location
Northwest BC
We called them Green Leakers. Seen a 6-71 run away one time when a mechanic was working on it. He jammed his coat in the intake and it sucked the intake pipe flat before it died. They had emergency shutoffs for a reason. Knew a guy who had a GM gravel truck with a 653 in it. If you caught it on the clutch just right and almost stalled it it would start running backwards. His driver called him and said the truck was blowing exhaust out of the air intake and what should he do. He was still limping along though.
 

mitch504

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 27, 2010
Messages
5,776
Location
Andrews SC
A mechanical L10 Cummins will crank up backwards too but neither one will rev above idle or have any oil pressure, due to the oil in the gallerys being blown out the intake screen.

If he was limping along, he was idling in reverse to make the truck go forward.
 

Steve Frazier

Founder
Staff member
Joined
Oct 30, 2003
Messages
6,599
Location
LaGrangeville, N.Y.
I spun a 6/71 backwards once when I got bogged in sticky mud. Mitch is right, it wouldn't come much off idle and when I saw smoke coming out of the air cleaner box, I knew something was wrong and shut down.
 

millercross3

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Joined
Jan 11, 2013
Messages
132
Location
North Dakota
Occupation
Traditional Farm/Ranching...Trucking/Construction
how or what can make them turn/run backwards? mean she has good compression?? we were pull starting and old D4 7U and dad bout got his boots soaked in breather oil, (I'm assuming that was due to turning over backwards) so we left the little kitty set not wanting to freeze our fingers figuring out what happened.
 

Panhandler Bob

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Joined
Jan 16, 2009
Messages
123
Location
Western Pa.
Occupation
operator
:cool:2 STROKE, sorry for yellin, can't hear anymore! 1981 we was runnin 2 TS14B's rear muffler rusted off on the other one,boss went up the road to NAPA and got a cherry bomb glass pack and some piipe to adapt it to manifold had welder put it all together. That rear motor also had a jake brake on it, you did not want to pullin the ramp outta the pit when it was comin down ramp. Talk about finger nails on chalk borad on steriods. :drinkup Bob aka ZZ
 

millercross3

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Joined
Jan 11, 2013
Messages
132
Location
North Dakota
Occupation
Traditional Farm/Ranching...Trucking/Construction
Detroit also invented the hearing aides:D I LOVE job security:drinkup
 

millercross3

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 11, 2013
Messages
132
Location
North Dakota
Occupation
Traditional Farm/Ranching...Trucking/Construction
did putting true dual exhaust help quiet(use the term lightly) it or was it nothing more than like a kid at a birthday party with two spinny noise makers, just double noise<---or to some, sweet oh so sweeet love making music)
 
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