Was contacted this week by a former employer of mine who is in the process of salvaging a decommission power house site from a large paper-mill site. Part of this power house is a couple of diesel powered back-up water pumps powered by EMD 567 2 cylinder diesel engines.

The pumps themselves being all bronze construction have already been reclaimed but engines are intact, complete, and supposedly they start and run.

Knowing my hobby of collecting odd engines, my former boss has offered me both engines for “a lot less than” scrap price if I want them.

I know that EMD built a 2 cylinder 567 engine, but I’m not that familiar with them. I take it these are “in-line” engines as opposed to a “v-block”, also what series of engine blocks would these be, “B”,”C”, or “D” engines…?

The buyer of the back-up generator that was powered by an EMD 12 cylinder 567 was supposed to take the pumps also, but backed out on the purchasing them saying there was no market for the 2 cylinder engines.

I’m taking next week off to go look the engines over and if these two are in fact complete and run like reported they will be coming home in the very near future.

Tim W.

All of the two-cylinder 567 engines I have seen are Vee configuration, and I recall seeing "A", "B" and "C" crankcase versions. Very few of them got out into commercial service, most of those that did were probably built in the first few years after WW2, although there might be a few prewar engines out there. The usual use for these engines is as "oil testing" units, some were owned by the big oil companies and were used to evaluate various lubricating oils, since they were much cheaper to run than larger engines and required changing out only two power assemblies at the end of the evaluation period. They were also used within EMD for testing some engine components, but most long term endurance testing was done at the diesel power generating plant out in back of Plant One after that was installed. The power plant, first with 567D engined units and later with 645s, allowed evaluation in commercially rated engines and was just a short distance from engineering.

In most customer projects where GM supplied small diesel engines as auxiliarys for a 567 engine power plant, the auxiliary engines were Detroit Diesel 6-71's or Cleveland Diesel 268A's, which were cheaper than building a 2-567.

PC

Thank You Preston for the feedback.

I have yet to see the engines and I’m going on his description alone. My former boss didn't say and I didn't ask if they where "v-block" engines of not... I’m betting they are in fact 2-71 Detroit’s, but stranger things have happen.

I’ll take the time to drive up next week and check them out… and taking the checkbook, just in case!

Thank You again for the information Sir.

Tim W.

Yes, a 2-567 is very high cost construction for an auxiliary engine requirement, a Detroit Diesel or a small Cleveland Diesel is much more common. A 2-71 wouldn't be a bad engine to keep as a toy or to run as a demonstrator in a museum. A 1-71 would be even better, but they are real collectors items now and bring pretty high prices.

PC

Next on American Chopper, a diesel locomotive theme bike... :-)

Found a photo of a EMD 2-567 here
www.swri.org/3pubs/brochure/d08/EMD/EMD.htm

Nice engine, looks like the crankcase started as an "A" but it has been upgraded with some "C" features to allow it to run the later power assemblies, plus the top deck covers and fuel manifold fittings look to be "C" equipment.

PC

Were there any special issues getting an engine with only two cylinders to run smoothly? Perhaps a larger flywheel or some requirements about the driven load having sufficient flywheel effect? I'm assuming the cylinders are in direct cross alignment, working off the same crank with fork & blade connecting rods and so are only so many degrees apart in their actions.

Steve

Exactly, the two cylinders fire 45 degrees apart, it then travels 315 degrees to the first cylinder firing on the next revolution. This requires a pretty big flywheel or a lot of rotating inertia in the driven load. Notice that the engine at Southwest Research looks like it is driving a very large DC generator. Probably about 4000 pounds of rotating mass in that load.

PC

Steve- see my joking comment above. Harley Davidson V-twin motorcycle engines (with the exception of the relatively recent V-Rod) use the same 45 degree cylinder arrangement with "knife and fork" rods, except that they're 4-stroke so the cylinders fire every other revolution.

They are not very smooth-running, but they do have an appealing exhaust note when properly muffled.

Went up to look over the engines on Tuesday, they are in fact two (2) Detroit series 71 2 cylinder engines. The engines each powered a 3 inch bronze fresh water pump for the power center’s fire protection system and where sitting on 150 gallon fuel tanks as part of their base. The base tanks were fed from the massive fuel tank outside the power center that supplied the EMD.

The paper making mill is still very much active and their power center is being upgraded with new EPA complaint backup systems. The EMD 567 powered backup generator was already sold and is sitting under a tarp waiting for shipment south.

The fire pumps have since been scrapped, but the engines still remained at the site and I was able to see and hear them run. One has 2,790 engine hours and the other has 2,002 hours on it. Other than having the fire pumps removed from the bell housing, the engines are complete down to batteries and radiators. They are in very nice condition appearance wise and after viewing the Maintenance Records, it appears they were kept in excellent mechanical condition also.

For the sum $ 2,000.00 I drove home with both engines, and the contents of the stock room that related to the engines…. Couple of boxes of oil, fuel, and air filters, at least 4 gasket sets and 2 “Complete” overhaul parts kits, with power assemblies… 2 sets of Snap-On Series 71 tool sets … and all of the maintenance records and files for the engines….

Tim W.

Wow- sounds like quite a deal. Congratulations on your purchase.

Here is a link that shows what the 71 series looks like (and tells who was in charge of the design team):

http://tugboatenthusiastsociety.org/Pag ... D71-01.htm

PC

Kettering--- no surprise there!

Howard P.

Kettering's footprints can be found all across the transportation industries, automotive, railroad, marine, and aviation. When you relate his dozens and dozens of inventions to railroad applications it is just incredible how many features of railroading that we take for granted today can be traced back to work by that one amazingly talented individual. Every time you turn the switch from "fuel prime" to "engine start" on an EMD you are making use of several of his inventions.

PC