I found the oil port at the rear end of the engine today. Also found the barring bar and barred the engine over 1/4 turn. Was quite easy to turn. I'm going to pick up a 5 gallon pail of 40 weight oil in the morning and head back over with an electric gear pump and see what happens.

I'm now trying to find replacement oil, fuel and air filters. No numbers on the filter elements, but measures out to be Clark C-18 for the lube oil and Clark FA-1 for the diesel filter. Both cross reference to Alco part numbers on the Clark cross reference chart so I hope these are the right filters.

I haven't found anything yet for the air filters. Measures out to be 19" x 19" x 2" and is a really hairy fiberglass filter material. Anyone have any ideas?

I am about 2 weeks away from firing up 777 if all goes well!

One other thing I forgot to mention, that was taught to me by an old-head railroader:

The area under the barring wheel is the location of the lube oil pump. There is NO SCREEN over the pump. Anything dropped into that cavity will be drawn into the pump gears, usually with damaging results.

Definitely not a place to lose a nut or washer.

JR

Good advice! Thanks. Since it barred over nicely already there is no reason to take that cover back off again. Not taking any chances.

Digging into the bowels of the 539 engine, i find that the oil pickup is centrally located in the block in the No. 4 cylinder crankcase. There is an oil passageway molded into the bottom of the engine base casting that leads forward to the oil pump. The main oil drain is tapped into the bottom of this passageway about 8" from the inlet. There is a small lip at the oil inlet that keeps the sludge from being sucked into this passageway.

So it does appear that withdrawing oil from the main oil drain for the prelube pump would result in clean oil without sludge. I plan to change the plumbing of the oil drain as follows. Instead of a 2" nipple coming out to a 1 1/2" reducer to a 1 1/2" elbow and pipe running to the side of the locomotive, I am just going to come out with a 2" nipple, then tee and a 12" nipple with valve at the bottom. I'll take a 1/2" suction line off of the branch of the tee to the prelube pump. The 12" vertical nipple and valve will serve as a water and dirt collection chamber, to be drained at each maintenance interval.

Prelube oil will pass through a filter on its way to the pump, before being distributed to the engine. The prelube system will be a permanent installation that can be operated by pushing a button in the cab.

I have about half of the crankcase cleaned so far. There is some sludge in there, probably half a bucket's worth. A few slivers of babbitt have been found but so far no large accumulations.

We run a good sized fleet of 539 power. I would not recommend pulling your oil from the oil drain line for an initial prelube. Unless you have drained the oil and cleaned all of the bottom of the block. You would be amazed at how much debris accumulates on the bottom of those blocks. Having a filter on your prelube set up is a must. The port on the side of the block is a line that crosses over from the cam bushings to the turbos. This place is an effective way to get oil to the crankshaft, but it puts anything in the oil directly to the bearing surfaces.

I use a 110V motor on a small gear pump (much like the fuel supply pumps). Ours has a filter built in. I generally use new oil any time I prelube. If I have to get it out of the engine lower block, it is always a suction line that is well off the bottom. Some of our 251's have permanent lines to hook up the pumps. You can also use an off the shelf barrel pump right in your oil supply. I've filled empty locomotives this way with excellent results. Sometimes it will even generate oil pressure on your gauge!

Now, as for barring over a 539. It has been my experience that you shouldn't roll the block until it is prelubed (this is mainly because it will be easier), but I also prefer the block watered up. What type of water pump does yours have? If it is the open shaft type, roll to your hearts content. If it is the newer sealed ceramic or teflon type seal, I would never roll that block dry. You need the water in to lubricate the seal. What I have found is that if there was water treatment or rust left behind on the shaft, it is just like sand paper and you may damage you seal.

On the 539 block, if there is any suspicion of freeze damage, you want to look for key areas of damage. Being cast blocks, they are noted for breaking out between liners, or side walls, usually behind the fuel pump mounting..

Pat Connors
BSOR

I forgot to mention...The open type shaft 539 pump has the gland nut for tightening the packing. It is normal for this to drip occasional water. It is recommended to have a small drip here to keep the seals lubricated. On the closed type, there is a tell tale hole on the bottom...make sure it is not plugged. I've seen people plug the hole because it was dripping water or oil. Doing so can cause that water to get in the oil supply. It is there to tell you of a problem. On that newer style pump, there should not be a constant drip of water. I do see ours drip a little until the engine is brought up to temperature sometimes.

Also, as you prelube, I like to roll the block so that you can look up in each cylinder to inspect for signs of damage. You may just see babbit flakes squeezing out of a main bearing, or rust marks on the liner indicating head leaks of some kind. I did find a bad main bearing by the little flakes floating out prior to start up.

Also, once the locomotive is fired up, pull the rocker box covers off. Make sure that there is oil being pumped up to the top of the rocker arms. There is a little deflector that should diffuse the stream of oil to "spray" around the box. I've found these plugged up as well. Sometimes the prelube pump doesn't lift enough oil up to that point, so the rockers are dry at start up. It can take several minutes of the engine running to see oil spray. I usually take an oil can up and lubricate the rockers before starting a stored locomotive. If the oil doesn't start flowing up there, you need to investigate the pressures around the system to see what is the cause.

An update on the prelube:

I tried a couple of weeks ago to prelube using a small electric powered gear pump that I had used in the past as a fuel transfer pump. I promptly burned the motor up in that. Then I found a 1 HP vane pump with filter mounted to a hand truck, obviously a mobile oil pump of some sort. Tried that out yesterday and after a few minutes burned out its 40 year old Baldor motor. So went over to Harbor Freight, bought a $150 2 HP motor, bolted it up and finally was able to start pumping oil.

Since I was filling the engine with new oil after removing the old oil and cleaning out the sump, I sucked new oil out of the drum, through the mobile filter/pump unit and into the engine at a location between the engine oil pump and the oil cooler. There is a TEE next to the radiator room bulkhead that was perfect for tapping into. After a few minutes of running the pump, oil was observed pouring back into the sump from around the main and conn. bearings, and I was showing up to 20 psi on the gauges. Oil was observed in the return lines from the turbo as well. I filled it up to the low mark on the dipstick, leaving enough in the drum to prelube before the first startup.

One neat trick I did was to find a set of three 1" Aeroquip hydraulic quick disconnects that I had salvaged from a steel mill, and used them to make the hose connections to the pump and also to the engine. So no mess at all connecting and disconnecting the prelube pump.