2-stroke diesels

How reliable were they as engines? The only comments I've heard about these engines was in relation to the Baby Deltic loco, which was a bit of a dog.

I'd quite like a boat, just as an excuse to have a TS3...

Bus nuts are never far away, and some of us are two stroke fans too. As far as I am aware, there are only three rear engine Fodens still in captivity and not many more with engines at the other end. The ex Foden Band coach (though not the last one they used) has just emerged from restoration and is doing the rally scene -it has a Plaxton body. The second has a Metalcraft body and is in restoration with a professional rebuild company and the third, with a Harrington body is under slow restoration in my care. All three of these have the FD6 engine. I also have another coach with a Commer TS3 engine.

My advice would be to steer clear of the early marks of each of the engines. The small 3.25 litre capacity TS3 is very difficult for spares now and the

20thou over bore early engine even rarer. The later so called "maxiload" engine is a better bet, but still not easy for spares. Similarly, an early Mk 2 Foden with individual cylinder heads, while much more reliable than the Mk1 with 2 heads that used to crack might actually turn out to be a quirky factory adapted Mk1 block. Mk 3 is the same as Mk 2 "proper" but all the thread conventions are different. Better to buy around Mk6 if you have the choice!

The physical size of these engines is very different so it would very much depend on the size of the boat for the application. The TS3 went into open "speed boats" but I never heard of a Foden fitted to anything that you might put on a trailer without a crane.

Finally, neither of these engines will give their best just pottering about where you might be constrained by a speed limit, but given their age, nor would I like to trust the reliability of either in the open sea. Maintained well, they will give exciting performance but are not engines that will plod on forever.

Regards, Nick Webster

Still a fair chance it would crash straight through the bottom of any boat I had in mind... way too big :-(

I'm moderately sure the 9-cylinder version was also used in marine applications, I don't think there were fundamental problems with the engineering.

As you may have surmised, I'm taking a similar approach!

For the record, can anyone guesstimate the weight of a TS3 and/or FD6?

Thanks

Mike

--

'As I walk along these shores I am the history within'

Imagine the sound of this:

Tom

About 1100lbs without radiator or gearbox or clutch, that's for a tank-cooled industrial unit.

Peter

Can't find my Rootes manual..

But a Foden MkVII dry, less electrical equipment was 1452, so a non turboed would be less. A necessary tool required when dealing with the above is a robust barge pole of extensive length.

Tom

I take it you've had a bad experience with one ?

3261cc TS3 1035lb dry with ancillaries

Tim

Dutton Dry-Dock Traditional & Modern canal craft repairs Vintage diesel engine service

I have some fond memorys of driving a 2 stroke detroit powered timberjack a few years back winching timber out of the welsh forests. There was no glass in the cab and snow was on the ground but I did'nt feel the cold at all. The exhaust was attached to the front of the cab and would glow cherry red when working hard, the sound and smell of it was amazing.

Regards, Gary

Heres a pic of a similar Timber jack

Regards, Gary.

"A" bad experience? Every turboed FD was a bad experience in our temperate climate. Keeping cylinder heads on them was a logistical nightmare. One fleet of loggers around here, whipped the turbos off and put up with the drop in power until the fleet was repowered by Cummins. At 293 ci they were a classic case for "there ain't no substitute for cubic inches." That coupled with aluminium construction, doomed them when it came to prolonged heat soak.

Tom

I only drove one on the flat at Flitwick

Sounds like my County and I was numb today :-(

I was scared it was about to blow up it seemed to rev so hard but I suppose it was the whine of the blower and the extra firing strokes plus the torque converter was probably shagged.

The no spin diffs certainly allowed you to waddle out of sticky bits but what a mess!

AJH

I believe that when they ordered it, the conversation with Napiers went something like this:

"You can't put a Deltic in a truck!"

'Why not?'

"Errr... They have rather a sort of noise problem. Sorry about that."

'No problem, bud. We're firemen. Normally we need a big siren too. Maybe now we could just skip the noisemaker.'

TS3's are really that heavy? Lord above, even an early Merlin III (27 litre) turned out just under 1,000 BHP at 2,600 RPM and weighed a tad over 1,300 lbs .

Now THAT'd make the boat go fast & you could charge admission to see it!

Regards,

Kim Siddorn. Mechanical Engineers build weapons, Electronic engineers build radar, Civil Engineers build targets.

Any good?

How many bellcranks in a Merlin? 8-)

Can I count rose joints towards the total? ;o))

Regards,

Kim

"Andy D> How many bellcranks in a Merlin? 8-)

...

Actually, it's ONE (1) to 24 cylinders.

-- Brian Bailey

The 1-71 was only made for just over a year, and the

24 cylinder units were either 4 x 6-71s geared to a central transmission or 2 12V71s in tandem. The 16V71 was the largest engine in the series. Both the 12V71 & 16V71 used 2 V6 or V8 cylinder blocks bolted together as the basis of the engine, capped by either 4 x 3-71 cylinder heads or 4 x 4-71 cylinder heads.

Tom

Tom

Hi Tom,

The 1-71 is a great little engine. I ran one for several years as a 10KW auxiliary generator prime mover on a ship I worked on. It was replaced by a larger unit and I wanted to get the engine that was removed but it was grabbed before I could get it :(

We recently had a problem with a 16V-71 (also on a genset) that spun two main bearings after < 1,000 or so hours --- since they were the two on either side of the joint between blocks, it's pretty obvious that whoever assembled it did not line things up properly!

Within the company we have 16V-71s, 12V-71s, 8V-71s. a LOT of 6-71s (inline), 4-71s, 3-71s, 2-71s. and the aforementioned 1-71 --- so I've pretty much worked with the whole series. The majority of our 6 and under cylinder engines are two-valve heads, modified for newer injectors. Thankfully all of the ones with chain-driven oil pumps have been updated.

We also have three vessels with quad units. Great reliability with four

6-71s on each shaft. You can take one engine offline for minor repairs and not even have to slow down.

I sure wish GM could make car engines as great as their marine/industrial engines!

-- Brian Bailey