Big engine overhauls

I didn't want to hijack David G's post below.
When I lived in Anchorage back in the 80s
I worked for a while as a welder in a huge engine rebuilding shop.
In Alaska there are a lot of villages that generate their own power.
I worked on the heads for some 1K HP Enterprise engines that had individual heads for each cylinder.
Iirc they were about 24"? in diameter.
The machine shop would mill out the valve seats in the head, then I would weld in about a 1/2" base of stainless with the heliarc machine.
It went to get that cleaned up on the mill,
then I would get it again and heliarc in the valve face with stellite. Then they ground that to specs.
I heated the head in a big oven first for a couple of hours then wrapped it in a thick heat blanket while I welded on it.
They had a little electric rotary table with a foot feed and I heliarced stellite on the valves too. It was hard to remember to press the heliarc with one foot and make the rotary table turn with the other foot on that pedal.
The valves were maybe 4" in dia and weighed 10 lbs each.
I can't remember if I had to post heat the heads or not. This was in 84 so my memory may be off a bit on the numbers now too but I'll bet they're close.
I do remember calculating how much stellite I was using up. The stuff was like $350 a lb then and I'd go through a couple of pounds on a head.
Just reminiscing about an interesting job I did for a while...

I am always in awe of the work the mechanics do.

In the 1960s I worked at a full service auto parts store.

Occasionally, folks would bring in valves from the Ingersol Rand reciprocating engines used at the Texas Gas pumping station a few miles away.

The valves looked similar to automotive engine valves but were about 3' tall when standing on the floor.

We would send them to our main store about 25 miles where they would grind the faces on their crankshaft grinder.

If standing on the ground near the pipeline one could feel the pulses of the reciprocating pumping engines.

The reciprocating engines are long gone now, having been replaced by turbines decades ago.

Dean

A lot of small towns in the midwest still have power plants, but they don't run, regularly, just backup. I retired from fifteen years as an operator, at the local plant. Five engines and the largest was a 10,000 horsepower diesel. Never cared for the smell of diesel fuel. Still don't.

From 1972 > 2011 I worked my way up to Chief. Here are a couple of Clark Dresser Rands V-16's..10,000 hp. Natural gas fuel, Units were used as Compression power.
They were on a 36" & 30" pipeline...2 billion cubic feet of Natural gas every 24 Hrs.
Last 8 years I was Chief we ran maintained twp LM 25,000 HP General Electric CF-6 Air Craft Gas Generators.

Bob...Retired Power Engineer / Multi trades:

The New Orleans Sewerage and Water board still generates almost all its own power for the flood control pumping stations.
The main reason is the old electric water pumps still use 25 cycle power.
It also allows them control over the power for the pumps should the grid go down in a storm.

They have recently installed converters that convert 60 cycle electricity from the power company down to the 25 cycle electricity they use as a added back up incase part of their generation system goes down.

That is the first engine we put fuel injection on, the 10000 HP Clark.

Starting that engine is a challenge, it takes a lot of work to get the turbo's spinning and producing boost, as the engine will detonate without the boost. My customer has two of them, one in Iowa and one in Oklahoma, the one in Iowa is injected, the one in Oklahoma is not. You can tell the difference in torque response on the fuel injected one, as it is much better.

Good morning David G

These MONSTERS had an extra VALVE (Air Start)in the head:
Air storage Vessels were five 30" diameter pipes X 100' long buried in the earth:
Each Engine had TWO Turbos:
Each Turbo was spun on Starting Air until the Engine was under Load:
Engines were Installed in 1966:
In 1991 this Engine suffered a failed crankshaft:
A casting was located in Belgium, Europe:
Sent to England to be machined:
Placed on a Freighter and sent to Montreal Canada:
Installed in engine October 1991:
Installation and all new bearings was under the direction of WASHINGTON IRON WORKS out of Sherman Texas:

Bob...Retired Power Engineer..1971>2011

The one in Iowa also suffered from crankshaft issues, the fuel injection was added to balance the cylinders better and reduce stress on the crankshaft.

We had one of our Worthington backup generator engines rebuilt at work 3 or 4 years ago, I grabbed a couple of shots of one of the piston and cylinder sets.




Twelve cylinder Worthington, diesel injected, turbo, air start, running a 3500kW GE generator at a whopping 514rpm. The industrial equivalent of a JD two cylinder. Engine reportedly was used to power large sea-going freighters. Oil leakage on these things makes most worn-out Detroit diesels look dry, the upper valve gear has a leakage collection system which returns to the sump. About 600 gallons of oil per change. I think the crank weighed 18 tons.

The crew that came in to put the new crankshaft in was made up of Cubans, I believe. Our management pulled an engineer in off another project to supervise due to their bi-lingual skills. We still had a ton of issues with safety practices. A lot of don't ask, don't tell to get it done.

I just realized after looking in Preview, that my life goal of becoming a hand model will never be realized! God, what an ugly mitt!

That's sure is a very big rag in the second pic! How many guys does it take to use it? Ha, what is that a drop cloth or something?

They measure horses in hands, don't they?
Looks like a three hand bore. Big horse
engine!

I like that compresser rod lock nut wrench
in the third picture.

You are absolutely correct Sir.....Compressor lock Nut Wrench.

May I ask, how did you know it was a Compressor lock Nut Wrench?

Bob..

I've used one a few times over the years.
The HLA 10T Clark has a wrench that was
just like that. Had a metal link bolted
across the opening so it wouldn't spread.
The HBA 5T Clark had a spanner wrench that
bolted around the nut.

27 years in a compressor station.

I was stationed at various locations along the 1000 mile gas pipeline from Northern British Columbia along the Alcan Highway / Alaska Highway to the Washington State border from 1972>2011:

Bob...

Spent my whole time at a compressor station
in Ellerslie, Georgia. Retired 2007.
Southern Natural Gas.