by Allen Hazen
I am ignorant.
First, a couple of things I ***think*** are true: please somebody set me right if they're not!
(1) To replace the crankshaft (in an EMD diesel engine), you'd have to separate the crank-case from the oil pan (so: major work, needing a crane that can hoist several tons of metal).
(2) The crankshaft is probably about the most expensive single-piece metal component in the engine. (Well, maybe the whole crank-case structure is more expensive, but of the thi8ngs you install IN it....)
Next, a general question:
How common is crankshaft replacement? As in, suppose a railroad buys a hundred EMD locomotives and keeps them for thirty years: how many crankshafts would it expect to replace in them in that time?
Leading to the question that inspired all this:
The "launch" version of the 8-567C (and also the launch version of the 12-710...) had vibration... issues... that led to the introduction a few years later of the 8-567CR with revised cylinder firing sequence. In principle I'd think you could rebuild an 8-567C into an 8-567CR (so your early-production SW-900 would run more smoothly...), but it would involve replacing the crankshaft (and the camshafts, but they should be cheaper). Does anyone here know if this was actually done, or did purchasers of the early version just live with the problem?
First, a couple of things I ***think*** are true: please somebody set me right if they're not!
(1) To replace the crankshaft (in an EMD diesel engine), you'd have to separate the crank-case from the oil pan (so: major work, needing a crane that can hoist several tons of metal).
(2) The crankshaft is probably about the most expensive single-piece metal component in the engine. (Well, maybe the whole crank-case structure is more expensive, but of the thi8ngs you install IN it....)
Next, a general question:
How common is crankshaft replacement? As in, suppose a railroad buys a hundred EMD locomotives and keeps them for thirty years: how many crankshafts would it expect to replace in them in that time?
Leading to the question that inspired all this:
The "launch" version of the 8-567C (and also the launch version of the 12-710...) had vibration... issues... that led to the introduction a few years later of the 8-567CR with revised cylinder firing sequence. In principle I'd think you could rebuild an 8-567C into an 8-567CR (so your early-production SW-900 would run more smoothly...), but it would involve replacing the crankshaft (and the camshafts, but they should be cheaper). Does anyone here know if this was actually done, or did purchasers of the early version just live with the problem?