Big Detroit

Every so often when I need my fix of Detroit Diesel, I go an oogle at a rather large Detroit generating set. Anyways, I've learned that it has recently been decommissioned, never to be started again.

It happens to be a 16V149T, rated at about 1100 HP. It has four rather large turbochargers, a 300mm exhaust, two sumps, two starters, heat exchanger cooling and one beautiful voice at 1500 RPM. It has under 7000 genuine hours, but is quite smokey as it is setup to start from stone cold, sitting for six months, to full noise, full power in two seconds flat and stop just as fast and I think this has taken its toll on the old girl.

My question is does anyone know how much it would be worth? I'm looking at it from a collectors standpoint, I mean how cool would it be to have this engine in your shed? But seriously, I'm looking to make an offer on it as a rebuildable core, and I was wondering what a reasonable offer might be. Any ideas?

im not sure if you would be able to take that one home in the boot of your car ? im no expert but i have noticed that gensets this big that need work can usually be had very cheap ... so maybe make a slightly rude offer , you can always go up

Keep in mind what the scrap value of the Genset is worth.

If it comes with the generator the copper in it will drive the price up.

What would a re-build cost?

I worked with an engineer who worked for the Snowy Mountains Authority and he told of throwing AJAX down the intake of a smokie Detroit genset. Maybe worth a try before a rebuild.

Now thats a big motor

I worked with an engineer who worked for the Snowy Mountains Authority and he told of throwing AJAX down the intake of a smokie Detroit genset. Maybe worth a try before a rebuild.

Ahh, that does work if you mist/dust the AJAX powder down the throat, dump a hand full down into it and then it's going to be a costly time tearing it apart.

Preferred method to cure a smokey motor, was to load up a table spoon with Ajax powder, then slightly blow over the top of the loaded table spoon, so the dust went down into the intake.


regards greenie [smiley=vrolijk_1.gif]


Oh, it was a good quick way to run in a motor, that had just been re-built and was going to be put to very hard use the next day.

I worked with an engineer who worked for the Snowy Mountains Authority and he told of throwing AJAX down the intake of a smokie Detroit genset. Maybe worth a try before a rebuild.

I can confirm that this works if it's only glazed up. My mate did a "Jif hone" on an early Nissan Patrol which had done a lot of paddock work - worked like a charm.

ASW.

We are getting a little off topic, the detroits do glaze up when not worked hard or if they are running at the same rpm for to long .. So apart from a " washing powder rebuild" I would be trying a few simple things first

Hi dieseldog,

We look after quite a few gensets in SEQ.

7000hrs doesn't sound much, but in the standing and required to start up and make full load fast is hard on engines. The same engine running 24/7 should have no problem achieving 50,000+ hours. In our world in a standby situation we would probably scrap the unit.

I would be worried about the alternator windings (I assume it is in the tropics), it was refurbished by Heargraves in 2000 and probably will be up for a clean and re-enamel. As they age and stand still for long periods corrosion sets in and can lead to very spectacular failure.

What is it worth? scrap value, the amount of copper in it will bump this up. The engine is probably worth more as parts to someone that has one with broken bits, rather than done up, not much of a market for old technology engines in good condition. As a generator, the control system completeness and age will have a part to play in value. A control system any more than 5-10 years old is not very popular and is usually the source of reliability issues.

Some years ago we destroyed a 2500hp V16 Deutz and got $80,000 for the crank as part of the exchange long block we got.

In terms of smokey on start -up, this is most probably due to low loads. Usually generators are over spec'd and in standby usually don't work very hard = glazed bores.

One last Detroits we had in the fleet was a 12V92 mobile unit delivering 400kW electrical output (sold for $20,000 on auction had done about 9000hrs). This would often run for days at 10% or less load which resulted a very smokey unit. The fix for this was to bring the unit back to the workshop connect a load bank and run it at 100% for 4-5 hours, the result being a genset running clean again. This unit was streets ahead of Cat and Cummins in its ability to pick up load, running at 1500RPM 0% load and then applying 100% load it would take the load and recover speed within 8-10 seconds, lots of black smoke though but it was the best sounding engine we had (4 turbos and two blowers). A similar Cummins or Cat would recover in 20-30 seconds.

All of this said and done these big engines are great to be around and work on. Not to cheap to run though, something like the one you are looking at will use 250-300L/hour at 100%. Not sure from the pictures if it has a radiator, if you had to find one big enough it wouldn't be cheap, new you would be looking at $30,000+.

Regards
Roger

...g'day rb057 and dieseldog .. just chiming in to say thanks for your knowledge in this field.... imparted to us all

...there is a lot of sensible advice just given , and the technical side of the forum does well with input such as this.....thanks and cheers

Company I worked for in the 80's bought the genset when they wound up the sand mining on Fraser Island.
It was 12V149 (non turbo) powered and even in those days it was picked up cheaply.
Very large unit, massive radiator and fan which made more noise than the GM.
It had coolant and lube oil heaters so she was always warmed up for those quick starts, which weren't all that quick.
The twin electric starters, huge battery bank and chargers were ditched for air starters so a mobile IR compressor also lived in the generator building.
Price for one of these things would be scrap value, simply not popular in today's commercial world.