FM emergency genset question

[EDM5970]

I spent a few hours on the battleship North Carolina last week, on display in Wilmington NC. The very first thing that caught my eye, in the one engine room that was open to the public, was an OP and a 200 KW GE generator.

Now, I know my way around Alcos and know a little about the "other' two cycle power, but I could not tell how many cylinders this engine had! FM did a nice job of "packaging" that engine, to be sure.

The nameplate was up high, and in poor light, but I was able to make out that it was a model 38, the RPM was 900, and that the HP was 300. There were six thermocouple junction boxes running into the base, I suspect for bearings, and the governor was a Woodward SI.

Any ideas on how many cylinders? The present FME site doesn't have anything nearly this small (by a factor of six or so).

I would have liked to see the main ships service generators (said to be four turbines and four diesels), but those spaces were closed to the public. Also, I've heard stories that the New Jersey (Iowa class) has Alco 539s, but in this state, run by lawyers and insurance companies, I'll never see them-

The North Carolina is well worth the visit, if you are ever in the area.

[GOLDEN-ARM]

Seen this yet? FM O/P

[EDM5970]

Yes, thats why I mentioned the "factor of six" in my 4th paragraph- Any other sources of old OP info out there?

[GOLDEN-ARM]

Contact EnPro. They have archival info, that will give you what you want. That's why I posted the link. Regards

[Typewriters]

I'd make a bet that with an engine speed of 900 RPM that this was a 5-1/4 X 6 engine, and with what you say were six sets of bearing thermocouple leads that would make five crank throws, so five cylinders. Did you take pictures? You can count the openings along the sides (either open, or covered with bolt-on square or rectangular covers) which were there for access to the fuel injector nozzles (one each side) and, on the engine on my boat, the cylinder test valves. So, I'd bet it was a five cylinder 5-1/4 engine; you could get that output from that displacement at that speed.

-Will Davis

[mxdata]

Some views and a cross section of the 38D 8-1/8, the 5-1/4 is mentioned but no illustrations:

http://www.tugboatenthusiastsociety.org ... ern-FM.htm

[EDM5970]

Thanks for all the good information. I got a chance to look in my Draney and Kirkland books the other day, and found a bit more information.

The Draney book (published in 1943) has information on a 38D8 five cylinder 8 by 10 engine. Rated horsepower was 750, at 720 RPM. This must have been the engine used in the SOU and AGS motorcars, delivered in 1939, as detailed in the Kirkland book.

Kirkland mentions the smaller 38F51/4 (5 1/4 by 7 1/4) engine available in 5, 6, 7, 8 and 10 cylinder configurations. The smallest of these was rated at 375 HP at 1200 RPM, so 300 HP at 900 RPM (with an 8 pole alternator for 60 cycles) seems reasonable.

What had me guessing was the nameplate, which only had "38" stamped in the model field. Also, there were only two long injector and crankcase covers, while the larger engine had covers for each cylinder.

Its interesting that Will suggests a 5 1/4 by 6 engine, and Kirkland has a 7" bore. The larger engine in Draney is an 8 by 10, Kirkland uses 8 1/8 for the bore (as in the model number), but a caption later in the Kirkland accompanies a photo of a later 8 1/2" by 10" OP intended for power generation usage. All development, I'm sure; we all know the BLW VO engine grew a bit in bore towards the end. And of course the 567 "grew" into the 645-

(My visit to the North Carolina has a Cooper-Bessemer tie-in, but I'll put that on the GE forum-)