645-engines bult by others

Somewhere I have read about others than EMD are building 645-engines and some engine-blocks were made in Poland.
Anyone who can give more informations?

Supposedly METRA's and Caltrain's MP36s have 645's built by some GE affiliate in Poland. They're supposed to be 3600 hp, too.

When Morrison Knudsen announced their intention to build new high horsepower MK5000C locomotives competing with EMD and GE back in the early 1990s, EMD ceased sales of parts to the MK companies. MK responded with a program which sought replacements for most of the significant parts of the EMD engines and locomotives. One such item was the 16-645F3 engine crankcase, and a replacement was designed which differed in several respects from the EMD crankcase but accepted all the same reciprocating and rotating parts. The task of acquisition of engine crankcases was assigned to MK Engine Systems of Latham, New York, working with a contractor in Poland. MK subsequently spun off the rail operations as MK Rail, which later became Motivepower Industries. Motivepower then was merged with Westinghouse Air Brake to form Wabtec, and Wabtec subsequently decided to sell several operations, including Engine Systems, to General Electric. Thus GE ended up with the Polish built substitute 16-645F3 crankcase, and is still producing them. Is everybody completely confused now?

Thanks for the information. How many locos have been built with non EMD 645-engines?
Pictures of engines and locos?

GE Engine Systems probably knows where they all ended up at, but I doubt they would make that information available. In addition to engines used by Boise in locomotive construction, many of the crankcases have gone to major railroads for their heavy overhaul programs. I heard that Union Pacific bought a number of them to replace older crankcases in their own internal engine rebuilding programs.

CP's SD40-2F's have non EMD 645 engines. They were built after EMD stopped production on the 645 engine.

According to the EMD website, the 8 12, and 16 cylinder roots blower 645 is still available as a new product, for marine and industrial service.

Another puzzle: as everyone knows, EMD's SD/GP40-2 has a 3000 hp 645 engine that runs at 900 RPM maximum. The GP/SD50 had/has a 3500/3600 hp 645 that runs at 950 RPM. Doesn't seem unreasonable that an engine running at 950 RPM would sound different from a 900 RPM engine, and I always thought the 50 series did sound different from the 40s.

Caltrain claims their MP36s are 3600 hp, and they say they run at 950 (954?) RPM. But they don't sound like it.

mxdata wrote:According to the EMD website, the 8 12, and 16 cylinder roots blower 645 is still available as a new product, for marine and industrial service.

They still sell the 645, but they aren't built by EMD.

timz wrote:
Caltrain claims their MP36s are 3600 hp, and they say they run at 950 (954?) RPM. But they don't sound like it.

Don't the MP36's have the 710 engine?

Here's the link, look for yourself....

http://gmemd.com/en/pmi/marine_data/eqt_sets/index.htm

mxdata wrote:Here's the link, look for yourself....

http://gmemd.com/en/pmi/marine_data/eqt_sets/index.htm

The link doesn't say anything about EMD building the 645 engines, just that they are available for sale. The 645's are built by another company under contract.

ENR3870 wrote:Don't the MP36's have the 710 engine?

Nope. They have 645s built by a GE subsidiary. Probably a bit cheaper than a "genuine EMD" 645.

MEC407 wrote:

ENR3870 wrote:Don't the MP36's have the 710 engine?

Nope. They have 645s built by a GE subsidiary. Probably a bit cheaper than a "genuine EMD" 645.

Oh ok, for some reason I thought they had the 710.

The 645F equivalent crankcase marketed by GE Engine Systems in Latham, New York is commonly called a "645FZ" to differentiate it from EMD manufactured products. The "Z" stands for "Zagoda", which is the Polish firm that actually does the assembly and machining of the crankcases. While the crankcase looks like, and takes the place of, an EMD 645F crankcase, the design of the internal structure is significantly different.