It's official: Inline-6 version of the GEVO engine

6 cylinders and 2300 HP... not bad...

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=1324365

Just as I was giving up hope! ... And, alas, at a time when the number of old 4-axle GE roadswitchers to provide trucks and underframes for a low-budget B23-7 replacement is betting low.
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GE is not a company known for making foolish decisions: they must think there is a market for it. Perhaps for export locomotives or for non-rail applications, but they must think there is a market. ... For the moment, Erie is busy building mainline units. Suppose this idea takes off: do you suppose GE will build its own "ES23," or supply engines to a niche builder like Railpower or Republic Locomotive or...?

I think that the market for this engine could be very large, even in rail usage. I suspect that many railroads are wanting something more bulletproof than the small bore engines used in the Genset and Green Goat units.

Do the air intakes on the GEVO12 engine pair up on every two cylinders as they appear to on this engine?

Bolted on crankcase covers??

Do the air intakes on the GEVO12 engine pair up on every two cylinders as they appear to on this engine?

actually they are 4 to a manifold section. i don't think i have any pictures of the gevo12 but i have a few of the hdl16 and the manifold arrangement is identical [but they have 4 intake manifold sections vs 3 on the gevo12] in the pic below you can see the section for R5-R6



i don't like the bolt on crankcase covers but maybe on the backside they are not as necessary to access for inspection like the front side ones are. you can change out a short power assembly on a gevo without opening any crankcase covers [done about a dozen in the past year]. you only need to go in there for inspection and if you change a rod/piston out or for main bearings

I understand that GE has been offering a repowering package internationally (utilizing an FDL engine) designed to be used on a wide variety of differnt locomotives makes, So I would guess that they will offer rebuilds using a variety of "core" units as a starting point, EMD's in particular....

Very interesting pic.

The air manifold sections aren't identical, so the I-6 engine isn't "just" a cut in half 12 cyl.

I was wondering what they were doing to depressurize the crankcase in the event of a crankcase explosion. Or perhaps there are normal crank covers on the other side?

I see that the engine still has a fuel injection pump powered by a cam lobe, but moved to one side of the cam section.

I also notice that there are two rather sizable fuel lines. Is the pressurization period on the injection pump fairly long because the EFI times the nozzle? (More unused fuel returning to tank than in mechanical injection?

Sorry, this is all new fangled technology to me. I think the 251 is state of the art. It's good enough to move the space shuttle after all!

It sure would make interesting repower for the P40's, stepping them down to 2300, It would make a great locomotive for 4 or so cars.
Something to think about for operators of smaller trains.

the fuel lines are one size up from the lines on the fdl engines [fdl= -12, hdl= -16]. the line size if for fuel flow and cooling. those blocks that bolt to the injection pump have built in restrictiors in them to limit the flow in/out just like the fdl efi engines do in their tee fittings or banjo block. the hole sizes are about an 1/8" or so. the 6cylinder may share the same crankshaft and power assemblies/pistons, but i'd bet the rods have been changed so they can use the same crank [although i don't know which is cheaper: redesigning the rods or redesigning the crankshaft...?]

FCP503 wrote:Very interesting pic.

The air manifold sections aren't identical, so the I-6 engine isn't "just" a cut in half 12 cyl.

I was wondering what they were doing to depressurize the crankcase in the event of a crankcase explosion. Or perhaps there are normal crank covers on the other side?

I see that the engine still has a fuel injection pump powered by a cam lobe, but moved to one side of the cam section.

I also notice that there are two rather sizable fuel lines. Is the pressurization period on the injection pump fairly long because the EFI times the nozzle? (More unused fuel returning to tank than in mechanical injection?

Sorry, this is all new fangled technology to me. I think the 251 is state of the art. It's good enough to move the space shuttle after all!

The 6 cylinder engine appears to have a fabricated frame vs. the cast frame of the 12 and 16 cylinder versions.

Does anyone have a physical size on this powerplant? I'm looking for height, length, width for a possible repower project.

J. Gallaway---
I just spent a few minutes with GE Transportation's WWWebsite (link from GE line of Forums index at Railroad.net), as you probably already have. I couldn't find ANY reference to the new GEVO-6 engine. Even the press release for the trade show at which it was displayed didn't mention it (it emphasized the other new engine-- the smaller 16-cylinder 3700hp one for the British locomotives) and the repowering of the M62 locomotive). So it seems GE isn't ready to market this engine. (Though, since this is all based on a few minutes websurfing, you should seek other sources of information.)

They DO have dimensional information on the 12-cylinder GEVO (under its alternative name V250) on the marine engines sub-page. Length, at least, is probably the same. The caption poster shown in one of the photos does suggest that locomotive applications are intended, so the design must be such as to fit inside a reasonably sized locomotive hood.

Thanks for checking Allen. And yes I had dug into the GETrans vault of non-info. I have a VERY specific rebuild in mind, and am... less then enthused with the idea of falling back to using super-charged truck engines to get the HP I need in a small enough package.

The frame is cast not fabricated. The Gevo (V250) and FDL (V228) Marine engines also have the bolt on doors with 2 on each side being able to vent pressure in the event of an explosion. The picture in the link above is of the Marine version of the Inline hence the bolt on doors. I believe the vented ones are on the other side and can be seen below.

Here is some info including sizing. The specs for the land version may be a little different though. Listed is both the 6 and 8 cylinder versions.

GE 6 L250 and 8 L250 Diesel Engines

Although the press release was for the Marine version, I would suspect that a land version is also on the way. On the GE Career site about 2-3 months ago, they were looking to hire a "U.S. Switcher Product Manager". Possibly power for that application also? I guess we will see.

Thank you, GEVO!
I went to the site map for the SKAMEK WWWebpage you linked to and looked around, and found a few otherr interesting tidbits. GE apparently started testing the straight-6 GEVO at Erie in November 2007, and they say it will be available (for marine customers, at least) starting in (I think) April 2009: there was something about setting up a new "production line" for it a Grove City, so I guess they aren't ready to produce it in more than prototype/test quantities yet.

And, for those thrilled by GE's revival of the idea of a dual-power, diesel + battery, locomotive... They are also designing the works for hybrid tugboats!

I'm not sure where the engine dimensions come from on GEVO's link. 200" for the 6-cylinder and 235" for the 8-cylinder seem a bit on the long side, given that the GEVO 12-cylinder engine is (according to a paper presented by GE engineers at an ASME conference) about 165" long. Either there has been a slip-up or the dimensions given include a pile of auxiliary equipment.