Not as strange as I thought

[Jeremy]

Walking down my street last night I passed a parked van that had 'Detroit Diesel and Allison Transmission Specialists' written on the side. I can't imagine what machinery in the UK uses DD engines, but it sounds like, were I to import an Eagle or similar to the UK, mechanical help and spare parts may not be as hard to come by as I thought (although they may not know anything about two-strokes I suppose). I'd still need to become part owner of an oilfield to be able to afford to fuel it though...

Jeremy

[tekebird]

Of any engine transmission combo ever made.......the Detroit Diesel is probably the most widespread and still in use combo, or individually, road, industrial, marine, military.

[Jeremy]

I am sure you're right, but I've just never come across them here; I've certainly never 'heard' the sound of a DD two-stroke on the road, and I cannot imagine what vehicles they would be fitted in either. Being a two-stroke I'd always assumed they would fail Euro emission regs as well, but that may be completely wrong. I can easily imagine that some of the older heavy earth moving equipment might use them - although the only 'name' used here I can think of with American connections would be Catepillar, and they make their own engines.

Just curious!

Jeremy

[Stan]

Jeremy: About the time that England built their first freeways, any vehicle leaking oil was pulled off the highway at inspection stations. I guess that means that they didn't meet emission standards!
Detroits are also common in farm machinery.

[jjrbus]

 Detroits are a common marine engine

[Jeremy]

Jeremy: About the time that England built their first freeways, any vehicle leaking oil was pulled off the highway at inspection stations. I guess that means that they didn't meet emission standards!
Detroits are also common in farm machinery.

I'm glad they don't do that now - my Range Rover would never complete a journey

Marine engines are certainly possible. Oddly enough Gardiner diesels have traditionally been a very common marine installation here, and were also standard fitment in British double-decker buses for many years. I'm not even sure if Gardiner still exist as a company any more.

Jeremy

[Lee Bradley]

TEREX built equipment for years in UK and they were a big user of Detroit/Allison.

[Stan]

Jeremy: Some Gray Marine engines were DD 2 strokes. 6-71 in lines in bioth left and right turn for twin screws. In smaller boats a big bilge holds the oil. In large pleasue craft they have a man with a rag in his pocket to wipe the engine every time he passes it. The owner then proudly shows off his engine room and claims that his engines don't leak. We have a lot of bus owners with that same rag in their pocket. 

[m-werx]

Hi mainland market delivery out of portsmouth had a fleet of dodge with detroit motors, somewhere in 66/67, used to run to covent garden with vegies, flowers,used to fly but 3to5 mpg +mot put a end to them,also had foden two strokes best sound ever, Darren.

[TomC]

Jeremy- there was an engine manufacturer named Foden that was using the Detroit 6-71N as their own engine in the isles.  Good Luck, TomC

[keithddyson]

hi
we have raced a detroit 60 series since 1999 in the british truck racing series in a white gmc and then fitted to a ERF es8 special  . we also used a detroit 2 stroke  tractor unit to pull the racer around ,that was fun to drive. ERF used to fit the 60 series to some tractor units{artic}  but that has dwindled down. the dealership that we had help from was mitchells diesels .
www.btra.org 
team colletts

[Jeremy]

hi
we have raced a detroit 60 series since 1999 in the british truck racing series in a white gmc and then fitted to a ERF es8 special  . we also used a detroit 2 stroke  tractor unit to pull the racer around ,that was fun to drive. ERF used to fit the 60 series to some tractor units{artic}  but that has dwindled down. the dealership that we had help from was mitchells diesels .
www.btra.org 
team colletts

Hi Keith

I take it from that that you are a Brit too - I'm glad I'm not the only one on this board as I was getting lonely. The van I saw was a Mitchells vehicle by the way - they have a depot not far from where I live.

At the time of the (first) Gulf War I worked for Perkins diesels in Shrewsbury, dealing with all the tank engine rebuilds (getting the sand out and shipping them back out there). Perkins had an engine in one of the race trucks in the British series at the time (not sure which truck). The guys in the office used to moan that it wasn't a 'proper' Perkins engine as it had two turbos rather than the single turbo used on the regular road engine. With an attitude like that I always thought the company should pull out and leave the competition to those manuafacturers who knew how to compete (people like Mercedes and MAN I would guess). I've no idea if the Perkins engine actually made any impression on the series, but if it did it was despite the 'support' from the factory.

Jeremy

[Jeremy]

Jeremy- there was an engine manufacturer named Foden that was using the Detroit 6-71N as their own engine in the isles.  Good Luck, TomC

Actually Foden build the whole truck - it's a company that's been around for a very long time (back to steam vehicles I believe), but has fairly recently become part of a larger group. Foden as a brand has been retained for the 'heavier duty' end of the range - they also do military vehicles (example below), which I could well believe still use Detroit Diesels (I guess emissions and fuel consumption don't seem that important when you've got people to kill)



Jeremy

[lloyd]

Detroit Desiel makes 4 stroke engines that meet emission standards. DD is owned by Daimler Chrysler, who owns Mercedes trucks also, which is very popular world wide. In fact by 2010 when the next emission standard have to be meet DD and Mercedes will have to the same line of engines. Some of the military equipment need alot power at times so they have some high HP engines in them. If I was getting shot at I would like to move fast too.
Lloyd