inside the EMD 567 and 645 engines

You mean to tell me that you are questioning the late and great "Boss Kettering"? By the way, the same design also works well for the 710 engine.

Ace - A couple of things to consider.

1. Your typical V8 engine has the two cylinder banks at 90 degrees. Your typical V6 engine has the cylinder banks at 60 degrees. The EMD567/645/710 engines all have a 45 degree angle between the cylinder banks. This narrow angle limits the space between the cylinder banks. You probably couldn't fit a 90 degree engine of similar displacement in the locomotive. Check out this link on the physics behind the angle between cylinder banks. Hopefully Rich won't mind me posting a link to car and driver magazine. http://www.caranddriver.com/fe...-bank-angles-feature
2. The exhaust passages in your car/truck engine cylinder head are water cooled. The cooling system deals with the heat load just fine. If you think about it, the cylinders in your engine block have much more surface area than the exhaust passages and probably contribute much more heat to the cooling system. A lot of new car/truck engines actually come with the exhaust manifolds cast as part of the cylinder heads. These are essentially water cooled to an extent.

Not sure if you have come across this, but there is an excellent design and development summary of the EMD 567 written by Eugene Kettering and presented to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1951.  It is available for download at:

http://utahrails.net/pdf/EMD_5...Development_1951.pdf

When you read this, you really understand how the EMD designs were continuously improved based on testing and experience from their railroad customers.  It is a pretty interesting read.

Scott Griggs

Louisville, KY

Near the end of the document is a frank admission of the trial and error process:
"In closing it must always be kept in mind that the 567 engine was neither designed or developed by any super intelligent or analytical mind. The engine has dictated every improvement that has been made. We, at Electromotive, have only done our best to interpret what the engine was trying to tell us."

As for my original question - I guess it just boils down to how the engine needed to be packaged for a rail application. The 567 engine (and its later derivatives, the 645 and 710 models) was a unique development of a 2-stroke diesel engine with overhead camshafts, unit injectors and a fabricated block with integral airbox and water manifolds. The block largely encased the cylinder heads to help keep the overhead camshafts under the valve covers.

I can't help but think that the exhaust passages through the water manifold probably compromised turbocharger performance to some extent, especially when the 645 and 710 engines were pushed to higher horsepower ratings in later years. A moot point I suppose, since the 710 engine has been superseded by newer 4-stroke designs.

One item to remember about the early Winton Engines, as well as the early 567 engines from EMC, they were ALWAYS mounted in an enclosed carbody such as a "Doodle Bug", "shovel nose", or "E Type" unit. Thus, it was pretty desirable to keep the temperatures of the top deck reasonably cool so as NOT to bake the lube oil flowing through and out of the overhead camshafts and associated valve train "jewelry". The exhaust manifolds were hot enough as it was, so there wasn't any reason to add to that terrific heat by NOT water cooling the top deck area.

Hot Water posted:

One item to remember about the early Winton Engines, as well as the early 567 engines from EMC, they were ALWAYS mounted in an enclosed carbody such as a "Doodle Bug", "shovel nose", or "E Type" unit. Thus, it was pretty desirable to keep the temperatures of the top deck reasonably cool so as NOT to bake the lube oil flowing through and out of the overhead camshafts and associated valve train "jewelry". The exhaust manifolds were hot enough as it was, so there wasn't any reason to add to that terrific heat by NOT water cooling the top deck area.

Very interesting. That reminds me of seeing gummy old wads of cooked lube oil in some of the nooks and crannies of the cylinder heads and top deck in 645 engines. Lots of hot oil smell when you open them big valve covers, especially when checking things out on an idling engine. Oil pouring out of lash adjusters with sloppy clearances. Shop people would change out power assemblies and not think to change out the lash adjusters too.

I never saw inside a Winton engine and the ranks of 567 engines were thinning rapidly during my time.