belt drive or direct drive...

[mobile_bob]

that is the question

http://www.vincelewis.net/bigengine.html

who all wants one,,, now don't be bashful, step right up!

bob g

[injin man]

Belt Drive. If that thing had a hiccup your generator would be twisted up
pretty bad. If you look at Central Georgia's customer projects section that
engine is there. Sure is a shame we as a country aren't the leaders in the
industrial world any longer, while we still build big stuff I don't see anything
the likes of that rolling off the assembly lines over here.

[Randybee1]

That actually looks a lot like the pony motor I use to start my "big" engine

[veggie]

How about the "SOMRAD" project !!!   
Everyone donates their listeroid until we get 50 of the 6/1 models.
Then we lay them out in a big line and couple all the crankshafts 45 deg. out from the neighboring engine.
(smooths out the firing sequence)
A 50 cylinder, 300HP, 650 rpm super power plant.
It could span the full belly (length) of a ship 

veggie

[Henry W]

I would like to see one in person. I wonder what that can do running dual fuel. Run a 110" dia by 600 foot long stub shaft and run a whole bunch of ST-12 heads with 6 " pulleys with serpentine belts wrapped around the stubshaft.

[BioHazard]

Seriously, when I win the lottery, that will be one of my first purchases. The neighbors are going to be pissed....

[TimSR2]

My buddy from work is training to be a ships captain. He gets 3 month tours off the union board a couple times a year, goes to sea, comes back when shipping is slow.   A couple of years ago we were having this discussion about engines, big Wartsila engines.. the largest and most efficient ICE's in the world. 49% volumetric efficiency iirc, unbelievable.   BTW they do use them as a  combined Heat Power plant on the cruise ships so they are far beyond 49% in service.

We were discussing fuel consumption, how to compute lbs/hp/hr, or grams/kilowatt hour. , this led to what my genset consumes, or what my speedboat engine consumes... 

So my buddy Oleg {(Yes he is Russian..! ) At that time he was on one of the world's largest cruiseships.}  He says..."Vel, ve consume two tons bunker fuel per hour per Big Wartsila. Ve have 4 Vartsila, so ve consume 8 tons for main propulsion at maximum, also half ton each for the light plants. Maximum consumption is 9 tons Bunker per hour in heavy seas....average for deese sheeps is 5 tonnes per hour."

Wrap your heads around that!  5-9 tonnes per hour.  I just about fell over!

[BioHazard]

Wrap your heads around that!  5-9 tonnes per hour.  I just about fell over!

Reminds me of when I bought my first boat...nobody bothered to tell me how much gas it sucks. It only had a 6 gallon tank and I thought that should be fine for a little while...I think we made it half a mile.