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RE: (erielack) ALCOS
Paul & Ed GM's engines besides being 2 strokes when they added turbochargers
added a direct drive that free wheeled when it reached a high enough exhaust
pressure for the turbo to be self powered. I wondered to why Alco didn't use
this technology to fix their smoking problems. Sam Weibel...
- -----Original Message-----
From: paultup_@_comcast.net [mailto:paultup@comcast.net]
Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2012 11:50 AM
To: EL Mail List
Subject: Re: (erielack) ALCOS
Ed Montgomery asked:
>Alco engines always seemed to accelerate with a blast of dark exhaust
>coming out the stack. I remember hearing this was caused by the
>turbocharger lagging. Could this have been corrected or was it part of
>the engine design?
I've always wondered that myself. Alcos and GEs tend to have the black
exhaust spurts common to turbo lag - and coincidentally, both use 4-cycle
prime movers.
Notably, earlier Alcos (539 series prime movers) don't really show large
black clouds like this (think RS1 and S2/S4), which also puzzles me.
> Was it common to all ALCO engines?
It seems to happen most on 244 and 251 engines, notably the latter. I'm
assuming EMD's turbo design had better free-flow in the turbo, which results
in less exhaust. This really would be a turbocharger issue rather than a
prime mover problem, IMHO. If Alco used a larger turbo with heavier blades,
the inertia at the start would be greater, allowing the initial exhaust
burst to fly past the turbine blade before they were up to speed.
> I heard stories of fires breaking out around the exhaust stack of the
PA's. Was this common
> to the RS and S units as well?
I've never heard of those, but it could be because of the PA's carbody
design and oil accumulation at the stack.
- - Paul
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