I was standing right beside a 3600 Cat that started to deto pretty bad, I thought I was going to have to get a broom and dust pan. I didn't know which way to go for half a second. One of these Clarks with a 17.75" bore would probably shake the fillings out of your teeth.

 

I hear ya.. I was battling a little smaller engine, LSV-16 4 stroke that was having a hard time keeping it contained. Shot out a spark plug in revolt.

AFA the Cat 3600, too much computer there and higher speed makes for a parts parade for sure.

 

I hear ya on the Cats computer skills. This engine sucked back a bunch of sour gas as we were loading it (operator soured the fuel gas). I think it needs to see a certain load factor before it looks for deto, it hammered for about 30 seconds and let a big satifsfying carbon cleaning belch out the stack and quit. I'm not sure how sour the fuel got, it pinned my meter at over 1000ppm when I checked it though.
Only two more to tear down and then pick your part is over. Here's what's left.

 

Just enough room to sneak in a turbine into the building

Knowing spectra, it would be something cool. Sure missed working at Savona. Nice weather and you could spend the weekends in Van.

 

Wow, nice clean grout block still... Sad to see the old iron go really. End of an era.

Here is a shot of the head that spit the plug.. Its supposed to be in the middle.. Count the cracks??? Loc-n-Stitch time..

 

Garlock headgasket?

 

There is a steel flange gasket type head gasket (firing ring) that is installed between the liner and head, then this gasket just holds in the oil and water.

 

My turn to post some old iron pics. Nice stuff to work on.

 

Must be nice to work on small things from time to time. The pumps I was working on are bigger than that.

 

Ya they are pretty small stuff, only around 7000HP size. Real easy stuff to work on. Its a Westinghouse W92 gas turbine. Its based on the engine that was used in the P80 (shooting star aero engine). Not too many are running these days, these two are probably the only ones that I know that are in 24hr operation. The controls are still relay/pneumatic stuff. The engine rotates on a turning gear when not running, to prevent bowing. The engine burns up lots of fuel gas, probably around 18% efficency area. A typical modern gas turbine is around 47-50%, co-gen operation is around 55-60% (gas turbine/steam).

 

Cool stuff!