Talk:Detroit Diesel

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[edit] V8s

How come there are no v8 engines for class 8 trucks in North America?Isalmerbati 05:18, 10 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Disputed

[edit] Series 71 Introduction

Although the Detroit Diesel website says that the series 71 was introduced in 1957, the 1986 printing of the inline 71 series service manual clearly documents a block casting change that occured in the 1940s. This needs to be looked into further. --24.107.227.12 17:13, 15 October 2005 (UTC)

This block casting change was from the earlier "Hi deck" to the "Low deck". We had a 6-71 made in 1938 and the serial # was something like 275. The 71 series was first. Later came the 110 series, which I have only seen in Allis Chalmers crawlers. Later came the 149 series. The 53 series was definitely introduced in 1958 in 2,3, 4, 6V, and the totally insane 8V-53.

http://www.westerbeke.com/aboutus/company_history.cfm says Westerbeke was marinizing 6-71 engines as early as 1938. --24.107.227.12 17:13, 15 October 2005 (UTC)
I have emailed the folks over at DD repeatedly and......nothing. They don't seem to respond to my emails. Maybe you can get through? I have been trying since about May.
Is the "Series 71" the same thing as the "6-71"?
a 6-71 is a 71 Series engine. The 6 (or 4, or 3) designates how many cylinders the engine has. "V" means the engine is a V type, and was available as an 8,12,16, and 24 cylinder models. the 3-71, 4-71 and 6-71 were all inline models.Nathraq (talk) 20:52, 11 December 2007 (UTC)
Also, maybe they called it something else, but to simplify their accomplishments, they just put 6-71. Maybe it should be "the predecessor" to the Series 71?
WikiDon 17:26, 15 October 2005 (UTC)
The 6-71, along with the 3-71, 4-71, xV71, and so forth are all 71 series engines. The V qualification, of course, means a V-form engine. I do not have a direct line to DDC, but I do have access to more books on the subject. --24.107.227.12 02:48, 16 October 2005 (UTC)
The 71 in Series 71 stands for the cubic inch displacement per cylinder. A 3-71 is 3*71=213 cubic inches, and so forth. --24.107.227.12 23:52, 17 October 2005 (UTC)
I am feeling like removing the note since the information came directly from DD. I am starting to feel that YOU must contact them to prove otherwise. WikiDon 00:35, 18 October 2005 (UTC)
PS: I just emailed DDC again, and ask them for help. WD
The Detroit Diesel service manual I have is also information that "came directly from DD." I can scan the relevant pages of the manual if you desire. --24.107.227.12 00:22, 19 October 2005 (UTC)
I have a 1946 copy of NAVPERS 10208-A, Motor Machinist's Mate 3c & 2c (The USN Rate training book for engine mechanics) that refers to the "GM series 71" by name, and drawing. It also mentions the Gray Marine adaptation of the 6-71 that was used as one of the two posible engines in the thousands of LCVPs that were built. I can reference the serial number of a 4-71 mounted in a ex-Navy WWII tugboat against a Detroit Diesel manual to see when it was made (yes, there manuals go back that far). I can point you to ship types (LCI for example) that used 6-71s as there sole source of propulsion. In short there is no question that the series 71 existed well prior to 1957, and i'd be happy to provide whatever proof is nessicary. --63.200.55.222 10:07, 24 December 2005 (UTC)


The 6-71 was being produced during World War II and was the main engine in many landing craft during the war. There are many WWII era posters and advertisements still in existence showing the 6-71.

The -71 series Detroit Diesel engine was introduced in 1938, and manufactured until 1995. It included 1,2,3,4,6 and multiples of 6 cylinder engines. The one cylinder was only produced during WWII as a marine engine. The 2-71 was used for years to generate electricity for railroad refrigerator cars, many of these gen-sets are still available although production of the 2-71 ceased in 1986.

I can verify the above as reasonably accurate and to add to this General Motors Diesel also produced a 51 Series, these were fully ported engines with no valves whatsoever. If memory serves me correctly they were used in snub nosed tractors and coupled to piggy backed Hydra Matic transmisions. A few were marinized but I never knew who did this. Sorry I can not produce hard evidence of this as all my service and shop manuals were stolen several years ago.

One thing I can tell you is that the initial product lineup of Detroit Diesel in 1938 was indeed the Series 71, but in exclusively inline block configurations ranging from two to six cylinders (the single cylinder 1-71 was a WWII exclusive unit). The 4-71 and the more common 6-71 were, in its time, popular diesel engines for line-haul trucks and city buses, although the 3-71 did power some large farming tractors. The Series V-71, with cylinder configurations ranging from six to 24, was definitely introduced in 1957 along with the Series 53. WikiPro81 04:22, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

Note that until the introduction of V-series engines, the term "71-series" always meant an inline engine. It is only after V-configuration engines were introduced that terms were introduced to distinguish between them. From our perspective of today, looking at older materials (before the V-series was introduced) is confusing as it does not say "inline" or "V", because at time of printing there was no "V". To clarify, a "71-series" engine means 71 cubic inches per cylinder and today means either inline or V-configuration; before the introduction of V-configuration it always meant an inline engine. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.221.201.4 (talk) 20:18, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

If it helps - keep in mind that GM Diesel became known as Detroit Diesel around 1965, according to Alfred Sloan in My Years With General Motors. I'll put that into this article eventually with the source, but I'm working on the GM engines page right now and that's taking enough of my time. Between DD and Allison (which Rolls-Royce seems to have written out of existence), it's hard to trace this stuff. Duncan1800 (talk) 10:44, 19 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Series 51

There was in fact a series 51 that had no valves. It worked more like a 2 cycle gas engine using scavenger ports for both intake and exhaust. I do not know if it had a supercharger, but I will see if I can find anything out. There were 2 and 4 cylinder strait block versions. It was primarily an industrial engine, used for pumps, generators, compressors and the like. They also found their way into marine applications. A website called marineEngine.com has an operators manual for the 51 series so thats a place to start. Thaddeusw 03:32, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Categories

This page covers both companies, so should have categories as Diesel engines, Genset engines and Submarine Engines (WWII) etc as well as auto engines! I know a lot of New Zealand telephone exchanges had Detroit Diesel 71 engines for standby sets! Hugo999 09:26, 9 May 2007 (UTC)