Pelican Parts Forums - Big engines starting..

All types of diesels are really neat! I think I told the story about making the after diesel (3-268A I think) on the Joseph P Kennedy, DD850 run when it had not for 10 years or more?

I was assigned, with another fireman apprentice to clean the space and engine one day and the PO1 said it had not run in years. I said can we take a look at it and he laughed and said have a ball. So we cleaned and found the owners manual and went through it. The oil level in the sump was fine as was the fuel pressure. I found a tool for setting the injector height, sort of like a valve adjust and the injectors were way off so we did the adjustment. I said to give it some air to crank it over and in about 1 1/2 revs it fired right up! Oh boy did the excitement start because when the diesels start that means loss of power, ETC plus the exhaust was right under the quarter deck! The OOD was going to throw the book at us but the CO was super happy that it actually ran as was the PO1 so I got advanced to Fireman! That sucker was sure noisy as I remember!