[asphaltgambler]

Detroit diesels are a very odd beast; 2-stroke design - incorporating piston-port intake and camshaft operated exhaust valves. The supercharger is driven 1:1 relative to crankshaft speed and assists in moving the intake air more efficiently but does not really pressurize it. It does have high compression.

In its day - it was the ***** diesel engine as far as power-to-weight and wide rpm range. They were used in everything from Oliver tractors to stationary engines to over the road semi's to locomotives. Also in marine form was all aluminum unlike any of of its counter-parts then making it the only choice for marine power. That's why you see so many old mid-to large boats having them as OE power.

The inline and larger 'V' configurations all had 71 ci per cylinder - same bore and stroke regardless of how many cylinders. The smaller 'V' engines cylinders displaced 53 ci - same bore and stroke.

The fuel systems were a then 'new' technology called 'Rising-Rate' fuel pressure to mechanically match fuel delivery to demand and RPM. This reduced heavy smoke and excess fuel consumption at high load and low engine speeds.

Later - turbo's were added to actually pressurize the incoming air charge for far more HP / TQ. When people see the Turbo / Supercharger combo as in the pic above it looks really high-tech and exotic until you understand the supercharger is just helping to move the air into the cylinders and turbo is pressurizing it.

Lastly and perhaps most interesting is the Roots design supercharger was initially used to help ventilate coal mine shafts! They were driven by a variety of things including electric motors and only much later incorporated to make power improvements in combustion engines.