What kind of oil is used in a diesel locomotive??

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SuperEd73

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Patchogue, NY
Hello BITOG,

Not sure if this is the best forum for this question but it might be the closest one. I was riding the LIRR (Long Island Rail Road) yesterday and one of the diesel/electric trains rolled past. So, I started thinking about what type of oil would be used to lubricate the monster engines that are in those types of applications.

Would a standard issue 15W-40 suffice? What would be the OCI?

Ed B.
 
The weight is usually either a 20W-40 or a straight 40W and it is special oil. It is zinc free as they use silver bearings, and zinc attacks the bearings.

Oil capacities are huge and they are not changed that often. Some railroads even have their used oil recycled and reconditioned.

You cannot use regular HDEO as the 15W-40's of the world.
 
And many have well staffed in-house UOA labs that keep a very close eye on all that oil, too.
 
I also know that, like tug boats, they do not change it often, if ever. The boat I worked on use straight 40w.....i am not sure if it is the same for locomotives, but for big diesels, I am guessing it is relatively the same?
21.gif
 
Hi,
as mentioned earlier many Rail Road engine oil specifications call for a zinc free product. Many have a performance standard requirement for a TBN of from 13 to 17
Some are SAE40 but Mobil RR Super 2413 for instance is an 20W-40 viscosity lubricant of the "4th Generation Long Life" type with a TBN of 13

The monograde 4th Generation LL lubricants for Detroit Diesel 2 cycle engines are special products. The application of course depends on the quality of the fuel used and other performance needs and requirements
 
The EMD (GM's Electro-Motive Division) two-stroke engines have the silver bearings and require the special engine oil. EMD 4-stroke engines and GE 4-stroke locomotive engines might use a different oil. ALCO engines use a conventional heavy duty diesel engine oil, 40 wt in my experience.

Engine oil is these medium sized engines needs to be tested and changed according to the lab reports. The ALCO engines I've run had 600 gallon sumps, so changing the oil was a lot of work and expense. The full-flow oil filters had six filter elements that were housed in a canister larger than a garbage can.

These aren't monster engines, and aren't even among the larger medium sized engines. I define a medium sized engine as one where you can get a couple of arms inside the crankcase access ports with tools. On a big engine, you put a crew of men inside the crankcase, use chain hoists to lift bearing shells, and put a man on a ladder in the cylinder to measure liner wear. Pistons (with renewable forged steel crowns) are 6 to 7 tons each. Individual heads about the same, and liners are about 8 tons each.
 
Originally Posted By: cowhorse01
Holy cr*p!!!!!!!!
shocked2.gif
shocked2.gif
Gigantic engines!!! Good info......


I think the "big boys" are the ones that move ocean going cargo and tanker ships.
 
http://www.le-inc.com/productPages.jsp?productID=217

Technical info on it:

http://www.le-inc.com/products/documents/8900_tdb.pdf

Approvals:

EMD Railroad Diesel Engines
GE Railroad Diesel Engines
Bombardier Railroad Diesel Engines
Caterpillar 3600
LMOA Generation 5
API CD, CF, CF-2 (only monograde)

Lubrication Engineers are reputed to make the very best lubricants in the world. Or so said one of the tribologists working there, on a Honda S2000 forum.

This is what I'd like to get my mittens on for my kittycat :x (car)

8130™ MONOLEC® ULTRA-BLEND Engine Oil
http://www.le-inc.com/products/documents/8130_tdb.pdf

Approvals:

API CJ-4, CI-4, CI-4 Plus/SM, SL Mack EO-O Premium Plus, 07, EO-N Premium Plus 03, EO-M Plus, EO-M
ACEA E7-04, E4, E2 Demonstration Volvo VDS-4, VDS-3, VDS-2
JASO DH-2 Demonstration Cummins CES 20081, CES 20077, CES20076
Allison C-4 Transmission Detroit Diesel 93K218, 93K215, 93K214
Global DHD-1 Caterpillar ECF-3, ECF-1
MB P228.3 MTU Type I & II
Renault RLD-3 MAN 3275

LE Gearbox oil demo:

http://www.le-inc.com/gearbox.jsp

Sucks I can't get my hands on anything nearly as spectacular for my ride where I live...
 
Last edited:
quick question
what oil should i use in my mothers 2004 mercury grand marquis with the 4.6 litre v8 it has 30,000 on it and i have been changing the oil with a motorcraft 820s filter using 5w20 motorcraft synthetic blend so far no problems do you think i would be better with the pennzoil platinum and if so should i use 5w20? i change the oil every 4 months and i just changed the transmission fluid using motorcraft mercon v i did a complete flush by sucking it out the dip stick hole (used a whole case) how do you rate the mercon v motorcraft?
I respect your opinion..
 
Originally Posted By: Ken2

These aren't monster engines, and aren't even among the larger medium sized engines. I define a medium sized engine as one where you can get a couple of arms inside the crankcase access ports with tools. On a big engine, you put a crew of men inside the crankcase, use chain hoists to lift bearing shells, and put a man on a ladder in the cylinder to measure liner wear. Pistons (with renewable forged steel crowns) are 6 to 7 tons each. Individual heads about the same, and liners are about 8 tons each.


rta96c_crank.jpg


Crankshaft of the world's larget ship engine, ten cylinders.
 
Originally Posted By: simple_gifts
http://people.bath.ac.uk/ccsshb/12cyl/

Worth a repost for those who might have missed this a while back....

108K HP.


very interesting, thanks
 
Worked on power plant diesels in my US Air Force career and the largest we had was the Cooper-Bessemer V16 in Alaska.
24 inch bore and 40ish stroke. 3 MegaWatts at 360 rpm.
Each one used 150 gallons of fuel an hour
Had a lube oil sump of about 1150 gallons, always running it through a centrifuge and cleaned that out weekly. We would remove about 5 pounds of carbon/gunk from the bowl of the centrifuge each time.
Pistons started coming apart after about 4 years of running. Engineers had us remove a piston crown oil chamber restricter allowing the oil to drain away from the crown oil chamber and the temps went way down.
When a piston would come apart it was sure loud! 20 pound chunks of metal crashing around inside the combustion chamber.
 
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