I’m finally back from our 1rd Autopian Member Only Track day, and it was a huge success, and we’ll have more content about it soon, but I suspect you may be tired of hearing about it in Cold Start, which I know you rely on to get your up-to-the-minute news about car brochures from 60 years ago and the latest insights into insignificant automotive details that you, somehow, turn into cash? I assume that’s what happens, via, you know, business or something.
The trip back home, towing the 2CV with a new, press-fleet Ford Ranger, went basically fine, it was just loooong. All told, with stops and whatnot, we were on the road about 12 hours. That’s a long drive! I know this crowd has plenty of people who have done such stints and even longer, but let me kvetch a bit. Plus, the trailer adds a bit of extra effort, I think.
Part of the length could be related to the World Cup, oddly; I only say this because for the first time when I put in the directions, my phone decided to remind me it keeps up with the world of sports:
Huh. I’ve seen it tell me things will be delayed, but it’s never, you know, offered an excuse. At least the trip was breathtaking, visually:
I’m happy to be back home. Even if leaving our Vrbo house in Connecticut was a massive pain because everyone left me alone to do all the cleanup and laundry crap that makes me long for staying in a hotel. What a pack of dirtbags, right? Also, I had to get the narrow 2CV on the trailer with no one to help guide me, so thanks for that, too, ya punks.
Okay, but let’s get to the point of this Cold Start, which I know you’re eager for. As I was crawling around a traffic-choked bit of highway, I happened to pass by this truck with two massive engines on it:
I was immediately, and thankfully not literally, struck by their sheer size – these were massive engines. Filthy, too. So what are they? That seems like a fun thing to do! Identify some filthy engines! Let’s see if we can get a better shot here:
That helps. They do look majestic in profile, contrasting against that pale blue sky! They’re almost HR Geiger-like in their dark, twisty complexity. So what are they?
First, they’re clearly Caterpillar engines, thanks to the branding we can see on those cannister-like things. Are they filters? Maybe they’re filters. They look like filters.
Okay, so as far as identifying these engines, I think I found a match for the right one: a Caterpillar 3508:
I briefly imagined swapping it into the 2CV, and picturing the moment I turn it on, then let off the clutch, leaving a split-second blur of yellow-and-black and then nothing, just a tiny hole in the fabric of spacetime where the 2CV once existed.
What about the engine on the left? Help me figure out what that one is! I bet at least one of you delightful dorks knows what it is, so tell me in the comments!
marine cat are usually painted white.
You’d be surprised…
That’s your fault for hosting the world’s best known football tournament!
Must point out – Geiger was a physicist, Giger was the artist. Interestingly, both shared the given name of “Hans,” though.
“up-to-the-minute news about car brochures from 60 years ago”
Yeah “bro” I love the brochures ha ha
But I do really love the brochures, cut-out diagrams, engine art, etc in the Cold Starts but they don’t even have to always be in Cold Starts. Either way, they are so awesome just like The Autopian!
Also: Yeah, where are the classic ads of vans, etc where they look like they are recruiting for a cult? I want my cult content, damnit! I need my brain washed! Ha ha ha ha ha ha
Just kidding, The Autopian is the only “cult” I’ll ever need
Didn’t you have some free labor tagging along on the trip? Or did he ditch you too?
he helped. A LITTLE.
“Are my wheels lined up?”
“I guess so.”
Otto helped a little? Does that make him the official spark plug of NASCAR? You know, Autolite?
And how come Otto didn’t help more? Was the 2CV not Frutiger Aero enough for him?
Retired crane operator out of Houston TX. I ran a manitowoc ringer crane of 750 ton capacity that had that exact cat engine in it in the 80s. Think it was 630 hp. Low rpm only ran top 1300 rpm. Book was in crane and remember it had 6 inch diameter pistons with a long stroke. It was strong. Also read in the cat book that you could tie two together. It was a joy to run.
I just can’t unread “1rd”
The canisters are probably fuel filters.
Look to have come out of something that plays in the dirt, like a big bulldozer. Too dirty to likely have been generator powerplants. Those live relatively leisurely lives.
They are both CAT 3508 engines. There are multiple turbo configurations depending on power level needed for different applications. This is common with industrial/heavy equipment engines. Similar base engine but manifolds, turbos, tubes, coolant passages all different to fit a variety of machines.
“I bet at least one of you delightful dorks knows what it is, so tell me in the comments!”
no further questions, your honor…
I’m guessing mining engines. They might be on their way to a reconditioning facility.
Certain mining equipment is sold with two engines; one installed, the other an identical backup that’s immediately placed in storage. If the working engine breaks, the backup goes in and the vehicle can be put back into service. The broken original is then sent to recon, repaired/overhauled, and returned to the customer as the spare.
Those are generators – coming to an AI/Surveillance Data Center/Water Pollution Plant near you.
Nah…even if they were originally powering a genset, they’re a bit small for those applications.
Definitely waaaaaay too small for a colo datacenter (aka where the entire building is datacenter). Those use locomotive class gensets. 3000-4000hp.
These are sized for a corporate small-scale datacenter, but waaaaaaay too dirty to have come out of one of those. Been in a number of them, the engines are always squeaky-clean. Unless they are Detroits, because God himself couldn’t keep a Detroit Diesel from leaking. You’d think the things were British. But then it’s “clean” oil on and under them, because the hut is filtered air as a rule. The actual generators really don’t like dirt very much.
Our Data Center uses a 3300 HP marine diesel engine. Same ones that go in a rich guys yacht. Way bigger. Way way bigger. No Turbo and they stay spotless. Not sure of the engine manufacturer but holy effing donkey balls are they big.
A Cummins QSK 60L makes nearly 3,000 HP AND requires 8 turbos to do it. A 3300 HP diesel without turbos is unlikely to exist. It would need to be double to triple the displacement of the QSK 60L and be stupidly fuel inefficient for a data center.
They were probably heading south to Maryland for the cat depot that rebuilds and recycles. A guy I knew that worked there said they got shipments in from the north east alot. I wouldn’t discount marine they can get dirty like that especially if you are going through the effort to pull them. But genset could be more probable.
Mounting in the 2CV first requires that you replace every chassis component in the 2CV with something about ten times as thick.
At 9500 lbs each, either of them outweighs the little Citroen by a factor of six. The car would need eight more tires to support the load, let alone go anywhere.
I was thinking that myself.
I think he could get the desired effect with a JATO (Jet Assisted Take-Off) rocket.
https://darwinawards.com/darwin/darwin1995-04.html
Maybe tow it? Either with a driveshaft (and a bunch of u-joints) or just put the power to the trailer wheels. Both great options.
Whatever they are, they look nice and rusty for one hell of a WWII Jeep build
Into a (Michigan) rust-free Jeep J10?
An engine swap of one of those into the 2CV would be a proper test of the car’s wonderful suspension Bring along a stack of phone books to see over the top.
Those look a lot like the engines we had in our datacenter hot swap backup power station when I worked for a very large corporate entity. We kept ours cleaner than that; but they were loud enough that you could hear them fire up a half mile away for their bi-weekly self tests.
They sure don’t look like they’re tied down very well.
I’m sure, “That aint goin’ nowhere.”
I think they are bolted to the metal frames and those frames are strapped down, so I suspect they are tied down quite well. If the bolts can hold the engine in place in a boat going over swells, they’ll hold just fine here, too.
I feel ashamed as a Peorian for not knowing what these are by looking at them. 3508 was the first number that came to mind, and the pic of the factory one seems about the same. They are CAT Yellow, so unless someone committed Rattlecan Blasphemy on a pair of Cummins engines, (those are Red.) I bet that’s what they are.
At least they’re not ACERTs.
Cummins will paint an engine whatever color the customer would like, including yellow.
I mean, so too will Cat, technically, but I don’t see them painting engines in their rivals’, very much copyrighted, color. Those are definitely the modern, mustardy Cat Yellow.
Specific RAL shades might be copyrighted, but I doubt it; either way, it’s easy enough to just choose a different one.
Trust me, they’re sold in yellow for construction and mining equipment.
Yes, most of which is different from the specific Cat Yellow. We have a Komatsu haul truck plant here, too. They’re all Yellow, but it’s much brighter than Cat Yellow.
the new yellow is trademarked. not sure about the pre color change yellow / before ~~1980
No real input on what these are, they just remind me of an old abandoned train maintenance shed in my hometown that had a diesel locomotive engine just left on a stand. That thing was freaking colossal! I’m guessing it wasn’t operational and was just abandoned because it would cost more than it was worth to move when the shed was abandoned (as one did in the 50’s and 60’s).
Given where you saw them, I imagine these were either marine installations or backup generators — there’s not a lot of mining or logging left in the northeast.
I’d rule out marine or generator just based on the dirt and grime.
They were very likely transiting through the area. Say, from West Virginia to Canada as secondhand replacements.
Mobile generators that actually get used (rather than backups) can get pretty nasty. Running being loaded long term means a lot of cooling and all that air usually needs to pass right over the block bringing its share of dirt with it.
I hope you weren’t the one taking the pictures while driving. It’s clearly some kind of engine.
Indeed, safety moment here folks, even when traffic is moving slow – don’t pull out the phone.
When you’re in a 2CV, traffic is always moving slow.
My immediate guess was to say diesel engines for large mining vehicles or something similar. The Cat filters wouldn’t necessarily make me think Cat engines since people use those filters on their Cummins diesel trucks too.
Yeah, that was a shlep. Next time I may try to make the GL’s AC work.
I can’t imagine making that drive yesterday without AC. It was 100 degrees when I got home at 4:00 pm, and I wasn’t going nearly as far as you.
We made the trek to DC at night, so it wasn’t too bad. The next day we hit the beltway right before rush hour and it was HOT. We had lots of water. When the water was cold, we drank it. When it was less cold, we dumped it on our heads. Worked out pretty good.
I did the entire drive home in the CrossCab with the top down. It was so hot that the people who normally come out in droves to compliment the CrossCab decided not to. It was so hot that I ran the air conditioner with the top down. The CrossCab also spent the entire drive home with the transmission in overheat protection mode.
I pulled over at a rest area at about half distance to get out of the car and stretch. It was hot, but after awhile I get tired of breathing air conditioning, so it was a good break.
Wait, did you keep the Grandfather clock? I see it poking out of the back of the Ranger.
What was he supposed to do, leave it at the Vrbo? You don’t eat a clock like that all in one sitting.
we did consider just sneakily leaving it at the Vrbo, to see if anyone would notice…
This Needs expanding upon. Super Dave didn’t offer to return it from whence it came? Was it actually functional? Cool Moon phase face. Never be the last to leave a rental, but you did a solid so all security deposits would return. My worst experience similar, was finding out that my best friend had promised the landlord that he would remove the wallpaper he voluntarily put up in living and dinning rooms. He had left there a year before I got a room there. Close to a dozen friends, over a dozen years had cycled through this awesome farmhouse on five acres lakeside. I had it alone for the last 3 months of the yearly lease. Yeah, removing wallpaper, and refilling the oil tank sucked.
You don’t give car accessories as gifts and then ask for them back!
I gave Jason the clockwork that came with it, but the Marketplace ad said it wasn’t working.
A grandfather clock must be like an upright piano, where it’s almost impossible to get rid of it.
Or china cabinet-type dining room furniture.
….. is there a Jeep ad campaign with a piano …..
If not, there should be.
Scene: Guy playing piano in a forest with birds singing
Jeep comes thundering through smashing the piano to splinters as the piano player dives out of the way.
Tagline: Jeep, the go anywhere do anything vehicle
Bonus points if they show the piano player standing up and brushing himself off and it’s some famous piano person like Elton John or Billy Joel. They don’t even say anything, just look at the camera bewildered.
Hopefully with a tasteful little brass commemorative plaque recognizing the achievement.
I thought he was going to keep it with the car, like the Autopian equivalent of the $16,000 Breitling tourballon you can get in a Bentley.