Thread: A log of my updates on my '32 Brookville highboy

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Thanks for the props on the Corvette guys. Usually I don't hear positive comments from some rodders. Others are amazed by it.

Nick, your car is looking great! I really like your exhaust routing under the rear axle and then back up and out. It looks awesome!

Bob, those pics of the Tremec are too tempting so I'm blocking them out of my mind for now Luckily I can get my shifting cookies off in my other car for now.

I'm just moving these two items from my other thread asking about finned valve covers to this one since I ordered the valve covers and air cleaner and hopefully they'll fit.

Trans-Dapt finned tall:



and air cleaner:

Originally Posted by 40FordDeluxe

Thanks for the props on the Corvette guys. Usually I don't hear positive comments from some rodders. Others are amazed by it.

Nick, your car is looking great! I really like your exhaust routing under the rear axle and then back up and out. It looks awesome!

I have a soft spot for compression ignition (diesels). Back around 1980 I bought Ford's show truck the "Savage", which was a marketing platform for the heavy truck after market.


My girlfriend behind the wheel at her home.


Got out of trucking during de-regulation and didn't have anymore diesels till 2000 when I bought a F-350. Nick, from the other thread, this is the truck that prompted me to get my 1st G-Tech. Over time wound up with a larger turbo, intercooler, injectors and exhaust.

Damn, Bob! Hot rods, airplanes, ships, trucks. Have you ever owned a locomotive or railcar?

I work for a company that was founded by my buddy whose last name is Pirkle which is what's on the door of your truck.

I mentioned locomotives since a device we manufacture is installed on virtually every diesel-electric locomotive (i.e. all freight locos) in North America and many in China (being built in partnership with GE). A lot of locomotive hardware are interesting components that might interest hot rod people.

I leased on with Pirkle Refrigerated Freight back in the early 80's. Same company?

What is the devise?

The top engine looks like a two stroke. The last container ship I served on had a 9 cylinder Wartsila-Sulzer diesel. Direct drive to prop, produced around 65,000 hp at 118 rpm. For astern would stop the engine, engineers would change valve timing and the engine would be re-started in reverse, not a fast process. The last vessel I worked on was a diesel-electric, using (7) 4.6 MW medium speed Cat gen-sets for a total of 32 MW. Hotel and drilling loads (it was a drill ship) was about 1 MW, the rest was available for holding position in winds and currents. I had (6) 5,000 hp electric thrusters. If I have to use most all of it (white knuckle time) I was burning about 1,000 gallons of diesel per hour. Here is one of the (7) 4.6 MW gen-sets.

Wow, cool pics and info guys!

If you like your diesels big.............

And that is me in the pilots seat of the Mercedes Actross Tractor pulling that little load. Yeah right..... but that is what I drove for most of my driving days and a darn excellent rig too .

I've got that exact engine in my sail boat......................

Originally Posted by 40FordDeluxe

I've got that exact engine in my sail boat......................

And this might be the engine in my next sailboat. I'm planning on hybrid diesel-electric with LiFePO4 cells. This small diesel is turning an alternator with diodes for DC charging. I already use an inverter for my AC loads and an AC gen-set would be redundant, besides much heavier for the same KW output over a DC gen-set charger. And you can run at a chosen rpm for efficiency and noise reduction instead of a fixed rpm for AC frequency.

Pretty sweet. What amazes me, is how big the machines have to be to machine all those huge diesel engine parts. Holly huge bat man!

Cool pics! I'm going to start saying my '32 is Caterpillar yellow (although it's actually a Ferrari yellow paint code).

Originally Posted by deckofficer

I leased on with Pirkle Refrigerated Freight back in the early 80's. Same company?

What is the devise? ...

Not the same company as on your truck, coincidentally just the same name. Since I knew about his mom and dad, it wasn't the same immediate family, either.

The device is a self-operating freeze protection dump valve for the locomotive cooling system. It's really the default industry standard for this application. Class 1 locomotives (i.e. all the major RR operators) don't use antifreeze so they're susceptible to freeze damage under various conditions, not running and unattended. Better to dump the coolant than cause hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage.

That of course begs the question, why do they not use antifreeze?

Until recently I thought I knew and I thought it was because of heat rejection being less than with just water (with corrosion inhibitors). That would result in a "slight" loss of power which in a locomotive can mean the difference between pulling 100 freight cars or 110, and over the entire operation that amounts to millions of dollars difference.

More recently I learned (still researching more on this so take it with a grain of salt) that it's because some of these big diesels (at least most of the ones used on locomotives) aren't designed to keep the coolant completely out of the lube oil and in fact there is some oil pollution. If a little water gets into the oil, they are designed to withstand that and keep on trucking. But if antifreeze gets into the oil, it seriously compromises lubrication.

Originally Posted by Hot Rod Nick

Until recently I thought I knew and I thought it was because of heat rejection being less than with just water (with corrosion inhibitors). That would result in a "slight" loss of power which in a locomotive can mean the difference between pulling 100 freight cars or 110, and over the entire operation that amounts to millions of dollars difference.

More recently I learned (still researching more on this so take it with a grain of salt) that it's because some of these big diesels (at least most of the ones used on locomotives) aren't designed to keep the coolant completely out of the lube oil and in fact there is some oil pollution. If a little water gets into the oil, they are designed to withstand that and keep on trucking. But if antifreeze gets into the oil, it seriously compromises lubrication.

A friend is a RR engineer (train driver) and pointed me to this link once when I was curious about some facts - Diesel Locomotive FAQ See Number 16.