Diesels on US subs....

[DrSchmidt]

Just watched a tour through the USS Blueback on Youtube. I thought that the diesel engines look kinda simlar to those on Gato class boats. So I lokked em up....Interesting: The Fairbanks Morse 38 8-1/8 diesel engin is the licensed US version of the German aircraft diesel Junkers Jumo 205 from 1936. The slightly modeified version 38ND 8-1/8 still serves on nuclear subs. So nuclear subs using an almost 100 year old German diesel engine design. As a German that makes me kinda proud....

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Just watched a tour through the USS Blueback on Youtube. I thought that the diesel engines look kinda simlar to those on Gato class boats. So I lokked em up....Interesting: The Fairbanks Morse 38 8-1/8 diesel engin is the licensed US version of the German aircraft diesel Junkers Jumo 205 from 1936. The slightly modeified version 38ND 8-1/8 still serves on nuclear subs. So nuclear subs using an almost 100 year old German diesel engine design. As a German that makes me kinda proud....

We had three of those monsters banging away on the TRUTTA. They are great machines that even a submarine Snipe can get at to service. Our engineers even did a piston-liner replacement in-place... while underway!!! Crazy ****.

[Ed Kirk]

Quite an engine, two crankshafts opposed pistons - upper drives the blower and the lower drives the generator. Air start, pressure in the exhaust triggers the exhaust valve to open and pressure blows out the seawater, starting at periscope depth is an experience. I was observing a snorkel start during ORSE workup when the exhaust valve opened prematurely, seawater instantly flooded the engine and rushed out the crankcase relief valves. Stopped start-up, we were knee deep in seawater, I never noticed how cold the water was. Since the engine never rolled over we were only required to drain the engine do a couple oil flushes and take crankshaft web deflection. We were back on commission the next day.

[CC Clarke]

I reported aboard Seawolf in Jan 1980, just as it finished an overhaul. On our first sea trials, a main SSTG electrical panel adjacent to one of our FM diesels exploded, shooting three-foot diameter fireballs of plasma into the Engine Room. The ship filled with smoke immediately - enough that we couldn't see our hands through the EAB masks. ALL electrical power was lost for about 30 seconds until the battle lanterns came on. (From then on, everyone one of us carried penlights in our pockets.)

The Engine Room was treated like a crime scene, but when the rest of us were allowed back aft, the aft end of the starboard diesel was vaporized along with the adjacent deck plates. It was most impressive! MINSY always kept a dedicated drydock reserved for Seawolf and Parche, and we drove straight in using the EPM.

After a hull cut via one of two soft patches, the diesel was removed and replaced. We had All Hands field days every day for three months - most of the interior of the ship was covered in soot, with the worst of it aft. By May, we were ready to begin sea trials all over again.

The diesels were basically locomotive engines and pretty large. Seeing what electrical plasma could do to one was most impressive.

[Fishb0y]

I can't remember the boat, but A-Gang painted their diesel John Deere green and yellow... the factory rep was NOT impressed when they showed up to overhaul the diesel.