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Hi there I think that GM got into two cycle mode back in the late 1920's and early 1930's when big diesel engines were found mostly in Submarines. The distalate engines proved very unreliable in Gas electric car service because of the long maintenace intervals and temperatures they were exposed to while the German diesels used in there U boats provided the required technology that is an engine driving a generator in a severe service environment GM cloned existing technology . The main benefit of the 2 cycle is the droop which is the change in the engine RPM when the load changes . With mechanical governors an engine with a power stroke on each crank revolution has lower droop. The major draw back is that you have pressureize the crank case to get air into the cylinder . This makes the crankcvase oil part of the air cleaner and it gets real dirty real fast and the intake air is polluted by exposure to the oil. You also have some limitiations on how much air you can put in the cylinder hence the engine horse power. GM went to the four cycle engines to meet the EPA air polution standards and to get to 6000 Hp. When you use 2 cycle engines on medium sized generator sets they also get poor fuel economy compared to a four cycle with the same Hp I don't know if big engines have this problem or not. With electronic fuel injection controls and the possibility of even controlling the intake and exhaust valve timing electronically the benifits of the two cycle design have been severly diminished The railroads obviously havea lot of two cycle engines and parts and employ training are a problem when you go to a different technology but if you operate it in California you may not have a choice of what technology you use Engine controls guy
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