QUOTE: Originally posted by Randy Stahl Since when.. Please qualify the statement, white smoke is associated with lube oil . ALL of the locomotives I had the pleasure of troubleshooting the lube oil will cover you in a slimy mess if you are standing anywhere near the engine. The sides of the carbody will be covered in oil. Randy
QUOTE: Originally posted by zardoz QUOTE: Originally posted by Randy Stahl Since when.. Please qualify the statement, white smoke is associated with lube oil . ALL of the locomotives I had the pleasure of troubleshooting the lube oil will cover you in a slimy mess if you are standing anywhere near the engine. The sides of the carbody will be covered in oil. Randy I hated when that happened! Plus it is rather dangerous as the walkway, grabirons, and steps also get a slick coating.
QUOTE: Originally posted by csxchris It's been my experience that the smokiest of the locomotives comes from a variety of issues NOT common to automobiles or even tractor trailers. The class one I work for prefers the intake filters changed every six months. Problem is, the work packet the computer spits out frequently omits the work item requiring to change the filters every six months. The mechanics certainly aren't ambitious enough to check. So for the most part a large percentage of this carriers locomotives rolling around have air intake filters that are just about plugged solid. I have noticed during numerous load tests where dirty air filters will rob between 100 - 500 horsepower. On GE's where the turbo freewheels all the time this is a big deal. The GE guy said that one test is to place a sheet of cardboard right over the intake grills see how much it smokes then! The GE will over fuel to compensate when the problem is a lack of ability to suck fresh air in. In result black smoke and if we're lucky lots of flames. All locomotives when cold as mentioned above will blow white smoke when started - particularly Alco's. I have witnessed some GP38-2's blow white smoke even when warm but usually it's a bad injector - identified usually by cutting out the injectors one at a time by disconnecting the rack. I have also witnessed GE's with bad turbos that won't spin enough or at all make ALOT of smoke and ALOT of racket. EMD's with bad turbos or bad overrunning clutches will do it too.
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