Turbo vs no turbo

[HitchMar Films]

Please forgive my ignorance on this. It's been a long time since I've owned a Duece. My last Duece was a White multi fuel with a turbo. I'm looking at buying a Duece locally that has the White multi fuel without a turbo. I thought all Dueces had turbos.
Is there a big performance difference between the 2 engines??
Thank you for any all info!!!

 

[canadacountry]

As far as I recall the turbo on that particular engine was simply to clean up emission alone more or less, it didn't exactly have a large (relatively speaking) net performance gain in that respect so .. as one always say: take this tidbit with your own grain of salt

 

[SCSG-G4]

Turbo cleared up excess smoke to pass EPA specs then in effect, and added a whopping 5 hp (134 to 139).

 

[NDT]

The NA deuce is just fine, leaves a little smoke trail wherever it goes.

 

[cattlerepairman]

The non-turbo multifuel is becoming somewhat rare. Cool to own one. If, for whatever reason, you absolutely have to have a turbo, it can easily be retrofitted.

Sent from my SM-G991W using Tapatalk

 

[G744]

The 'Whistler' was the most desirable, and that was only because of it's note.

 

[HDN]

The NA deuce is just fine, leaves a little smoke trail wherever it goes.

Get in it and pretend you're running an ALCO road switcher down the... road. Honk honk!!

Ya know, with the turbo cleaning the smoke up, that makes it easier to visually conceal movement, right?

 

[canadacountry]

@HDN and others, this enough oily smoke for an alco? https://flic.kr/p/bsbyJa

 

[HDN]

@HDN and others, this enough oily smoke for an alco? https://flic.kr/p/bsbyJa

When I was a kid my dad was a freight train conductor and engineer for a short line. They had a few RS-11s they ran and they smoked like that! They were also turbocharged and very fuel efficient - there's a reason Fairbanks-Morse still builds the 251 diesel engines!

 

[biscuitwhistler37]

From what I understand, there's only a performance difference when you turn the fuel up and dial the truck in, factory army tune is 5psi, air force/navy tune is 7psi (not sure why they're different). When tuned properly to 12psi, there is a very noticeable difference, although exhaust temp will run into the 1200s. Like stated, the turbo was just to clean the smoke trail up, not go slow faster.

 

[Adrok]

Having driven both, when they both are running PROPERLY ( a big IF, lol ) the turbo would get up to speed sooner. At times it 'felt' like it would handle a trailer and load with more confidence. BOTH handle a world better than the straight 6 gas job ( ours was a 52 automatic ).

I am a big fan of the non-turbo. Any perception of improved performance has never been enough to outweigh the simplicity and confidence of maintaining and running the non-turbo.
That said, I have never done an empirical test to measure and check performance other than acceleration with a load.

 

[HDN]

I am a big fan of the non-turbo. Any perception of improved performance has never been enough to outweigh the simplicity and confidence of maintaining and running the non-turbo.

A non-turbo diesel has one less thing to break than a turbodiesel

 

[G744]

I've heard it said the early original naturally aspirated Multifuel 427 was the best one.

 

[canadacountry]

not to be too offtopic here but @HDN right now I somewhat recall these two (theres more but my memory is a little stuck up tonight) particular interesting older locomotive quirks and maybe these are a bit related to certain military trucks too;

long inline engine that were known a few times to snap the crankshaft and still just keep running like as if nothing had happened (well, aside to that since the generator was only at one end of the block there was less actual power to the traction motors themselves..)
I think this was Baldwin

the flexicoil trucks on some smaller Alco units were really flexible to the point that even at least one engineer quipped they would watch things literally just fall off while the locomotive slowly bounced over really bad twisted and rusty rails

 

[87cr250r]

Woodward PG governors can be ordered with a manifold pressure dependent rack limit to prevent smoking like the trains in the pictures. These systems were often bypassed. The 2-stroke EMD engines didn't require them.

 

[NY Tom]

ALCO - honorary steam locomotives

 

[canadacountry]

and hey @NY Tom don't forget to include the PRR GG1 as a 'honourable steam-era electric locomotive' too if you would like..or to recount;
body and/or chassis was built at a shop that did steam locomotive tenders,
spoked wheels just like steam locomotives,
cast iron bell,
hot in summer and cold in winter..hmm sounds very familiar,
spigot-worked sanders,
name corresponded to a steam locomotive in PRR terms (as a G class was a 4-6-0),
engineer had a similar view alike to from a steam locomotive (abit flat instead of round side to look past),
originally they had steamheat boilers built in cue finding a few action photos of a GG1 literally blowing a big blast of white smoke mid-roof (as obviously they had to be able to handle the same coaches that were scheduled behind K4 steamers etc),
the very original one (numbered 4800 yeah) was assembled with rivets like you'll had expected of a steam locomotive builder at the time too

[edit: and sorry to keep going offtopic here but umm..maybe its my fault? heh!]