Detroit Diesel

lenray

Well-known Member
Just got a tractor, DO MOR, with a Detroit. 3 cylinder and the tractor is from the 70s.

I am going to replace the fuel filter. What is the procedure for starting after removing and replacing the fuel filter????

Thank You
 
Ensure everything is clean, the gaskets are new and in place. Don't under or over torque. Bleed air from system, although a two stroke Detroit is much more forgiving of running out of fuel etc.
 
There's not much to screw up. All the injector pumps are under the valve cover and an engine driven feed pump gets them the fuel they need. No bleeding of injector lines. Just get the filters full and start it up.
 
We use to loosen the pipe plug on the secondary fuel filter and bleed the air from there. These were V6 & V8 Detroits used in the military vehicles. That's on the pressure side of the pump. We put fuel measuring devices on each vehicle and usually had to bleed each vehicle. Hal
 
In my years of being around the old Detriots I found that the way to prime them is 1. Remove the return hose from the tank. 2. Hook up a low pressure (5 pounda or less to the tank) air line to pressurise tank. Start it up, after it starts remove the air line and hook up the return line.
 
While you ar changing the filters, It would be well worth your time to make sure the Emergency Butterfly in the intake manifold is totally functional. I used to plow snow for a local contractor who had a Michigan loader with a 4/53. The throttle rack stuck wide open, and the cable was froze up so the motor was wide open in the middle of town, at luckly, 3:00Am in the morning. I hit the breaks, bottomed out the loader boom and ran the bucket into a curb, Got on radio and called for help, and a fellow operator came over to my aid and ripped the precleaner off the hood and stuck his hat and a rag over the intake to kill it as it sat there screeming and churning the tires.
Loren, the Acg.
 
I"m a retired Locomotive Machinist/Mechanic.
A 16V645,(V16, 645 cubic inch"s per cylinder)
General Motors Locomotive, 2 cycle engine, is just a big detroit Diesel, with output of 3000
to 3600 horsepower. They have a "Charge pump"
which is about a 5 horse at 48 volts electric motor, and fuel pump. After changing injectors,
or fuel filters, we just ran the charge pump until it started to bypass, and we knew that the
fuel system was full, then we started the engine.
 
I second the post of making sure your emergency shutdown is in top condition. If this tractor has been sitting a few years, this first start is your greatest danger. One little spec of rust on the plunger and it is finished. If you're lucky, it will be seized in the no fuel position. If this is your first start, while you're changing the fuel filters, remove the fuel line from the lift pump and squirt it full of motor oil. This will assist in priming the fuel system. Every change thereafter, it is necessary only to fill the filters with clean fuel at the change interval. It will be wise to remove the rocker cover and make certain of free movement of the injector control tube. If an injector DOES seize in the no fuel position, you could spend all day with the mistaken notion that the engine isn't primed, when in fact the faulty injector is preventing the others from injecting fuel. All that being said, a runaway Detroit is not a common occurrence. It is best to have a way to stop it if that one little thing goes wrong.
 
Fill the filters, hold the pedal to the boards and crank until it fires, then let off....

Rod
 
Not all applications had an air shut-off.

The thing to do would be to have a piece of board to use to close off the intake. Don't use your hand, especially over a turbo inlet.
 
That is how I restart my 8V71 I use the air from the trucks air tank and put a male connector in the tank cap. Add air and them wait a very short time and hit starter.
One thing to remember is that all Detroit, GMC, AND GREY MARINE engines regardless of size number of cylinders or configuration are basically the same. Learn how to run the rack get a book on the engine it will help a lot. Don't start it until you are sure everything is ready as these engines can run away and suck all the oil from the pan and then come apart in a very loud and quick way leaving you with only broken parts.

Walt
 
Fritz,

Normally you don't have runaway detroit,

you have over speed engine and runaway

operator.

george
 
Oh my God yes! That is one frightening situation. I can't think too fast under pressure, I like to have a plan ahead of time. I decided to fix all my neglected emergency shut downs after I saw a Farmall 1206 get chopped in half from an exploded flywheel. I don't know which would hurt worse, engine parts embedded in my body, or watch an engine get wrecked because of my shoddy maintenance.
 
Thanks fellas for the great info. It looks like there are two fuel filters--one on each side of the engine....

Now where is the OIL FILTER????

This is a 3 cylinder engine--DETROIT Would it be called a 3 53???

Thanks for all of the help.
 
Could be a 53. Could also be a 71...
Look at the valve cover. A 53 will have the cover bolted on with bolts in a conventional manner. The 71 will have two wing nut or knurled knobs on the top center of the cover for retaining it on the head. That's the easiest, quickest way to differentiate at a glance between a 53 and 71 series engine.
Beyond that... the oil filter should be low near the oil pan. There's a fair number of configuerations so it may not always be in the same place. Open the can and see which one has oil...

Rod
 
Original 6-71 and the 6-71T we swapped into the 79 Bridagier we had didn't have one.
 

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