Just wanted to get the word out on a new Diesel engine. The engine is called a Buck Marine Diesel.

I work at Buck Marine Diesel. We are currently developing a prototype diesel engine specifically designed for inboard marine use, but we're also planning on eventually putting one in a Chevy Tahoe. We're still working on things right now. We're getting VERY close to getting the first prototype fully up and running. We had it running yesterday for about an hour at around 2000 rpm without any problems. We need to do a little more work to get our dyno fully-functional but things are going good.

Since we didn't have the dyno working properly, we're not positive on the actual power numbers. However, while running under a moderate load at about 2000 rpm, the exhaust temperatures were around 1000 degrees F. We ran under those conditions for about 15 minutes. The hottest that the coolant pump got was about 120 degrees F. None of the 6 heads were over 140 degrees. You could lay your hands on top of the valve covers.

Check out our website for further pictures and videos.

Feel free to ask any questions that you have.

http://www.buckdiesel.com (http://www.buckdiesel.com/)

What kind of diesel engine is it?

They are inline engines. Overall dimensions are listed on the website.

Here's a little more information on the design:

We are currently working on a 6-cylinder model with 3- and 4-cylinder models to follow. The engines have a unique two injector per cylinder design that will increase the fuel mapping potential exponentially and result in lower emissions capability. The family of engines will range from 150 to 700 HP and have been designed from the bottom up with a totally different approach. These engines are capable of exceptional cooling, allowing for substantial improvements in power output while increasing longevity.

The cooling path for this engine is a fraction of most engines. In the classic designs, coolant flows into the front of the engine, all the way back to the rear cylinder, then back out the front. This means that the rear cylinder is always receiving water that has already been heated by the previous cylinders.

In the Buck Marine system, the coolant flows individually into and out of each cylinder. This means that the all of the cylinders will be operating at the same temperature at all times. Using individual and shorter cooling paths, will also help eliminate hot spots and temperature stacking.

The engine also has a dual cooling system that uses both an internal coolant as well as circulating raw water from whatever body of water the boat is in. This cooling system will keep the engine running cool, allowing us to generate more power. If a problem should arise, the engine is also very serviceable.

The modular cylinder design allows for easy maintenance. With our design, you can change an individual cylinder, head, piston, and connecting rod without having to remove the crank case. We are estimating that the entire upper half of the engine (cylinders, heads, pistons, and connecting rods ) could be entirely replaced in about 2 hours time. Each of the aforementioned parts is also interchangeable with each of the other cylinders. In addition, nearly every seal is made with an o-ring of some form, meaning that the gasket set for the entire engine can fit in a gallon-sized plastic bag. These two factors will significantly reduce part inventory. A video of the connecting rod replacement procedure is available on the website.

I have read the article yall had in diesel power (I believe). Very interesting design and would be very desirable in a marine application.

You guys have revolutionized engine design FOREVER.

How many head bolts per cylinder? looks like 4? or was the video generalized?

There are four 5/8-11 head bolts that go through the head and jug and into the cast iron carrier.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5PkOV6gxZA - Video of the Engine Running

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsgCHbptRRc - Upper End Replacement

Just letting everyone know, we have the engine up and running again. Power numbers will be coming soon... having a few issues with dyno calibration, but we will hopefully have those sorted out this week.

We have some preliminary power numbers.

So far, we have only gotten about 160 Hp at 9 gal/hr fuel burn. My boss's boat has 2 Cat diesels, when he is burning 35 gal/hr, he gets about 565 Hp. So let's assume it's a linear trend, at 36 gal/hr (4x our current fuel burn), we will be getting about 640 Hp! We are working to adjust our BSFC. These numbers were made with a BSFC around 0.45. We are still extremely happy with these numbers and as soon as we get more, I will be sure to let everyone know.

i was wondering, i was in germany about 20yrs ago and mercedes had V truck engine and had individual jugs. they had kit were if cylinder trashed itself, you could remove components like in the video, but had block off plate with springs to hold lifters down and seal jug opening and psuedo rod that clamped bearings. that way you could run engine minus that cylinder to get back to shop. think it would beat carrying around new piston/rod/liner just to have spare, that used to be standard ops down in caribbean.

i was wondering, i was in germany about 20yrs ago and mercedes had V truck engine and had individual jugs. they had kit were if cylinder trashed itself, you could remove components like in the video, but had block off plate with springs to hold lifters down and seal jug opening and psuedo rod that clamped bearings. that way you could run engine minus that cylinder to get back to shop. think it would beat carrying around new piston/rod/liner just to have spare, that used to be standard ops down in caribbean.

That's something we have talked about. But the biggest problem I would see is a balance issue. If you are going to go through all the trouble of bolting on a block off plate and psuedo rod, why not just put on a new one so you don't have to limp back home? You could just replace everything and keep going.

This may be dumb but how are the rod caps designed? Im just picturing pullin the piston and rod up out and the cap falling in the pan. Is it connected to the crank? If so then what happens if the cap gets damaged when the rod gets jacked up? Would you have to replace the whole crank? Deffinitely interesting though

This may be dumb but how are the rod caps designed? Im just picturing pullin the piston and rod up out and the cap falling in the pan. Is it connected to the crank? If so then what happens if the cap gets damaged when the rod gets jacked up? Would you have to replace the whole crank? Deffinitely interesting though

The caps are just like any other cap. The difference is that the bolts thread in from the top. When you take the bolts out, the cap falls onto a windage tray that is located between the mains and the oil pan. The is enough room to reach down beside the crankshaft and pick up the rod. This tray also prevents oil from splashing up as bad when you hit waves.

this is some pretty amazing stuff! Keep up the good work and keep us posted

Hey all, sorry it has been a little while since I've posted. I've got a new clip of our engine. Check it out:

Cylinder Tear Down and Rebuild (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnFOy5qtITc)

In this video, we take a running engine, shut it down and tear down a single cylinder to the bare crankshaft, rebuild it, and start the engine back up. All in less than 8 minutes!

Don't believe me? Watch it :-)

Let me know if you have any questions.

I can honestly say I never thought I'd think a video with two guys and no women could be sexy:) But that's just hot!

Thats better than a nascar pit crew.

thats pretty good, but need to setup section of scaffolding around engine and some planking to simulate being in boat, cause i always love the room boatbuilders allow. have you been working on meeting tier/bin compliance, the head/jug/piston/rod might fit in the large USPS shipping box, making for ease of replacement parts. looks like he put his hand down side of jug hole to hold bottom of rod cap.

How much power does it make?

I think Most diesel engines have 6 headbolts per cylinder, Is 4 headbolts enough?

thats pretty good, but need to setup section of scaffolding around engine and some planking to simulate being in boat, cause i always love the room boatbuilders allow. have you been working on meeting tier/bin compliance, the head/jug/piston/rod might fit in the large USPS shipping box, making for ease of replacement parts. looks like he put his hand down side of jug hole to hold bottom of rod cap.

I agree that you won't have this much room in a boat and won't be able to do it this fast. However, this engine is about 10" narrower and 10" shorter in height than other engines that are rated at 600+ hp. So you will have more room to work in.

We haven't done too much with emissions specs yet. We are still trying to get everything running the way it should.

Shipping the replacement parts by UPS or USPS is something we've talked about and I don't see any reason we wouldn't be able to.

I did reach around the rod and grab the cap to keep it from falling. There is enough room in the hole for the cylinder jug to get your hands down there. However, we also have a windage tray installed in case you do drop something. The tray serves two purposes. As you are bouncing along the waves, it keeps the oil from sloshing up too bad and running your oil pump dry. Then when you are taking the engine apart, anything you drop (rod cap, tools, etc.) will fall onto the tray and after you remove the rod, you can rotate the crank a little and reach down and grab whatever you dropped.

How much power does it make?

I think Most diesel engines have 6 headbolts per cylinder, Is 4 headbolts enough?

We are hoping for around 650 hp and about 1300 ft-lbs of torque. We haven't made that yet because the injectors that we are currently running do not provide enough fuel flow.

We checked the amount of pressure that we are getting on the top of the head gasket with a pressure sensitive paper. With all 4 head bolts torqued to 140 ft-lbs, we had about 13,000 psi on top of the head gasket. We have been running the engine on and off a few hours at a time for a few months and haven't lost a head gasket yet, even with reusing the same copper rings over and over. If you go to our website and look under the "Products" tab, you will see an exploded view of a cylinder that shows the copper head gasket. This is the largest flat gasket on the whole engine.

just curious, how much clamping pressure would a 6 bolt type head produce?

just curious, how much clamping pressure would a 6 bolt type head produce?

I have no idea... as I said, we see no reason to use 6.

I have no idea... as I said, we see no reason to use 6.

Have you considered using 13 head bolts per cylinder? I hear it's the luckiest way to go:)

Have you considered using 13 head bolts per cylinder? I hear it's the luckiest way to go:)

Hahaha... yeah... then we could be using a huge, one-piece head that bolts across the whole engine and you have to take the entire thing completely aprt to service one cylinder... oh... wait... that's what everyone else does :D

so what's the difference in the engine specd for 650hp and the one specd for 175? That's quite the spectrum of power. What, in general, is the difference(s) in the variations?

How user-adjustable would the tuning/controls of the engine be?



C-ya

so what's the difference in the engine specd for 650hp and the one specd for 175? That's quite the spectrum of power. What, in general, is the difference(s) in the variations?

How user-adjustable would the tuning/controls of the engine be?

C-ya

We are planning on 3, 4, and 6 cylinder models. We could dial a 3 back to make less power if need be. The cool thing is that our 3 just looks like a 6 cut in half. Other than long parts (manifolds, carrier, cam, crank, oil pan) all of the parts will interchange. You could take a rod, piston, jug, head, front plate, bellhousing, entire front gear set, off of a 6 and bolt it onto one of the others if you needed to. It will severely reduce the number of replacement parts needed at the dealer and since everything is modular, it's easier to carry spare parts with you and fix it where it breaks down.

The user-adjustability will come later on. For now we're focusing on getting everything running properly and getting some investors to help us move forward.

i know its nice to have spare parts, but $$ investment to buy up front, the additional weight to carry around on boat(extra fuel used to carry parts for how long?, from increased hull displacement) non-enviromentally controlled storage(rusted, stuck, fatigued parts from sitting) i would work on shipping overnight instead of having shiny parts on shelf, for just that one day, i know some will want to have but buying 1st class ticket is cheaper than fuel to carry those parts(been there, done that, houston-miami-st.thomas) had cylinder heads get water damaged. need to find biggest dog fishing boat(shrimp'n boat) and put one in to test, that will give you idea. i think the work your doing should be good engine, well thought out and designed, simple is best. wish i could go see parents, would stop by, like shiny parts.

i know its nice to have spare parts, but $$ investment to buy up front, the additional weight to carry around on boat(extra fuel used to carry parts for how long?, from increased hull displacement) non-enviromentally controlled storage(rusted, stuck, fatigued parts from sitting) i would work on shipping overnight instead of having shiny parts on shelf, for just that one day, i know some will want to have but buying 1st class ticket is cheaper than fuel to carry those parts(been there, done that, houston-miami-st.thomas) had cylinder heads get water damaged. need to find biggest dog fishing boat(shrimp'n boat) and put one in to test, that will give you idea. i think the work your doing should be good engine, well thought out and designed, simple is best. wish i could go see parents, would stop by, like shiny parts.

I'm not talking about hauling around a 500 lb cylinder head. I'm talking about a jug, head, and rod assembly that only weighs about 60 lbs. You are going to more than make up the weight and fuel savings because the engine itself only weighs about 1500 lbs for the 6-cylinder (the lightest I have seen of anyone else for about 600 HP is about 2000 lbs).

The biggest drawback to having parts shipped in when things break is that UPS doesn't deliver out in the middle of the water :) If you had the parts, you could fix it without heading back into port.

There've been a couple articles about that engine. It looks terrific. The whole thing seems really logical. Losing the cylinder on a boat engine is a big deal. On a boat using that sort of diesel engine, the small extra weight of a cylinder assembly is nothing. No boat owner is gonna worry about stowing maybe even a couple extra cylinder assemblies somewhere. Only thing I can think of is that rods/pistons would need to have very uniform weight spec's. But any extra cost for that precision would likely be offset by reduced labor cost for repairs. I'd also like to see that engine concept in V6 or V8 sometime down the road.

** In the ocean, lose an engine and it's no joke. With two engines you get home, with one you don't. And being in La Paz or Cabo or worse, someplace along the way, with a couple bad cylinders can turn into an expensive hassle.

ok and you don't have to worry about customs either. that is pretty light weight for what i worked with. that is good HP-Weight ratio.