August 30, 2006: World's largest diesel engine

[Undertoad]

Neatorama had this item a while back and I'm only just now getting it out of the queue. This behemoth is documented in more detail here, but I'll summarize.

This thing is described as the "Wartsila-Sulzer RTA96-C turbocharged two-stroke diesel engine". Shown above is the engine block and the main shaft, and if you count, you'll find it's a 10 cylinder engine. Built by The Aioi Works of Japan's Diesel United, Ltd.

That means this images are not of the very largest engine, because they have a 14 cylinder version. But you get the idea, just mulitply by 1.4.



The cylinder deck. Each cylinder displaces 1820 liters. Think about this for a moment. When you hear displacement numbers for cars, it's generally in cc. That's a cubic centimeter, otherwise known as a milliliter.

The displacement of all four cylinders of a 1992 Subaru Impreza is 1820 cc. That is 1/1000th of the displacement of one cylinder of this engine.



So a 14-cylinder completed engine has a displacement 14,000 times that of a 1992 Subaru. What do they use this engine for? According to that one page that documents it all...



...to move Subarus! The big engines go on very large container ships, such as the ones used to get cars across the seas. Ship owners like a single engine/single propeller design, and the new generation of larger container ships needed a bigger engine to propel them.

Total engine weight: 2300 tons
Maximum power: 108,920 hp at 102 rpm
Maximum torque: 5,608,312 lb/ft at 102rpm

That oughta do it.