I knew these existed, but I’d never seen a good picture of one and had no idea there were any still around today.
https://www.swri.org/emd-2-567-locomotive-lubrication-oil-qualification
TWO-cylinder! Isn’t that interesting? I guess special orders didn’t upset them. [;)]
You see these engines discussed in Kettering’s seminal SAE paper on the development of the 567 engine.
As I recall there were one-cylinder engines, too, but those don’t use the same bottom-end parts as the V-2. which is like a little fork-and-blade slice of a larger engine.
“Every Model Different” - actually using a one or two cylinder prototype to work out bugs on the test stand is common for all internal combustion engines. You don’t need 16 cylinders to prove the design.
The lab complex where Dad worked (Sinclair/ARCO) had a separate engine lab which included a two-cylinder 567 among its testbeds. I also worked there for one summer and never saw it in operation.
And Harley never progessed past that.[:D]
Well, there have been V-8 bikes. The 10 Best V8 Powered Motorcycles of All-Time (moneyinc.com) I tink the sky is the limit
Single-cylinder test engines are widely used for lubricant development and qualification purposes. For example, Caterpillar has a long history of developing such engines, often single-cylinder versions of multi-cylinder production engines, going back to the late 1930s.
Against that, EMD’s use of a non-production two-cylinder engine for lubricant testing (in this case with the key evaluation parameter being wrist-pin silver bearing distress) was unusual, although not unique. Possibly the fact that the 2-567 already existed as a mechanical development engine and was thus available and “ready-to-run” was a factor. I recall seeing the 2-567 on a visit to Southwest Research (SWRI) many moons ago.
In the mid-1990s, SWRI also had a single-cylinder 710 test engine that was used to evaluate various “topworks” configurations for natural gas fuelling, both spark ignition and dual fuel compression ignition.
Cheers,
The photograph at the Linked site shows rectangular inspection covers. So the engine started life as a 567B. It has presumably been updated to 567BC to use 567C power assemblis.
This engine might be among the first 567B engines built, if it was previously used as an EMD development engine.
Peter
Makes a whole different outlook for those fishing boats with a one banger.
I rode a ferry across Lake Champlain some years ago. Two cylinder engine - “foomp foomp foomp foomp…”
Old Navy tugs were much the same.
In the 1950’s-60’s, I had a 36 foot former landing craft powered by a 2 cylinder, 12 hp engine throwing a 30" propeller at 400rpm reduced to 250 rpm, moved at a nice 12 mph or so. Great little engine with updraft carburator and hand started via massive flywheel.