For those who may be interested.

Thought I'd share a few pics of the engines we have where I work. I work for a Natural Gas Pipeline. We have a 30" pipeline that runs from Portland, TN all the way up to Joliet, IL. It goes through several compressor stations where the engines turn compressors to move the gas north or south in the pipeline depending on where it's needed. The big piston driven engines are called Recips, short for Reciprocating engines. They are 2700HP Clark TLA-8's, turbo charged 2 cycles. They run at a mere 300RPM, however with the amount of steel thats flying in these things you wouldn't want them to run any faster. The engines are about 34,500 cubic inches displacement. Yes, that's right, THIRTY FOUR THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED cubic inches. That's 8 cylinders at a 17" bore and 19" of stroke, 34,483.48cuin. to be precise. The other engine is our 4,000+ HP Solar Centaur 40 Turbine. Much like a jet engine it spins up and runs like mad, lol! 15,000 RPM is it's sweet spot believe it or not. I'll post up a few quick pictures and when I get time I'll post up some pictures of the connecting rods, pistons, rings, etc. and when I can I'll get pictures from the other stations of their engines.

First up the turbine. Not much to see except that it doesn't look very big at all for 4,000HP.

Now, the Clarks. We have 3 of the TLA-8's at this location. First a couple to give a general idea as to the size.

A shot here of the top of the #1 unit looking out over at the #2 and #3 units.

Here's a look at the compressor cylinders themselves. Natural gas enters through the suction pulsation bottle on the top, gets compressed in the double acting compressor cylinders and is discharged through the bottom into a discharge pulsation bottle under the floor grates.

This shot is of the compressor cylinders on Unit #2 from the top of #1.

Last but not least, a shot across the top of Unit #1 at the heads. If you notice the push rods, rockers and fuel valves... Yes, I said this is a two cycle engine. The fuel, which is natural gas, is directly injected into the cylinders.

That's all for now, I'll post more pics up soon of the cylinder liners, con rods, pistons, and more here very soon.

looks insane!

Displacement anyone?

LOL, you are aware that technically speaking, 2700HP at 300RPM is 42,768ft. lbs. of torque? How's that for POWER?!?!!?

looks insane!

It can be!! It's always fun when we have to change a liner out to climb down into the block, stand on the crankshaft, and clean where the liner O-Rings seal and clean the intake and exhaust ports.

Displacement anyone?

Only a little...

looks like a nice 10sec pipeline.

What does it do off the line?

Well, the turbine can do 0-60psi of differential in about 5, depending on pipeline conditions. The recips take alot longer to get up to speed, but they can haul it like no other. Think of it like this, the turbine is more like a regular race car, it can wind up and blow down the track (pipe) in a hurry. The recips are kinda like those BIG dump trucks you see at coal mines with the 13ft tall tires, they're far from the fastest things in the world but little can stand in their way.

:lol2: :lol2: :lol2:

You should call up Dirty Jobs and get Mike Rowe to come out and get dirty. Very cool looks like an interesting job.

You should call up Dirty Jobs and get Mike Rowe to come out and get dirty. Very cool looks like an interesting job.

^^this^^

LOL, that's not a bad idea. Though it might be kinda hard to get it setup cuz unless we're doing an overhaul the only time we have it apart like that is when there's something wrong.

They're not like a smallblock, you don't take it apart unless you really have to. In the 5th picture you can see the big beam with the yellow and black stripes on it. That's our 5 ton hoist. Every part from the heads, to the piston & con rod, to the liner have to be lifted off and out with that hoist. Not exactly something that can be done very quickly or easily. A couple of interesting notes though, after we reinstall the piston and rod and bolt the cap back onto the rod we actually use the hoist to lift on the piston to bump check the clearance of the bearing. Also, there are TEN 1.75" studs that hold each head onto the block. Each one has to be torqued to 990ft. lbs. for proper torque spec. Not exactly friendly to maintenance. We do use an air powered torque tool called a RAD tool to torque them, but it takes quite awhile as the heads have to be torqued down in steps. By the time you get done hefting that 40lb. tool over and over again you're pretty well worn completely out. They're torqued down in 6 steps, then it may take another 4-6 rounds at 990ft.lbs. before they're fully torqued and the nut no longer spins more than 1/8 turn.

Freaking MASSIVE!

Very interesting, thanks for posting!

Them are some big engines. The external rockers are cool. Alton aready showed me pics of the pistons awhile back and they are massive. Hurry up with the rest of the pics Alton.

Freaking MASSIVE!

Yeah they're big, but believe it or not they're still small compared to some of the engines that exist.

Very interesting, thanks for posting!

Thank You, I thought any one who's a gear head or who generally likes to see something different would enjoy it.

Them are some big engines. The external rockers are cool. Alton aready showed me pics of the pistons awhile back and they are massive. Hurry up with the rest of the pics Alton.

Work is getting in the way of me getting the pics.

Pretty cool that everything runs off natural gas. Guess it only makes sense to use the stuff you're pumping as fuel as well. Cool beans.

Pretty cool that everything runs off natural gas. Guess it only makes sense to use the stuff you're pumping as fuel as well. Cool beans.

Yeah, if they were to burn diesel or something along those lines you'd probably never be able to keep fuel to them. One engine can burn enough gas in one day to heat your house for nearly a year, maybe longer. The small Turbine burns enough gas in one day to equal two of the recip units and the big one is more than twice that. They use ALOT of fuel to do what they do, standard fuels such as gasoline or diesel would just be impossible to keep enough supply to them and would cost an ungodly amount of money.

Some updates here. We changed the turbo charger on the #3 unit last September, I put some pics of this up to give everyone an idea of how big the turbos are that run these engines.

Here's a shot of the intake tower for Unit #1 on the left, and the engine coolant cooling towers for all of them on the right. In the background you can see the crane that is being used to lift the old turbo charger out and the new one in.

Here's a shot of the Old turbo being flown out to an awaiting trailer.

Here's the new one being set down and moved into place.

As you can see, it's not a run of the mill sized Turbocharger, LOL.

Thanks for the pix. Got to love a Turbo that has to be air lifted. At my current day job I am working on the steel plans for an LNG plant here in MD.

Awesome.... our parent company has quite a few LNG assets....

Yeah, gotta love a turbo that has to be lifted with a crane and has to be pre spun with compressed air before the engine can start..... LOL

Awesome.... our parent company has quite a few LNG assets....

Yeah, gotta love a turbo that has to be lifted with a crane and has to be pre spun with compressed air before the engine can start..... LOL

Is it rated at PSF?

LOL.... not quite..... gives an average of 4-6psi boost to the engines.... maxes out at 15-16psi if the waste gate sticks closed.... but the sheer volume of air is crazy...

Love the simplicity. The external valve train is interesting. I assume it requires quite a bit of maintainance?

Love the turbo. Recon it would fit on my GN?

Love the simplicity. The external valve train is interesting. I assume it requires quite a bit of maintainance?

Love the turbo. Recon it would fit on my GN?

Actually we do quite a bit of small routine maintenance, otherwise as long as things are going smooth they don't require a ton of maintenance to keep runnning. Adjustments to the lifters and "balancing" the power cylinders are done on a weekly basis. Otherwise we just keep em cleaned up and running smooth.

LOL @ the turbo on the GN!! I said the EXACT same thing about my Jimmy on a blazer forum!!! LOL....

Love the simplicity. The external valve train is interesting. I assume it requires quite a bit of maintainance?

Love the turbo. Recon it would fit on my GN?

Actually we do quite a bit of small routine maintenance, otherwise as long as things are going smooth they don't require a ton of maintenance to keep runnning. Adjustments to the lifters and "balancing" the power cylinders are done on a weekly basis. Otherwise we just keep em cleaned up and running smooth.

LOL @ the turbo on the GN!! I said the EXACT same thing about my Jimmy on a blazer forum!!! LOL....

After saying that I looked at the valve train a bit closer. Are those individual oilers on each unit? I was thinking of the fulcrum and contact points needing a lot of lubrication, but then i noticed what looked like oilers on it.