Wide Open Throttle

[Capt.Bill11]

A short time (five minutes is the time I was told) is fine if you have to do it. Where the engine can have problems is if this is done a lot or for long periods of time.

What I find bizarre is people thinking that an engine designed in the 1950s can be operated in the same manner as a modern technology engine.

That's like claiming a Ford Model A pickup can be driven as hard and at the same speeds with the same loads as a 2014 Ford F-150. People in this "all engines are created equal" camp don't know much about engines in my opinion, and I would never act on their opinions or recommendations.

Instead, I would seek out people who truly know the engine in question and learn from them. Which is what we did in the case of the Ford Dorset/FL120. What I have been writing about the FL120 is simply parroting what we've been told by people with an intimate knowledge of these engines, particularly people we've become acquainted with in the UK.

This is the only diesel used in marine service we have done this for as it's the engine in our boat. I have no clue about the good, bad, or indifferent qualities of any other type of marine diesel.

I haven't seen where anybody was claiming all engines are equal. Old or new or whatever. Just that pretty much any engine in good condition should be able to reach its maximum rpms for shorts bursts with out it blowing up or dieing an early death.

And nobody has even remotely claimed anything along the lines that you should able to run a model A Ford like a 2014 Ford. More like you should be able the run a model A like a model A and a 2014 Ford like a 2014 Ford. Not to mention that a 120 Ford is hardly the antique a model A is.

The English Ford guys that told you what a crappy engine the 120 is, were they just truck/tractor guys or did they have first hand, day to day experience with them as marine engines too?

As far as seeking out people who know these engines inside and out, I pretty much feel I've done that over the last 30 years. I'm sure I could learn some things from your English friends. But I don't feel I've been lead astray by the people I've learned from so far. Plus what I've seen and experienced for myself working on and running dozens of Lehman's.

 

[ronlord]

I think the Niagra river only runs one way.

Yep. Niagara Falls sees to that..

 

[Marin]

The old Detroit's for all their faults were engines designed to run hard and be put away wet..

My all-time favorite boat design, the so-called aku boats in Hawaii (aku is albacore tuna)-- were all built locally in the late 1940s and were powered by a single 6-71. Long, slim boats, they cut through the huge swells and wind waves like destroyers. These are the boats on which the fisherman stood side-by-side and barefoot on a plank across the transom and, using bamboo poles with a hefty line and a huge chrome hook tied to the end, pulled tuna out of the feeding frenzy off the stern and levered them through the air into the fish hold behind them.

I called them aku boats, but the other local name for them was "sampan," which I believe is the Japanese word for smooth plank hull construction as opposed to lapstrake. They were day boats--- no refrigeration--- so they went out in the morning and came back to the tuna canneries in the evening. All year long, every day except religious holidays.

And those engines just kept going and going and going. I was out fishing the same waters in the 1970s and those 1940s boats were still going strong. Of course their engines needed maintenance and repair, but to me the 6-71 became synonymous with the aku boats that probably would have fished forever if technology hadn't sent them to the boneyard in the 1980s.

I have only three photos of them, and I didn't even take them. This is one of my big regrets: I saw these boats almost every day from the mid-50s until I left Hawaii in 1979. I went out on them, I filmed on them, but I never took a single photo of them for myself. I guess I figured they'd be there forever and I'd go down and take pictures "someday."

 

[Capt.Bill11]

A short time (five minutes is the time I was told) is fine if you have to do it. Where the engine can have problems is if this is done a lot or for long periods of time.

What I find bizarre is people thinking that an engine designed in the 1950s can be operated in the same manner as a modern technology engine.

That's like claiming a Ford Model A pickup can be driven as hard and at the same speeds with the same loads as a 2014 Ford F-150. People in this "all engines are created equal" camp don't know much about engines in my opinion, and I would never act on their opinions or recommendations.

Instead, I would seek out people who truly know the engine in question and learn from them. Which is what we did in the case of the Ford Dorset/FL120. What I have been writing about the FL120 is simply parroting what we've been told by people with an intimate knowledge of these engines, particularly people we've become acquainted with in the UK.

This is the only diesel used in marine service we have done this for as it's the engine in our boat. I have no clue about the good, bad, or indifferent qualities of any other type of marine diesel.

I haven't seen where anybody was claiming all engines are equal. Old or new or whatever. Just that pretty much any engine in good condition should be able to reach its maximum rpms for shorts bursts with out it blowing up or dieing an early death.

And nobody has even remotely claimed anything along the lines that you should able to run a model A Ford like a 2014 Ford. More like you should be able the run a model A like a model A and a 2014 Ford like a 2014 Ford. Not to mention that a 120 Ford is hardly the antique a model A is.

The English Ford guys that told you what a crappy engine the 120 is, were they just truck/tractor guys or did they have first hand, day to day experience with them as marine engines too?

As far as seeking out people who know these engines inside and out, I pretty much feel I've done that over the last 30 years. I'm sure I could learn some things from your English friends. But I don't feel I've been lead astray by the people I've learned from so far. Plus what I've seen and experienced for myself working on and running dozens of Lehman's.