A-C V-8 in a HD-41?

I had a call this week from a guy looking for D-10 wheel weights. He than went on to say that he had worked 8 or 9 years at Sheridan Equipment the A-C industrial dealer in Toronto. I told him about seeing a working HD-41 and Noah Yoder's A-C V-12 engine last October next door to each other. He said that he had spent some time at the proving grounds when A-C was testing the HD-41 and they were powered by an A-C V-8 engine. After about 1000 hrs, the engines would grenade so A-C installed the Cummins V-12. There is no mention of the big A-C V-8 or V-12 in Norm Swinford's book. I have sales literature on the V-12 (1972) and 6 page preliminary spec sheet on the V-8 and V-12.  Both engines were 6" bore and 6" stroke 60 degree V twin turbo. V-8 was 1358 cu.in. 552 hp or 600 hp with intercooler. The V-12 is 2037 cu.in with 830 hp or 900hp intercooled. Does anyone have more info on this  V-8 or V-12 engine or the V-8's being tested in the HD-41?

Calvin: Are you standing in your AC library?  If so, pull out Norms Industrial book, there is a good write up on the prototype P91 Crawler of the early 50's that used a Boeing Turbine engine, which ultimately  morphed into early HD -41 Designs in 1955. Quoting Norms reference book, "The Unit was redesigned with two Allis Chalmers 844-ci engines which developed 418 horsepowe mounted side by side.

i was thinking the first prototypes of the 41 had the twin 844 motors in them. In production they went with the 1710 Cummins. I worked from 76-86 in the tractor grounp. George Kock is a name i have not heard in 20 years!!  He was chief engineer of the large crawler group and probably 20 years older than i was.  Write back if you get more info... been along time and bad memory.

The 25000 series 450 hp. 844 cu.in "BIG AL" was the biggest A-C engine listed for heavy truck application. At 5700 lbs and more than 6' tall it unlikely that the V-8 would find its way into a truck. The preliminary specs list one of the potential uses is for heavy trucking. It seems that the V-8 would have been a natural for the HD-41 but may have never gone into production.

A very dear friend with a 1974 Frieghtliner had a Big Al 844 in his truck in 1979, hard to find parts, harder to find service so he sold it for a loss.  Great puller, could walk from anyone else, Cat, Cummins and especially Detroit!

As was stated, JR Collectables has the video of the Garrison dam project. That segment was called the Big Job. I found the info on the ASAE paper by George Koch on the ASAE website. The report is in stock and available to non members for $16.95. I would love if someone in the Chicago area could find a former employee of the Harvey engine plant to get info on the development and production of the big V-8 and V-12 engines.

Link to The Society of Agricultural Engineers (same organization,  new name)

http://asae.frymulti.com/

Hey Guys:  This sure is an informative thread, guess I better ask the next question.  Did Fiat when they acquired the AC Industrial line of Crawlers, make any substantial changes to the HD-41 relative to the undercarriage and engines? 

It would seem that the undercarriage if Springfield was still building it would remain the same.  But not sure about engines. 

 

Note to Calvin and  Ages  Cat:  Appreciate the info. on the Garrison Video and the ASAE information. 

 

Is there anyone on this site that worked in the Harvey Plant??

Seeing how this is about V-8 engines in crawlers, I have a story for you guys about a red subject. A fellow had a TD-24 IHC (Yes I know its the wrong color, but I forwarned you it was on the subject of red) He had bought this unit to clear his farm and do jobs for others, but found after using it for awhile it s engine needed rebuilding. So he rebuilt it himself, new pistons sleeves heads etc. Put it to work and found that after abpout a year the thing was having engine troubles again. This time he decided to have the pros work it over and it came back with several thousand dollar pricetag on it and ran it for a couple more years and developed more troubles and he finally had enough, so he pulled the engine out of it and found a chrysler 440 Interceptor engine with automatic tranny and stuck that into the crawler with the hyd. pump crankshaft driven off the front end. At the time I heard about it, it had been in the cat for bout 5 years and ran as good as the day he put it in. He actually loves it. went from 8 gallons diesel down to 4 gallons an hour gasoline, faster hydraulics, uses the auto tranny for forward and reverse and it livened the cat up. Now instead of lumbering into a tree or what ever, He can come running into it and back out and hit it again in the time it would have taken just to shift it into reverse before. With so much more torque and HP out of that engine and through the tansmission, he can spinn them tracks now if the object doesn't move.

I have enjoyed this thread also.  Calvin, I am looking forward to seeing your A-C V-8 and V-12 brochures.  I have a brochure on the purple engines filed away somewhere.

Your reference to the GMC V-12 brought to mind a video that I found on YouTube a while back.  I think you will enjoy this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puJaDfB4UFM

I thought it was originally built with the twin 844's, but I'm not sure where I heard that.  The 1710 Cummins is essentially 2 855's V'd on the same crank, there's a lot of them in this part of the country on irrigation wells.  There used to be a lot of 702 and 954 GMC v-12's too, but they were pretty hard on fuel, and a lot of work to keep running.

i have service bulletins stating that allis designated the v8's (41000 &45000) the 41000 was turboed,45000 turboed and intercooled.my bulletins are dated from 1970-76 and cover 41000 thru 65000 engines. it looks like very low production on the v8's.i did talk to a guy from the harvey plant(his name is in the employees reg. on this site,under v8's)he might give some insight on these engines.he assembled them.i am looking to purchase a v8&v12.i have some 25000's now,and will be installing one in a old pete in the next year.

We would like to know more too.