BLee

And most fuel dock don't carry Jet-A or Av gas.

Ric232

Yeah, I overlooked that small detail.

Ryan Beckley

I thought most marine turbine applications ran on Diesel, or no?

glassdave

iTrader: (1)

turbines are multi fuel engines. will run on diesel as well as others

GLH

They'll run on Jack Daniel or Chanel #5 if you have enough of it.

jafo

Jet-A not required, the fuel controllers are altered to run on diesel.
Av-gas? That's 100 octane low-lead gasoline.....
A turboshaft at cruise will more than double the torque of that engine, and fuel burn will be almost the same.
As I said, most people don't understand them, so the recips win out.
As far as the sound, I'll take the sound (and reliability) of a turbine anyday over an antiquated piston engine with all those thrashing parts looking to beat their way out. But that's me, I work on jets for a living.
As far as having them in a boat, it's not much of an issue with me, even though I can work on both, I can't afford either....... I'm very happy for you if you can.

BTW, Merc has/is always working on turbine R&D.

CustomRigger101

jafo

can't you mix diesel and 98 gas with a ratio of 80-20 and get about the same or i should say close to the same as jet a.. i was tinking all jet a is offroad farmer's fuel..

CustomRigger101

i thought it was something to do with red die.. and don't they check that with a clear hose to see what is in the fuel cell...

the only problem we have had with our motors is really two thing.. maybe three.. first the main one.. goverment specs.. second getting it to go from 40k rpms down to something a 6 can hold and three.. keeping the motors clean of salt water.. but a flush kit and some other rigging can help keep water out of them..

jafo

Jet-A is kerosene refined to its absolute cleanest level.
It has no lubricity features, and when I use it in my diesels, I have to add Power Service and a little Marvel to replace those lubricants removed in the refining process.
Any amount of gasoline used in a turbine can cause damage. Although allowable in emergencies, its usage usually requires fuel-related components to be overhauled (i.e. HP fuel pumps; BIG $$$$)
I doesn't surprise me that it is difficult to get a #6 drive to handle the torque of a turbine (other than maybe the LTS101). I would think that the Arneson surface drives are much more suited to this kind of power.
Although it has been many years ago, I think there was a company in Lousiana that had the gearbox issues down pretty well as far RPM reductions - MTT? I think it was a guy named Ted McIntyre that did a lot of R&D on this......They also were replacing magnesium compressor cases with later tech aluminum alloy to help with the corrosion issues.

Nice to hear Merc is offering free (???) rebuilds on this new behemoth, but for how long? I wonder how much it costs when one has to come out of the customers
wallet......
Jim

CustomRigger101

jafo

where can i get one insuranced... 1500 lycomings in a 5000 super cat.. pleasure

954-270-1284