The Electro-
Motive 645
Diesel Engine By Preston Cook
I
N THREE DECADES of produc-
tion following its introduction in
1965, the Electro-Motive 645 se-
ries diesel engine became one of
the most successful and numerous
medium speed power plants in the
world. EMD 645s powered domestic
and export locomotives, marine vessels
ranging in size from tugboats to Great
Lakes ore carriers, oil drilling rigs, and
mining trucks. In power generating ap-
plications they provided peaking power
to large cities, base power generation to
small communities and islands, and
emergency power to hospitals, nuclear
plants, and aircraft carriers.
Although construction details of
many components were altered and im-
proved over its 30-year production run,
the fundamental design and method of
construction of the 645 engine proved
adequate throughout its production
lifetime. EMD maintained the need for
“backward interchangeability” as a pri-
mary consideration in its design pro-
grams, and as a result, many compo-
nent improvements incorporated into
the engines late in production could be
EMD’s finest in 1966, SD45 demonstrators 4351, 4352, and 4353 took the industry by storm with their
unprecedented 3600 h.p. 20-cylinder 645 engines. 4352 and 4353 would be sold to the Delaware &
Hudson along with No. 4354 as D&H 802, 803, and 801. 4351 went to Illinois Central as No. 7000.
40 APRIL 2010
retrofitted to engines that were already
in service.
These engines were produced by the
Electro-Motive Division of General Mo-
tors at their plant in La Grange, Illi-
nois, between 1965 and the late 1990s.
They were built in 8-, 12- and 16-cylin-
der versions with mechanical roots
blowers, referred to by the builder as
being “naturally aspirated.” They were
also produced in 8-, 12-, 16-, and 20-
cylinder versions equipped with tur-
bochargers, which provided higher pow-
er output and improved fuel economy.
All used a 9¹/₁₆″ cylinder bore and 10″
piston stroke, with a “swept” displace-
ment of 645 cubic inches per cylinder.
They were 45 degree Vee two-stroke
cycle uniflow scavenged diesels with in-
take air entering the cylinder liner
through ports in the liner wall, and ex-
haust exiting the cylinder through four
valves in the cylinder head. These en-
gines were arranged with the cylinders ment. The engine normally applied to lo-
in each bank directly opposed from each comotive applications was “left hand”
other, with the connecting rods sharing rotation, meaning that the power cou-
a crankshaft throw by way of an inter- pling to the generator turns counter-
locking fork rod and blade rod arrange- clockwise when viewed from the genera-
tor end. However, the engine could also
be built in “right hand” rotation for some
marine and industrial applications.
The end of the 645 engine with the
governor, water pumps, and oil pumps
was considered to be the “front,” and
the end with the main power coupling
was the “rear”. In most locomotives this
resulted in the “front” of the engine fac-
ing the “rear” of the locomotive. Look-
ing at the engine from the generator,
the “right” bank of cylinders would be
on your right and the “left” bank would
be on your left. Cylinder numbering be-
gan at the front of the right bank next
to the governor, which was number one
cylinder, progressing toward the back
of the right bank, then to the front of
the left bank, with the highest num-
bered cylinder on the rear (generator
end) of the left bank.
The 645’s Successful Predecessor
When the 645 engine was introduced in
the mid-1960s, EMD already had an
ample supply of engine experience and
design talent to draw upon in the de-
velopment of the new prime mover. The
immediate predecessors to the 645 se-
ries diesel engine were the many ver-
sions of the EMD 567 prime mover,
which had been highly successful since
its introduction in 1938. All 567s fea-
tured an 8¹/₂″ cylinder bore with 10″
stroke, with a swept displacement of
567 cubic inches per cylinder. The ear-
ly versions of the 567 produced between
1938 and 1958 used engine driven
Roots blowers to supply combustion air
to the cylinders. The blowers were
mounted on the main power coupling
end of the engine, which positioned
them above the main generator in loco-
motive applications.
The original 1938 version of the en-
gine, later referred to as the 567U due
to the “U” shaped valley between the
cylinder banks, was produced in 6-, 12-
, and 16-cylinder versions for locomo-
tive service. A small number of 8-cylin-
der engines were produced for lab
testing and use in a class of U.S. Coast
Guard cutters. The 567U was super-
seded by the 567V engine in 1940, with
the “V” referring to the redesigned val-
ley between the cylinder banks that
featured a “V” shape. This development
was engineered to simplify welding as-
sembly, and to eliminate cast compo-
nents that had proven troublesome due
to carryover of casting sand that con-
tributed to the formation of voids and
inclusions in welding assembly.
The greatly improved 567A engine
was developed in 1942 for the Navy
ATL program (Auxiliary Tank Land-
ing, later called LST, Landing Ship
Tank). This engine’s totally redesigned
crankcase provided a water manifold in
the top deck that allowed for group
cooling of the cylinder exhaust risers,
which were a permanently welded
structure replacing the individual bolt-
ed-on parts used in the earlier engines.
The 567A was introduced to locomo-
tive use in 1943 and proved extremely
durable and reliable. It was supple-
mented by the 567B model in 1946, a
structurally similar engine that was
fitted with different end covers, an in-
tegral oil strainer box assembly, and a
centerline power takeoff between the
roots blowers. Some locomotive types
were not redesigned for the integral
strainer box and continued to use sepa-
rate strainers, so the 567A and 567B
models remained in production concur-
rently through the introduction of the
RAILFAN & RAILROAD 41
LEFT: Building a 645 began with the crankcase. At the left, two “C”
channels have been drilled with holes to lighten them and allow
combustion air to circulate; they are welded together to form a box that
567C engine in 1954.
The 567C was a major redesign of the
engine, using a significantly different
crankcase, oil pan, and cylinder assem-
bly. The objectives of the redesigned
engine were to provide greater struc-
tural strength allowing for higher pow-
er output and to eliminate some water
wetted surfaces to remove the potential
for corrosion damage. EMD engineers
completely redesigned the cooling sys-
tem to use individual metal jumpers to
take cooling water from a manifold to
the cylinder liners, removing two large
and troublesome lower liner seals that
had been subject to hardening and
leaking with age.
Turbocharging the 567
As Electro-Motive improved their
prime movers, their major competitors
in the railroad industry were also de-
veloping and improving their diesel en-
gine products. The Fairbanks-Morse
12-cylinder 38D-8-¹/₈ Opposed Piston
diesel engine could produce 2400 h.p.
and was the subject of considerable at-
tention among EMD managers in the
early 1950s. A number of internal com-
petitive studies were generated to eval-
uate the comparative economics and
advantages of the F-M engine and loco-
motives with EMD products. However,
the early experience of the railroads
with the opposed piston engine led to
the realization that many routine
maintenance tasks on the OP were far
more expensive than comparable re-
quirements on the EMD 567. As the re-
ality of operating OP engines set in,
concerns over competition from Fair-
banks-Morse faded.
At the same time, the competitive
pressure from the Alco 251 was a grow-
ing matter of concern to EMD manage-
ment. Throughout the mid-1950s the
251 engine was proving itself to be a
much better product than the predeces-
sor 244, and Alco was busy working on
42 APRIL 2010
will comprise one bank of cylinders. RIGHT: The completed cylinder banks
are fitted in a positioning jig and welded together at a 45-degree angle to
create the basic crankcase structure.
improved versions with higher horse-
power ratings. The 12-cylinder Alco
251 could surpass the power output of
the 16-cylinder 567C, and the 16-cylin-
der version of the ALCO engine was
correctly recognized to have develop-
ment potential in excess of 3000 horse-
power. Despite the excellent perfor-
mance and reliability of the 567C
engines, EMD’s product line would be
eclipsed if they did not invest in im-
provements that would boost the horse-
power output of their engines.
To counter these increasingly power-
ful competitors, EMD developed the
567D engine in several configurations.
They shared the same bore and stroke
with the 567C, but featured improved
cylinder power assemblies with larger
air inlet ports and pistons designed for
higher peak firing pressures. These
were housed within a new and rein-
forced crankcase, designed to allow a
maximum 2500 h.p. rating for traction
in locomotive applications and a 2800
h.p. nominal maximum in power plant
installations.
The 567D1 model was a development
of the 567C roots blower aspirated en-
gine, with a moderate horsepower in-
crease from 1200 up to 1350 h.p. in the
12-cylinder version, and from 1750 up
to 1800 h.p. in 16 cylinders. The 567D2
used a newly developed turbocharger
with no aftercoolers to provide 2000
h.p. for traction in the GP20. The
567D3 was initially offered at 2250 h.p.
rating in the GP30 and 2400 h.p. in the
SD24. The engine was subsequently re-
fined to produce 2500 h.p. in the GP35
and SD35 locomotives. The turbocharg-
er that made the increased power out-
put possible was designed by EMD en-
gineers in conjunction with designers
from the Allison Division of General
Motors, which built a variety of gas tur-
bine engines for aviation uses.
Since a two-stroke cycle diesel engine
has no intake stroke to draw air into
the cylinders past a turbocharger, it
was necessary to provide a means to
provide a minimum amount of forced
aspiration independent of engine ex-
haust flow and load. In two stroke cycle
diesels built by two other GM divisions,
Cleveland Diesel (the former Winton
Engine Co.) and Detroit Diesel, this
was done by combining a roots blower
with a turbocharger. This compound
system used the blower to provide
forced air flow for starting and low load
operation, with the turbocharger pro-
viding the predominant output at high-
er speeds and loads, and pre-compress-
ing the air going into the roots blower.
The combined roots blower and turbo
system of scavenging posed many prob-
lems for application to an EMD engine,
since the roots blowers and turbos would
be over the top of the main generator, re-
quiring a stack of components that
would make maintenance access unnec-
essarily difficult. EMD chose to use a sin-
gle turbocharger with a mechanical dri-
ve connected to the engine gear train
through an overrunning clutch, doing
the job of several components with a sin-
gle piece of machinery. The turbocharger
mounted in place of the roots blowers
and its housing formed the rear cover for
the timing gear train of the engine. In op-
eration, the turbo was forced up to speed
by the cranking and acceleration of the
engine through the clutch and gear
train. When sufficient r.p.m. and load
were achieved to provide enough ex-
haust flow to cause the turbocharger to
freewheel, the clutch was disengaged by
the acceleration of the turbocharger. It
would operate faster than the drive gear
train, achieving its own balance speed
that was dependent on exhaust flow and
load on the engine. Buy the time the
need developed for a more powerful
prime mover to take the place of the
567D series, the turbocharger, its clutch,
and drive system had been improved
through several years of field experience.
LEFT:The partially assembled crankcase is mounted in a turning fixture,
which allows the welder to position it so the welding passes can be done in
a downward postion. RIGHT: The cylinder head exhaust risers are being
Developing the 645
As the 567D3A was being introduced to
the market, EMD was already plan-
ning a larger and more powerful diesel
engine with the potential for future
growth. This was achieved by increas-
ing the cylinder bore (consequently in-
creasing in swept displacement per
cylinder) without changing the piston
stroke. The increase in cylinder bore
from 8¹/₂″ in the 567 series to 9¹/₁₆″ for
the 645 engines was achieved by mak-
ing the cylinder liner water jacket rela-
tively thinner without changing the
liner’s external dimensions. This same
method of increasing cylinder bore size
while maintaining the same stroke had
been used on a number of occasions by
Winton and Cleveland in their two-
stroke cycle diesels during the 1930s
and 1940s.
Electro-Motive had managed to suc-
cessfully compete in the engine market
with the 567 prime mover from 1938 to
1958 without the need to change cylin-
der bore or stroke. Two decades of pro-
duction featuring the same displace-
ment prime mover was actually a
relatively unusual achievement among
diesel engine builders.
Test versions of the 645 engine
achieved public notice in 1965 with the
release of the EMD’s prototype GP40
No. 433 and SD40 prototypes 434A
through 434H. These austere, black
testbed locomotives operated extensive-
ly in demonstration and product evalu-
ation service on the Class One railroads
from coast to coast, accumulating miles
and experience, and testing the durabil-
ity of the new prime mover and its sup-
porting systems. In addition to the eval-
uation of the 645 engine, the
experimental locomotives also allowed
EMD to test and prove the combined
AR10 and D14 traction alternator and
companion alternator system that
would be used in the new product line,
and a new generation locomotive con-
installed. This area will be fitted with a top cover plate, which will form
the upper deck water manifold around the risers.
trol system that used a three channel
magnetic amplifier with an SCR control
system designed to meet the needs of
the new rotating machinery.
The testing and evaluation of the
prototype locomotive was the subject of
a film production called Research Rides
the Rails, produced as a 16mm color
film that was circulated through the
GM Photographic Library and was
shown to civic and school groups as well
as being used extensively by the EMD
training center.
The turbocharged 20-cylinder ver-
sion of the new engine had no compara-
ble predecessor in the 567 line. With a
swept displacement of 12,900 cubic
inches, the biggest 645 inhaled 10,700
cubic feet of air per minute while con-
suming 188 gallons of fuel per hour to
produce 3600 traction horsepower at
900 r.p.m. With a weight of more than
43,000 lbs., the 20-645 was applied to
only the SD45 and SDP45 locomotives,
but versions of the engine would also be
used in marine propulsion, oil drilling,
and power generating applications.
EMD built and operated four flashy
metallic blue and white SD45s num-
bered 4351 through 4354 to demon-
strate the capabilities of the 20-cylin-
der engines to the railroads.
The 20-cylinder engine would also
form the basis for a new series of housed
power generating units, the MP45,
which made use of some of the design
features of the SD45 locomotive ma-
chinery installation. The MP45 units
could be assembled in multiple unit
plants to multiply their individual 2.5
megawatt power production. A group of
MP45 units installed on the EMD Plant
One grounds would become a central
part of the ongoing engine development
program, providing a convenient site for
the EMD Engineering Department to
do endurance testing of engine compo-
nents without the need to pursue loco-
motives all around the country.
Assembling the Crankcase
The main structural components Most
of the vertical and longitudinal
strength in the 645 engine crankcase is
provided by the long “C” channel
shaped stress sheets. These were not a
standard structural shape, but were
specially designed hot-rolled steel
channels produced by the suppier on a
proprietary set of rollers that were
owned by EMD. A pair of these chan-
nels would be passed through a ma-
chining process that cut large “lighten-
ing” holes in the beam portion of the
channel. The holes would provide air
flow through the engine air box after
the crankcase was assembled. The two
channels would be welded together
point to point to form a box structure.
A pair of the box structures were po-
sitioned in a jig and welded at a 45 de-
gree angle to form the stress sheet as-
sembly for the crankcase. Two
spanning plates were welded into the
center of the Vee formed by the stress
sheets. The peaked smaller and lighter
plate near the bottom of the Vee would
be the top cover for the engine main oil
gallery, and the larger flat plate con-
necting the top edges would provide the
roof of the air box and the bottom of the
exhaust riser water cooling manifold in
the completed engine.
The completed main structural sub-
assembly was then mounted in a turn-
ing trunnion to allow welding to be
done “down-handed” for better control
of the molten metal pool, and the base
rails and the forged steel “A” frames
that support the crankshaft bearings
were welded in place under the
crankcase, which was then mounted in
a positioning fixture that allowed it to
be held at any angle required by the
welder. The crankcase was then re-
turned to a turning fixture for installa-
tion of the cylinder head retainers and
exhaust riser elbows. This was followed
by the hot formed steel sheets of the
RAILFAN & RAILROAD 43
LEFT: The upper water manifold area has been completed and the side
sheets are installed. The crankcase is beginning to take on its final
appearance. RIGHT: The carousel machine was the finest in 1960s
outer air box being welded in place, and
the top deck of the center water mani-
fold was welded to the crankcase struc-
ture and the exhaust riser outlets.
Finally the crankcase was trimmed to
length and the steel end sheets were
welded to the assembly. Next, the
crankcase assembly had to be stress re-
lieved for up to 24 hours. During most of
the time that the 645 was in production,
all this work was done at Plant Two, the
former Pullman Company facility locat-
ed on the south side of Chicago. The com-
plete but unmachined crank-case assem-
blies were then cleaned and shipped to
Plant One in La Grange for final ma-
chining, line boring, and assembly.
Machining the Crankcase
The crankcase assemblies flowed
through the machining operations at
Plant One in an order that suited the
needs of production. 8-, 12-, 16-, and 20-
cylinder engines traveled through the
same sequence of machine tools to be
transformed from rough assemblies in-
to completed crankcases. The accurate
positioning of the rotating elements of
the engine (the camshafts and the
crankshaft) governed the machining
operations. Since the camshafts had to
sit atop the crankcase on a flat top deck
with their location determined by ma-
chined keyways, initial machining op-
erations dealt with the top deck area
and the position of the camshafts then
became a reference point for succeeding
operations.
Following the machining of the top
deck, the crankcase was mounted in the
carousel machine, the finest in 1960s ma-
chining technology. The carousel had a
rotating support stage with positions for
three crankcases. The stage was turned
to expose the crankcase in proper se-
quence to several sets of machine tools
that milled the underside surfaces, in-
cluding machining the base rails, drilling
holes for the main bearing studs, the oil
standpipes, and the crankcase to oil pan
44 APRIL 2010
machining technology. One crakcase could be loaded while two others
were being machined. The carousel milled and drilled the base rail and “A”
frames of the unfinished crankcases.
mounting hardware.
Following the machining of the base
rails and drilling of the “A” frames for
the main bearing studs, the “A” frames
were broached with a sawtooth pattern
to accept the main bearing caps, which
were individual steel forgings in the
645 from its 1966 introduction. They
were gradually replaced in around
1972 with steel billet main bearing
caps that were hot rolled by a forming
die and then cut into sections by a large
bandsaw. These caps were larger,
stronger, and less expensive to produce
and machine than the forged caps. The
billet caps were also used after 1972 in
any rebuilt engines that had an over-
heated forged bearing cap, so it was not
unusual to see an engine with both
types of caps after 1972. Regardless of
which type of caps were installed, once
they were torqued and line bored, they
became a matched component of the
engine and were stamped with the en-
gine serial number and the correct lo-
cating position on the crankcase.
The engine then went to the Ingersoll
mill, an enormous three-story tall bor-
ing machine that sequentially ma-
chined the cylinder bores to a 45 degree
angle between the banks and in correct
alignment with the center of the crank-
shaft main bearing bore line. The lower
level of this enormous machine accept-
ed the engine crankcase mounted on a
movable carriage; the second story of
the machine had a working platform,
an operator’s position, and the cutting
heads of the tools; and the third story
housed the electric motors and pumps
that powered the cutting heads and fed
them with machining oil. The Ingersoll
mill could handle any crankcase in the
product line. The same mill would do
the machining required on 8-, 12-, 16-,
and 20-cylinder engine crankcases.
Several generations of previous In-
gersoll mills survived in the plant as
part of the engine rebuilding opera-
tions. As more modern and efficient
machine tools became available, older
machines were sent to the rebuild sec-
tion. The tools there were used to re-
manufacture crankcases that had been
sent in for restoration to original di-
mensions and tolerances. So, engines
coming in for rebuilding were often ser-
viced by the same machinery that had
originally been used to construct them
many years earlier.
Following the completion of machin-
ing operations, crankcases would be
cleaned and receive a series of visual
and dimensional quality control inspec-
tions. If any discrepancies were evi-
dent, the crankcase could be taken to a
precision measuring table for a thor-
ough check using a coordinate measur-
ing machine, which would establish the
straightness and parallelism of ma-
chined surfaces and verify the location
of drilled holes and other details.
The oil pan was the other main struc-
tural component of the 645 engine and
could be fabricated by Plant Two or by
an outside supplier in the case of some
specialty applications. Following ma-
chining and cleaning, the pan received
similar quality control checks, and was
then mated to a crankcase. The oil pan
and crankcase were then machined to a
matching length and were serial num-
ber stamped as a pair. After this, the
drilling and tapping of gear train hous-
ing bolt holes in the end sheets was
done. This assured that the gear train
housings would fit flat across the two
components and that the attachment
bolts would be properly positioned. Af-
ter a final cleaning and wash, the
crankcase and oil pan set were ready to
be assembled as a diesel engine.
Building the Engine
On arrival at the engine line, the
crankcase and oil pan were separated,
with the crankcase being turned on its
side for installation of the crankshaft.
The main caps were installed and
torqued with an hydraulic wrench, and
LEFT: After the engine was line bored, the Ingersoll mill cut the bores that
would receive the cylinder liners. RIGHT: The machined and washed crank-
cases were then delivered to the beginning of the assembly line. They were
then the crankcase and pan were as-
sembled with their gaskets and bolted
together. The case and pan were
mounted on small flanged wheel dollies
that would be used to take them down
the production line toward the engine
test area at the end of assembly.
As the case and pan were moved from
stage to stage in the assembly line, the
cylinder power assemblies were in-
stalled and torqued down, the front and
rear gear trains were assembled, the
gear train housings and turbocharger
(or Roots blowers) were installed, the
top deck housings and covers were bolt-
ed in place, and the exhaust manifolds
were placed and torqued down. Acces-
sory equipment including water
pumps, oil pumps, the engine governor,
and power takeoffs were installed near
the end of the assembly line. In the fi-
nal stages of assembly, the crankshaft
was barred over for the first time as the
gear train timing was checked and ad-
justments were made to the exhaust
valve and fuel injector timing.
The engine arrived at the end of the
assembly line in an area in the back of
the plant that had more than a dozen
test cells running at all hours of the
day. In the 1970s, EMD could produce
more than five locomotives a day, and
with marine, industrial, and power
generating production, the engine line
could sometimes produce ten or eleven
engines a day. They all received a run-
ning test, thus the need for a dozen test
cells to accommodate production, plus
some engineering testing, and also to
allow for a few cells to be occupied by
engine changes and to accommodate
maintenance of the test cell equipment
and instrumentation.
Problems and Improvements
While the 645 ultimately proved to be
extremely successful, the early produc-
tion had a series of difficulties that
were addressed through service cam-
paigns and rebuilding programs. Early
turned on their sides and the crankshafts were installed, followed by the
main bearing caps, which were applied and torqued.
16- and 20-cylinder engines experi-
enced scattered instances of failures of
the welds between the forged crank-
shaft supporting “A” frames and the
crankcase base rails. These failures
would result in the “A” frame riding the
bearing rather than supporting it, and
would ultimately cause the crankshaft
to fail due to lack of support. These fail-
ures usually occurred at the next to last
main bearing in the engine, which han-
dled some of the highest crankshaft
torque loads but also experienced the
greatest reaction to misalignment be-
tween the engine and the generator.
The rear “A” frame on EMD engines
was much wider and stronger than the
others, so any alignment discrepancy
tended to orbit through the rear main
bearing and stress the next bearing
and “A” frame forward.
EMD initiated an improvement pro-
gram for early production crankcases
that sequentially increased the size of
“A” frame welding whenever engines
came in for rebuilding. Over several
years, these modifications successfully
reinforced most of the early crankcases
in the field that had not experienced “A”
frame weld failures. Crankcases that
had failed were replaced with newer
ones that featured much heavier “A”
frames with a significantly larger foot-
print where they attached to the
crankcase base rail and stress sheets. By
the middle of 1972, the changes in new
production 645E crankcases had essen-
tially eliminated “A” frame weld failures.
Early production 8-cylinder engines
used in marine and power generating
service experienced some cracking of
crankcase end sheets as a result of
their typically higher operating speed
duty cycle and their relatively heavy
camshaft counterweights. EMD rein-
forced the end sheets and increased the
thickness of the end sheet steel plate,
and also increased the size of bolts and
dowels that were used to mount the
camshaft bearing brackets. The end
sheet cracking issue seldom appeared
in railroad engines, and these changes
essentially addressed the problem.
As production of the 645 engine pro-
gressed, the prime mover grew in power
output, performance, and reliability.
One of the most significant advances,
which paved the way to a series of high-
er horsepower output engines, was the
introduction of the “rocking pin” piston
carrier and wrist pin in the 645E3A se-
ries engines applied to SD45X locomo-
tives and the Union Pacific DDA40X
fleet. Earlier production had used a ra-
dially segmented wrist pin insert bear-
ing that was in constant contact with
the pin as the rod geometry changed
during the piston stroke. The “rocking
pin” introduced with the 645E3A fea-
tured a three segment contact surface
that shifted the load between the center
and outboard segments as the rod
geometry changed. This opened up a
space between the unloaded surfaces
and the wrist pin, allowing replenish-
ment of the oil film during the compres-
sion and power portions of the piston
stroke. The rocking pin arrangement
made it possible to operate with much
higher peak firing pressures and higher
horsepower ratings, and was carried
forward with only very minor changes
into the subsequently developed varia-
tions of the 645 engines.
In addition to the basic 645 models and
the 645E3A series developmental en-
gines in the SD45X and DDA40X fleets, a
number of other specialty versions of the
645 engine were produced. The 567E en-
gine was actually a 645 crankcase fitted
with 567 cylinder power assemblies and
was built for several years to meet the re-
quirements of the “proven product
clause” in some military contracts that
required an engine with the same bore
and stroke as previous production. EMD
also built 645 crankcase equipped en-
gines with 567 cylinder power assemblies
for certain field replacement situations,
such as when a 567 engine had been too
RAILFAN & RAILROAD 45
LEFT: The cylinder power assemblies were installed at stations on the
engine assembly line located in the rear of EMD’s original Plant One at La
Grange. RIGHT: The engine assembly line was one of the few things at La
badly damaged by a component breakup
to make it feasible to remanufacture the
crankcase. In this way 645 crankcases
managed as service retrofits to sneak in-
to GP30, GP35, and SD24 applications as
well as a few earlier locomotives.
The 645 could also be built in special-
ized versions to meet the needs of ma-
rine, industrial, and military applica-
tions. These included ABS (American
Bureau of Shipping) certified engines
that met particular construction stan-
dards, engines for marine use designed
to meet particular pitch and roll limits
(the ability to operate inclined for long
periods of time), engines designed to
meet seismic and earthquake proof spec-
ifications, and high-shock engines for
Navy aircraft carriers and tank landing
ships that were designed to be surviv-
able in high impact combat situations.
Fuel Economy Becomes an Issue
Following the Arab oil embargo of the
early 1970s, fuel economy had a signifi-
cant influence on the development of
the 645 engine and drove many changes
in power assembly design during its
production. EMD found that the fuel
economy of the two-stroke cycle engine
could be improved significantly by in-
jecting the fuel in a relatively shorter
time interval while the piston was pass-
ing top dead center. Getting the fuel in-
to the cylinder more quickly required an
increase in the diameter of the fuel in-
jector plungers, and this in turn raised
the loading of the injector rocker arm
and camshaft, requiring changes in the
metallurgy and design of those compo-
nents. At the same time they began a
series of design changes to the pistons,
moving the compression ring belt up-
ward towards the piston crown. This ef-
fectively provided a longer power
stroke, since it contained the firing
pressure through a greater distance on
the downward piston movement before
46 APRIL 2010
Grange that was set up automotive assembly line style, with the engines
moving from station to station on flanged wheel dollies running and tracks
set into the floor.
the No. 1 compression ring cleared the
air intake ports.
Field testing of new power assembly
components revealed that the durabili-
ty of cylinder liners could be improved
by providing an air intake port width
that was the best compromise between
providing breathing capacity and pro-
viding resistance to small particles in
the air that could contribute to liner
scuffing. The liners could also be made
more resistant to scuffing through the
use of laser hardening, which was first
tried in the air port area and later ap-
plied to the entire upper bore of the lin-
er. For a number of years afterwards,
EMD offered a selection of three types
of cylinder liners: plain cast iron bore,
hardened port relief liners, and full
bore hardened liners. Generally, the
more expensive laser hardened liners
were applied to road locomotives with
the heaviest duty cycle, while plain cast
iron was preferred for switchers to
avoid excessive oil consumption in low
load operation.
New Turbochargers
One consequence of the changes in piston
ring geometry and fuel injection equip-
ment was the need to develop new and
more efficient turbochargers for the “fuel
economy” variations of the 645. As the
engine was made more efficient through
internal improvements, the heat energy
available to drive the turbocharger was
actually reduced under most operating
conditions. This led to the need for im-
provements in turbo compressor impeller
and exhaust turbine blade design to best
match the revised flow characteristics of
the redesigned engines.
Two families of “fuel economy” 645
engines were developed. The 645EB se-
ries combined “rocking-pin” type cylin-
der power assemblies with a revised
turbocharger to provide moderate fuel
savings without a change in engine rat-
ings. These were built as new produc-
tion and were fitted as a popular field
upgrade to older engines. In the late
1970s, EMD introduced the 645EC se-
ries, which provided both fuel economy
improvement and higher horsepower
output. The 645EC series made use of
components that were developed for
the successor 645F engines. Due to its
higher peak firing pressures, the
645EC package could only be applied to
the newest production crankcases with
the latest structural improvements to
the crankshaft supporting “A” frames.
A New Crankcase
The final major development of the 645
engine series was the introduction in
1977 of the 645F design crankcase. The
new crankcase was developed to take
advantage of the potential for greater
horsepower output that was afforded
by the rocking pin piston power assem-
blies and the larger bore fuel injectors.
In order to strengthen the crankcase
for higher horsepower operation, the
645F was constructed like a jigsaw
puzzle, with the crankshaft supporting
“A” frames forged with tabs that fit in-
to cutouts in the engine base rails.
These interlocking pieces were then
welded on the inside facing the oil pan
and the outside facing the engine air
box to provide a much stronger struc-
tural junction than was possible with
the 645E crankcase.
The 645F engine was intended to op-
erate at 954 r.p.m. in locomotive appli-
cations and was first fitted to part of
the GP40X production run in 1977. The
same basic set of reciprocating compo-
nents were also applied to late produc-
tion 645E engines with the heavy “A”
frame crankcases, creating the 645E3C
engine. The E3C package was not
retrofitted to crankcases earlier than
1972 production, as it was thought that
the service life of those engines might
LEFT: At the end of the assembly line, engines were taken to the test cell
area and run for one shift under load before being installed in a locomotive
or delivered to a customer. RIGHT: This view of the engine test area shows
be shortened by exposure to higher
peak firing pressures.
As the 1980s approached it became
evident that the need for continuing im-
provement in fuel economy, as well as
the demand for higher horsepower,
would dictate the need for a new prime
mover. The EMD 710 series engine was
developed to meet that need, adapting
the lessons learned with the 645E and
645F series production. In the 710, the
piston stroke was lengthened to eleven
inches from the ten inch stroke of the
645 to extract even more work from the
energy of combustion in the cylinders.
This required a complete redesign of the
crankcase to accommodate a taller
cylinder liner and a new series of crank-
shafts to provide the greater crankpin
radius. In designing the crankshafts it
was further necessary to provide larger
diameter main bearing journals to
maintain a suitable material overlap
between the main journals and the
crankshaft journals. This required a
new design of main bearings and larger
crankshaft supporting “A” frames.
Life After Death
The introduction of the 710 locomotive
engine in 1983 signaled the beginning
of the end for the 645 as a commercial
product. The domestic locomotive prod-
uct line absorbed the majority of EMD’s
engine production, with export, ma-
rine, industrial, and military applica-
tions accounting for a smaller number
of engines. However, the 645 had a ded-
icated following, particularly in the
marine industry, and it had already
qualified for use in a number of special-
ized applications including nuclear
power plants and as an emergency
power generator for military vessels.
As had been done with the 567E engine
(a 567 built in a 645E crankcase) in the
1960s, EMD continued to produce
small runs of complete 645 engines in-
the pace of production in the 1970s, when La Grange could produce up to
eleven engines a day, about equally divided between domestic locomotives
and other applications including marine and stationary engines.
to the 1990s, and also provided replace-
ment 645 crankcases for roots blower
and turbocharged engine applications,
including a few that served as replace-
ments for 567 engines.
Through its three decades of produc-
tion, and despite a few early problems
with the 1960s crankcases, the 645
grew in power output from 3000 h.p. in
its 16-645E3 configuration to 3500 h.p.
in the 16-645F3 version. In the process,
the fuel economy of the engine was im-
proved significantly, with the final pro-
duction versions generally enjoying al-
most a 20 per cent reduction in fuel
consumption compared to their 1960s
predecessors. The 645 engines powered
a vast variety of memorable locomo-
tives, including the SD45s and their de-
rivatives, the Union Pacific DDA40X
fleet, the incredibly successful Dash-2
locomotives, as well as the versatile
F40PH passenger locomotives. The
milestone 100 million horsepower 645
engine powered Burlington Northern
(Colorado & Southern) SD40-2 No.
7854. The 645 production years also
witnessed the decline of the Electro-
Motive Division of General Motors
from No. 1 to No. 2 in the diesel loco-
motive building field.
The lack of interest in the 20-645 in
the railroad industry following the ear-
ly crankcase problems and the Arab oil
embargo of the 1970s resulted in loco-
motive rebuilder Morrison-Knudsen
developing a unique technique for con-
verting the 20-645 crankcase into a
much more useful 16-645 version. This
patented process involved the torch
cutting of the 20-645 into several pieces
that were refitted together like a jigsaw
puzzle, with intersecting “tabs” of
crankcase structure providing the nec-
essary strength and stiffness that
would not have been obtainable in a
simple shortening of the structure. M-
K Boise Locomotive Works passed
along this technique to successor Mo-
tivePower Industries.
The 645 was sufficiently dominant in
the railroad industry that it achieved
the rather unique distinction of having
to compete with a similar product,
which was once again an innovation of
M-K. In the mid-1990s, M-K spun off
MK Rail as an independent operation,
and they developed the 645FZ engine
crankcase, which was constructed dif-
ferently from the EMD 645F but ac-
cepted all the same principal parts.
Marketing of this component was as-
signed to Engine Systems of Latham,
New York, and construction of the
crankcase design was sourced with
Zgoda in Poland. MK Rail progressed to
MotivePower, which eventually be-
came a part of Wabtec. Engine Systems
was subsequently sold to General Elec-
tric Transportation Systems, taking
with it the 645FZ crankcase, which GE
continues to produce. The popularity of
the 645 has also generated interest
among aftermarket parts suppliers and
there are presently a number of inde-
pendently produced cylinder and en-
gine parts that are applicable to the
645 engine series.
Although the 645 is no longer in pro-
duction, Electro-Motive Diesel and oth-
er supplies continue to produce parts
for the engine and it remains as one of
the most widely used prime movers in
the railroad industry, in North America
as well as worldwide. Thousands of
EMD 645s also continue to operate in
the marine industry, where vessels typ-
ically achieve service lives of four to five
decades, and it is also commonly found
in power generating, oil drilling, and
mining applications. There is no ques-
tion that EMD’s engine development
program for the 1966 product line was a
resounding success that had a lasting
influence on the railroad, marine and
industrial engine markets.
RAILFAN & RAILROAD 47