TruckerTuesday: World’s Largest Diesel Engines

Have you ever seen an engine the size of a building? They really do exist and put out a mind blowing amount of horse power. Diesel engines are extremely tough and built to last. They are different from petrol engines in that they use the heat of compression to initiate ignition, instead of a spark plug to ignite an air-fuel mixture.

Diesel engine manufacturers take the phrase “Go Big, or Go Home” very seriously and created the world’s largest diesel engines that power everything from Heavy Haulers to Ships, even entire buildings and race tracks. Let’s see the mechanical beasts in action…

Largest Semi Truck Engine
First up, I know you want to know what the largest diesel engine in a semi truck looks like. So here is “Big Mike”, a V24 71 Detroit Diesel beast. Big Mike has twelve 871-Blowers and nitro .. I need a second to take all that in, a V24 – Wow. What about horsepower you ask? “Big Mike” dynos at an amazing 3,424hp. Because nothing is to good for “Big Mike,” builder Mike Harrah (bearded guy in the video) matted the engine to an Allison transmission housed in a custom 359 Peterbilt with a custom built 40-foot chassis.

“Tony” is 89 feet long and a whopping 44 feet wide. Are you ready for the horsepower this massive engine produces….a mind blowing 107,389 hp. It was designed by Finnish manufacturer Wärtsilä and powers the largest container ships in the world. The engine itself weighs over 2,300 tonnes and claims the official title of Largest Reciprocating Engine In The World. This engine was first put into service in 2006 to power the Emma Maersk, one of the largest container ship ever built.

When it comes to diesel engines, go big or go home. Mike Hannah showed us there is no limit to the size of an engine for a semi truck, and Wärtsilä showed us no engine is too impossible to build. TruckLogics salutes your love of powerful engines and can’t wait to see what monster engines will be built to challenge Big Mike and the Wärtsilä-Sulzer RTA96-C .