Question about GM 6-71 diesel engines

Hi all,

Most of the marks of the British and Canadian-produced Valentine tank were powered by the GMC 6-71 diesel engine (apparently referred to by us Canadians as the GMC 6004). The late model Valentines used a better version producing 165 BHP instead of 138.

For the "Valentine 17 Pounder SP" aka "Archer", a variant of the engine was used which I've seen referred to as the "GMC 6-71M" which produced more horsepower - I think 192.

Does anyone know where I could learn more about this variant of the engine? I presume, although maybe incorrectly, that the M didn't stand for "marine", as in the version of the engine used in landing craft. Although according to wikipedia that engine did produce more horsepower.

 

There were four General Motor diesel engine divisions in WW2. Detroit Diesel built the 1 to 6-cylinder diesels of 10 to 250 HP. Cleveland Disel built in the 150 to 2,000 HP class. Electro-Motive built locomotive and some shipboard diesels. And Diesel Equipment built components for the other three.

Detroit Diesel's 6-71 was the basis for all its tank engines. The "6" simply identified the number of cylinders and all were inline engines. The 6-71 in twin-engine configuration as in the Medium Tank M4A2 and others was know as the 6046 or Twin Diesel. However, Grey Marine also took the 6-71 and modified it as a marine engine for use on landing craft, such as the LCVP. Those were usually designated 6-71M, but I doubt that would get recycled back to tank production. Then there was the GM 6051, AKA the Quad Diesel, which used four 6-71's as a power plant of the LCS(L). GM 6004 was simply the designation for the installation in the Valentine of the 6-71.

 

Hi guys,

My apologies - I should have said thank you all for your answers, earlier.

Followup detail: I was just going over the vehicle manual PDF, and it refers to the engine as 6-71M and as type 6062.

I am trying to google for more details but not finding much, except a Google Books hit on "Catalog of Copyright Entries" has the following:



(Sadly the downloads for the specs manuals on that one site seem to require membership in their diesel club)

I don't suppose that makes anything clearer? I can't find much online on GMC 6062...

 

Good call! I'll see if I can learn anything from them.