West Closure Demo.wmv

Operation of the 19,140 cubic feet per second West Closure Complex in Belle Chase, LA . (largest drainage pump station in the nation)

[@RDC_Autosports]

Cat C280 3612 5444-HP @1000 rpm, all have block heaters so there ready at a moments notice. each one consumes 263 gallons of diesel an hr

[@javieratam59dotnet]

+russell379x what temperature do they keep the blocks for quick startup? It doesn't exactly get cold in LA.

[@RDC_Autosports]

+Javier J 160* but because of the usage of electric they use room heaters keeps it 65* in the building only Ouse the block heaters pre test run

[@stevetregre8584]

Cat's having a hard time when taking that pump is turned on!

[@RDC_Autosports]

Steve Tregre to be honest all cats have that problem, I'm just being honest. They have a hard time. Even the gen sets I work on... they don't like that initial load. The pumps have a Lufkin gear and are direct drive propeller pumps (looks like a boat prop facing up)

[@gravelydon7072]

@@RDC_Autosports We had Cats at one of mine. Caterpillar had to derate the engines to get them down to our specs. And still they smoked. While the Detroits, which moved more water per second, barely showed any. We also had some of the first large Cat engines in some of our stations and because of that, they stayed Cat yellow instead of Yew Green that most of ours were painted. So Cat could send people to see the 3606s in operation. Cat learned a lot from ours. Like the fact that you don't use a unit injector on an engine like that without having a cool down cycle where fuel flows thru the injector to carry off the heat even after the engine is shut down. By the time this video was posted, ours already had 10 years of use on them.

[@izulien]

Solid black smoke at that :P

[@hirusthehellhound]

They smoke like those 1500KVa generators at my contry's sound system show when the bass hits

[@dave1182a]

Arn't these 586 Emd engines, or similar to?

[@bearbon2]

What make are the engines? EMD, Alco, Fairbanks-Morse?

[@javajo46]

I think I saw somewhere Fairbanks-Morse?

[@bearbon2]

Thanks, I was wishing they were F-Ms but I looked it up and they are actually 5444 horsepower Caterpillars. Still sound good though!

[@bambocaw]

you know the Diesels are powerful when black smoke pours from the stacks!!

[@usacenola]

There are eleven 5,400 diesel horsepower engines in the pump station

[@bnkwupt]

Can you all post a video tour of the inside of this station? This is incredible infrastructure.

[@jamesedwards6589]

A syphon station would be more beneficial to the environment over a black smoke emitting engine

[@Real_Tim_S]

@@jamesedwards6589 Doesn't work well when the water you wish to get rid of is below the place where you want to send the water... What you recommend would flood the area - which is why the professional engineers put in a floodgate (to prevent backflow), and a pumping station (to get the water above the destination water height). When there isn't a storm with high sea-levels/stormsurge, they can leave the flood gate open and let gravity do the work. These 11 Cat-powered pumps, are there for the severe events. Like it or not - the most reliable way to store a lot of energy and only turn it on when you need it (as in "0-to-4MW in less than 30 seconds safely") is still a diesel-fueled turbo-boosted engine. Which is why even nuclear power plants and hospitals use them as backup power. The black smoke is just the engines luggin until they get up to speed and the turbo spools up. Then they combust more efficiently.

[@SirFrag32]

@@Real_Tim_S Exactly. If you notice, the smoke only lasts a minute or so. Not very long considering these are meant to run for 3 days at a time.

[@jesser5127]

Why does the discharge look so sloppy?

[@jacobdavis000]

That's what she said.

[@careysharp8340]

@@jacobdavis000 You wrong for that 🤣

[@mikemuniak4711]

Rolling some coal baby

[@dave1182a]

They didn't allow the engines to warm up its diesel fuel not being burned all the way, With Pumps that big and flow that strong, it takes a while to "whine" up but Diesel is the most efficent form of fuel out there.

[@bnkwupt]

It's smoking black because the pumps are always engaged and the engine are under exteme load (with no boost) during startup. Once boost comes up, the smoke clears up.

[@TCPUDPATM]

Sheesh, why is the startup of these engines so disgusting? They’re brand new!

[@SirFrag32]

It's due to a cold-start, combined with the pumps being direct-drive (Always engaged). They emit that black smoke until the turbo boost comes up so they burn more effeciently.

[@hirusthehellhound]

Its diesel. Always smoke like that when the load are direct drive