Sherman / Grant Air cleaners ?

[Colin Alford]

Originally Posted by Andrew Rowe

The slotted hole ones were pulled from a triple hole manifold on the blower, so they were sitting side by side with no problem, cheers Andrew.

Andrew,

Very interesting! I had not attempted to put this style on a triple air intake as the proud flange looked like it would cause a problem. Does this mean that the body is a smaller diameter? I have access to most, if not all, of the types under discussion and I intended to get to them this afternoon to take some comparison images, but my day did not go as planned (hopefully tomorrow).

Here are some images from 1947 and 1949 GM Diesel Industrial model parts books, and a 1957 Detroit Diesel parts book, showing various evolutions of air cleaners. I note that for both the AC and Donaldson types, the holes moved from the lower housing/shell in the wartime parts books to the upper element assembly in the post-war parts books (that I can access).

[Colin Alford]

Andrew,

Here are a couple of images regarding the early, and later types of Valentine air cleaners. (I fully acknowledge that you have extensive experience with Valentines).

[Andrew Rowe]

Thinking back , I may have pulled the slotted ones off a duel intake manifold
rather than a triple, so extra gap ? between them. So these look like they could be commercial of that era 1947 to 1949 , Thanks for the input.....nice Valentine
book that you have.......Cheers Andrew.

[Colin Alford]

Andrew,

I managed to get some images of the various air cleaners and intake manifolds.

These three images are to illustrate the difference in the spacing of the holes in the double vs triple air-intakes.

In all three images the centre hole of the triple is aligned with the left hole of the double ( I didn’t have a tape measure handy)

[Colin Alford]

Here are some images of two air cleaners which I believe are military for the GM 6046 twin diesels with triple air-intakes, and two which I believe are for Commercial/industrial GM diesels with single our double air intakes.

The ones with flanges pose a definite compatibility problem with the triple air-intakes.

My conclusions: The air-cleaners with flanges could be used with the GM 6046 engines if the flanges are removed and a set of six is available (the military manuals are very explicit that all air-cleaners on a unit must be of the same type).

[Andrew Rowe]

Thanks for the pictures Colin, looks like you have been into the Detroit a little bit. Did you see my wanted post for the cast bracket for the model 6004 engine
Fan blade extension mount. Have you ever seen this model engine in Canada, as this would have been put in the Canadian Valentines , Cheers Andrew.

[Colin Alford]

Andrew,

In the fall of 2018, there was the opportunity for the Base Borden Military Museum (BBMM) to acquire some parts for GM 6046 engines.

The first trip was quite an eye-opener where we encountered mountains of Detroit Diesel parts (some contained in partially collapsed buildings), and the challenge became the ability to identify the military-specific parts among the large quantities of other similar parts.

This resulted in acquiring and studying as many manuals as possible and studying the parts diagrams to hopefully enable quick visual identification of the military parts.

To add to the challenge, the site was being cleared, with many of the items that we didn’t claim going directly to scrap.

We made out well and saved a lot, but I have no doubt that we missed some rare and valuable parts.

Amongst the piles/crates/cages/shelves were some Valentine specific parts, so there was at least one 6004 engine that had been stripped there. We didn’t find any Fan Support Brackets.

There were 30 Canadian Valentines which stayed in Canada (of the 1420 produced, 1390 were shipped to Russia) and BBMM has the sole intact survivor of those 30 tanks. It still has it’s engine, but due to the condition of the vehicle, it would take many days of effort to get into the engine compartment for a thorough inspection. There is some potential that the engine has the aluminum flywheel housing with integral fan supports.