DEUTZ AIR-COOLED DIESELS

Don’t forget that throughout Deutz history, they were also manufacturing water-cooled engines, including large marine and industrial units, though the large-engine part of the business would be sold off in the mid-2000s. Deutz has made well over 4,000,000 air-cooled engines, and they continue to be made and used where emission regulations permit. They aren’t the only air-cooled diesel manufacturer that existed, but they are the one that has lasted.

Deutz in America

Otto engines were built and distributed in the U.S. by Schleicher, Schumm & Co. as early as 1880. The very first Otto-powered tractors rolled out of the Philadelphia factory in 1894. The company changed its name to Otto Gas Engine Works in 1894 and continued to produce Otto engines until the U.S. entered World War I. Otto was then seized by the U.S. government and eventually sold to Superior Engine in 1923. The story restarts in 1951, when the Deutz air-cooled engines were marketed here by Diesel Energy Corporation. It became a wholly-owned subsidiary of KHD in 1955, transitioned to the Deutz Corporation in 1974 and it’s still called this today.

Deutz tractors began being imported in 1966 under the auspices of the Deutz Farm Equipment Division. The badging changed in 1983 to Deutz-fahr after KHD acquired Fahr. When KHD bought the agricultural product parts of the ailing Allis-chalmers Company (A-C) in 1985, the company gained approximately 400 dealers in the U.S. and Canada. They formed the Deutz-allis Corporation with the blending of the North American Deutz-fahr organization and Allis-chalmers. While a few of A-C’S old tractor lines continued for a time, they were eventually replaced with German-made Deutz tractors powered by various models of Deutz air- or oil-cooled diesels.

Overall, the acquisition of Allis-chalmers turned out to be a bad move, and the venture was not successful. It led to the formation of AGCO here in the U.S. and the sale of Deutz-fahr in Germany to SAME of Italy. The German-flavored tractors had not gone over all that well with American customers, so an Americanmade-and-designed tractor was planned that blended the best and most-applicable German traits with what the American market wanted. The implementation of this new direction fell mostly to AGCO, and the Deutz-allis line was folded into it.

Yeah, the corporate stewpot continued to be stirred under the ACGO banner, but the air-cooled or oil-cooled Deutz engines continued in the lineup into the 2000s, though mostly in the smaller horsepower lines.

Magirus and Deutz had a long collaboration and period of strong corporate ties. This is a 1963 KHD (Magirus-deutz) Jupiter fire truck. This style of Jupiter was built in a wide variety of configurations from 1960-’67, from a 4x2 like this, 6x4, 6x6, and military rigs in all the aforementioned drivetrains. All were powered by variations of the Deutz F8L714 making between 177 (NA) and 192 (turbocharged) horsepower at 2300 rpm and 470-520 lbs-ft at 1200 rpm. Jakub Halen

W The oil-cooled 1011 engine debuted in 1988 and morphed into the 2011 around 2001. These engines circulate the engine oil in a special water jacket around the cylinders and heads. A big oil cooler is used to cool the oil, and the oil cooler is cooled by the engine fan. An advantage is that the oil can be used to supply cab heat in a tractor or truck. The cylinders are not simply the air-cooled cylinders in an oil jacket but a block of cylinders with an oil-cooling jacket around them. Oil cooling has an advantage over air cooling in that the block is heated to a more uniform temperature during operation and avoids wet stacking with light loads in cool weather, a problem common to air-cooled diesels.

A monstrous Deutz F12L614 V-12 as installed in a 1956 FWD T6-415D truck. It was one of eight FWD trucks built with Deutz engines in the late 1950s. Seven were 170 hp F8L614 V8, and one was this V12. Displacing 974 cubic inches from a 4.38 x 5.5-inch bore and stroke, the 1,211-pound engine cranked out 230 hp at 2000 rpm and 780 lbs-ft of torque. Compression ratio was 17.8:1. In this era, an option was to have a variable speed fan that was controlled thermostatically.

Among the first applications for the new Deutz air-cooled engines were tractors. This 1951 F1L514/51 was the first evolution. It made 15 metric horsepower at 1,650 rpm. Early versions used the pre-war four-speed but the later had a five-speed gearbox. This little guy proved to be a very durable and popular tractor in postwar Germany. Chiemseemanally.