The MTU Series 4000 is a 4000 HP twin-turbo V20 engine designed primarily for ships and power-generation in mining and offshore drilling. It's so big, the assembly line consists of moving trailers.
In a past life we worked at the Detroit Diesel plant in Detroit, Michigan, where the Series 4000 is built. MTU bought the production rights years ago and still operates the trailer-based assembly line in the same building. The scale of operations is so huge, our minds have a hard time reconciling certain parts against their size. A crankshaft? It's about 10 feet long and weighs in at well over a ton. A piston? It's as big as a pumpkin. Just one of the two turbo chargers for the top-line model is bigger than a complete Renesis rotary engine. To top it off, the Series 4000 isn't even the biggest motor MTU makes. Now we just want to know — what would you try to shoehorn it into?
Image source: Defense Industry Daily