Ahead of Its Time: Cat D13000 Model Boasts 75-Year-Old Dual-Fuel Technology
If you think dual-fuel engines are a modern-day invention — created to reduce the need to burn diesel and therefore minimize emissions — then you’re due for a visit to the Foley Engine Rebuild Center in Park City, Kansas.
On display there is a Cat® D13000 series engine, a dual-fuel model that dates all the way back to the 1940s. It was originally used to power D8 dozers, then transitioned into an industrial engine and eventually a generator set.How did it work? Why was it made? Who used it and how? For answers, we went straight to the expert.
Ken Davis spent his entire 47-year career as a Foley employee — “I started out as a mechanic and worked my way down to management,” he jokes — before retiring in 2017. His retirement plaque features an engraving of the D13000, and the team at the rebuild center still refers to it as “Ken’s engine.”
Read on for his insights into this ahead-of-its time product.
How did dual-fuel technology on the D13000 work?
Ken: Technically all D13000s were diesel — that’s what the “D” stands for. This particular engine had an attachment conversion that allowed it to run as dual-fuel.
You started the two-cylinder gasoline engine, or pony motor, with either a crank or a 12-volt electric starter. There was a high-low transmission off the back of that engine, along with a clutch and lever to engage the starting pinion.
In really cold weather, you ran the transmission on low until the engine turned over. When the starting engine was warm, you switched the transmission over to high. Then you turned on the diesel fuel with a lever and the main engine started up. At that point, you shut down the pony motor and the main engine ran on straight diesel fuel.
When you got the engine up to speed and everything was running good, there was a lever that switched it from diesel to gas. A mechanical linkage closed the rack down on the fuel injection pump and turned on the natural gas. The natural gas got mixed in the air cleaner, and that’s how it got into the cylinders. There was no carburetor. The engine still had some diesel being injected into the cylinders, which acted like a spark plug to ignite the natural gas.
I would guess most of the time, these engines ran on about 70-80% gas and 20-30% diesel. Backwards?
Why was Caterpillar making engines like this back in the 1940s? Was anyone else doing it?
Ken: Fuel expense was the driver. For as long as I can remember, natural gas has been cheaper than diesel.
I’m not aware of any other manufacturer producing a dual-fuel engine at that time. A few years ago, Caterpillar went to Dynamic Gas Blending on some of its 3500 engines, and that was considered revolutionary. Whenever Caterpillar people come out to the rebuild center, I always make sure to show them the D13000.
Tell us about the D13000 at the Foley Engine Rebuild Center. What’s its history?
Ken: It was sold to the city of Dodge City, Kansas, in 1947 and pumped water for the city water well. When I was a field man for Foley in the early 1970s, I actually worked on that engine — I remember I had the heads off it. I would guess the city used it up until the 1990s, so close to 50 years.
In the early 2000s, the city manager called me and wanted to know if we’d remove the engine from the building, because they hadn’t been using that well for a while. Our weld shop fixed the cracks, and then we cleaned it up and painted it so it looks nice. It’s been on display in the rebuild center ever since.
Did you encounter any other D13000 dual-fuel engines during your career?
Ken: Only a very small percentage were dual-fuel — maybe five or six on irrigation in western Kansas. It was more expensive than straight diesel, and there just wasn’t a lot known about the technology back then. When I retired, and I think it’s still true today, you get more horsepower with diesel than with natural gas. There is a straight diesel D13000 down south of Coldwater, and when I retired about four years ago it was still running. It lasted longer than its owner.
How did you end up in the field working on the D13000? Tell us about your career at Foley.
Ken: I joined the Navy wanting to get into electronics, because that looked like the future to me and I wanted to get training courtesy of the U.S. government. Instead, they put me in the Seabees as an equipment operator and mechanic. When I got out, after two tours in Vietnam, I helped my dad on the farm and then I decided I ought to get a job. Foley was one of the first places I applied. I thought I’d work there for a couple years and then move somewhere else.
My first job was running the portable track press. Then I became a field service rep, a field service supervisor and a service writer. I went into engine sales, then went back into the service department as the service manager. After that, I became the store manager in Dodge City.At one point, I asked my boss for a parts and service salesman for the gas compression industry. He told me that was a commission-based job and whoever we hired would starve to death. So, I took the job. It was pretty tough the first year, but I doubled parts sales for Foley three years in a row in the petroleum business. I ended up being the product support manager for all of petroleum.
I still teach classes at Foley and do some customer training. It’s been a good career and a good life. I was treated like family. Sure, there were days I hated my job. But the majority of them, I loved it.
Big thanks to Ken for giving us the scoop on the innovative dual-fuel D13000 engine — as well as a glimpse into his colorful half-century career at Foley!