Tech & Auto
The 5 Biggest Engines In The World Are Absolutely Colossal
By ELI SHAYOTOVICH
Caterpillar C175-20
The Caterpillar C175-20 is used to power the company’s two-and-a-half-story tall 797F mining trucks, which can haul 400 tons.
This versatile engine, which can also be used as a stand-alone generator, has four turbochargers producing 4,000 horsepower at 1,800 rpm and 16,474 pound-foot of torque.
Beast of Turin
While the Beast of Turin was made in 1910, this Fiat-built engine is still considered the single largest engine put into a car. Two engines were built, but only one survives today.
Also known as the Fiat S76, the engine was a 28.5-liter inline-four cylinder that produced nearly 300 horsepower and set a new one-mile land speed record at 116 mph in 1911.
GE GE9X
According to Guinness, General Electric’s GE9X is the world’s biggest and most powerful commercial jet engine. It has a thrust output of 134,300 pounds.
The engine is 18 feet long, 11.25 feet wide, and weighs 8.3 tons. It generates four times more thrust than an F-16 jet and 12,000 pounds more than the Mercury-Redstone rocket.
Rocketdyne F-1
The Rocketdyne F-1 is 18 feet long, 12 feet in diameter, and capable of producing 1.5 million pounds of thrust. It is still considered the most powerful single-engine rocket.
NASA used five F-1s for the six 363-foot Saturn V launch vehicles used to send men to the moon during the Apollo missions between 1969 and 1972.
Wärtsilä RT-flex96C
Made by the Finland-based Wärtsilä Corporation, the RT-flex96C is a behemoth engine used to power the world’s largest cargo ships.
The 14-cylinder RT-flex96C weighs 2,300 tons and is almost 43 feet high and 85 feet long. It powers ships that can haul 11,000 20-foot-long shipping containers at 25 to 31 knots.