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Comment by jojobas | Hacker News Reader

Later designs moved the engine outside to reduce noise. I'm not aware of any operational difficulties but I'd rather cope with noise than service a V12 diesel in -60C wind.

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You can’t shut off the engine in that climate, if you do you would need a way to heat it up before restarting so, it’s redundant.

In other words if you will anyway need a warmer environment [hangar, large building] to enable the engine to start, there is no point to “fixing it” in the cold as it will not turn over anyway.

Both models have auxiliary heaters and later models have generators.

There's no warmer environment for thousands of kilometers there, doesn't mean you can't change a belt or oil in the field.

no one ever changes oil in a diesel in those conditions. a belt - maybe, if it breaks.

otherwise one just does not shut down the engine, auxillary heaters or not.

Do they even use belts? I imagine it's all internally chained, that way a diesel engine can last well over 100k miles... With oil change or at least top up, however. Mechanical pump/injectors don't even need electricity, just have fuel.

The documentary says that original expedition swapped a whole 600kg gearbox on a Kharkovchanka when one of them failed. Crew worked for 5 days at less than -50C.

So they ceranly did change much more than just belts :)

While looking for more info on Kharkovhanka 2, I found a blog of a russian guy who actually lives on the Vostok station [1]. There is an additional engine+generator inside [2], which is used for heating of the interior, but probably can also be used to heat up the main engine.

I was not aware of the fact that all the stations in Antarctic are on the ice actually, so they drift as time passes. There is a map of that [3]. Given the extremely low humidity, non-existing grounding (since the station is on the ice), when there is a blizzard or strong wind outside, snowflake rub themselves, and the station accumulates significant static charge which affects all the equipment.

[1] https://pikabu.ru/@deratizator (in russian, but google translate is capable of translating most of the text, except profanity words which appear occasionally to highlight the complexity of life in such climate conditions :) )

[2] https://pikabu.ru/story/kharkovchankaii_5499165 (still in russian, same blog)

[3] https://cs7.pikabu.ru/post_img/big/2017/12/11/7/151299321313...

The pictures are pretty cool. It looks like the cabin of the kharkov II is significantly less insulated than the crew space? The hatch between the two looks as thick as the "external" doors (actual door and transmission hatch). I was also surprised to hear the windows are only double-paned in kharkov, and it doesn't look like model II is any better.

Understandable but a bit sad to see how decayed they got, especially if they're still in somewhat active use.

>all the stations in Antarctic are on the ice actually

Many of the ones on the peninsula are built on land with some open to visitors!

[0]http://www.antarcticglaciers.org/antarctica-2/living-and-wor...

Two words: pony motor

They've been used since forever to heat and start large engines. Depending on size the pony motor might even produce enough heat when idling to keep the crew cabin warm while you service the main engine.

I still wouldn't want to share a box with an old soviet diesel though.

> They've been used since forever to heat and start large engines. Depending on size the pony motor might even produce enough heat when idling to keep the crew cabin warm while you service the main engine.

The much larger problem is that the engine will have seized by the time you're done. In central siberia (oymyakon and friends) locals will keep the engine running from when they leave home (having possibly heated it up by starting a fire under the engine block to thaw it) to when they're back so it doesn't freeze solid. Even the gasoline will start coagulating at the temperatures involved.

Gasoline (I'm not a petroleum engineer so I make no claim about certain additives) is fine down to any earthly temperature. It was used extensively in 1930s antarctic expeditions for this reason.

The pony motor can be heated with a gasoline blow torch (yes that's a thing) to start easily. Then it can heat the coolant (and through that coolant the oil and cylinder heads) of the main engine so that the main engine may start easily. Depending on the size of the pony motor it may even be able to provide cabin heat.

My friend from Alaska took him about 20 years and his wife putting her foot down to give up on the white gas stove for that reason.

Diesel trucks often have a diesel powered coolant heater and pump for that reason as well. Turn on the heater and you can shut down the engine knowing it'll start again. And so you still have cabin heat.

See random sales website.

https://www.webasto-comfort.com/en-us/heating-solutions/off-...

The video mentions that this was done because the people in the driver cabin became covered in diesel soot as the sealing between engine and cabin was not 100%.

You don't typically see soot dispersed from under the hood of diesel trucks, that would mean leaky exhaust (a big no-no even with external engines). Sure they had their reasons.

A lot of diesel engines have a certain amount of blow-by, which is exhaust pressurizing the crankcase by bypassing e.g. the piston rings. This can leak out from valve rocker covers, etc.

Yeah like the other comment said, they leak.

Especially when it's a tank diesel, not designed for longevity at all.

You have to keep in mind that those were just campers thrown on top of a T-55 tank chassis.

German Wikipedia says this was done to avoid overheating:

"Since September 1975 the further developed Charkowtschanka-2 was built. One of the most important differences was the external cabin, which also facilitated access to the engine and transmission, which were mounted under a classic engine hood and avoided overheating problems."

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