It wasn't discarded in the 70's, it was stomped out by government bureaucrats. Namely, the EPA.
I still use one of those early Detroit Diesels, the 71 series, which you could buy from 1 cyclinder up to 16 cylinders depending on the power needs. It's a real fuel miser.
The 6-71 was pretty popular backwhen.
We operated a fueling vessel with a pair of 12V-149s and two 6-71s.
Durable, long lasting motors...
Electromotive still manufactures 2 cycle diesel engines for locomotives, and virtually every EMD locomotive uses a 2 cycle engine of the “uniflow” design. One of the sticking points of these engines is that they consume their crankcase oil in operation, to the tune of about 5 gallons of oil for every 1000 gallons of fuel for older engines. Newer tier 3 and 4 engines consume virtually none of their crankcase oil. Turbocharging and multiple event injection make these engines a very efficient design.
Those old Jimmy’s made a lot of power for their size, 4-71’s and 6-71-s were everywhere once upon a time.
why did the epa stomp out the two stroke engine?
because of the smoke the article talks about?
you’d think they’d have figured out a way to tamp down on the smoke. judging by the article it looks like they have but its taken 40 years and counting