What happened to ADE (Atlantis Diesel Engines) in Cape Town?
Before I had ever mentioned ADE on this site, I was told that I had been "Googled",
or that the asker had found this site through Google in response to just that question.
Well, it is a valid question that crops up often enough and it is discussed
from time to time among our colleagues, so I'll provide a little info on the subject.
Quite simply they shut down most operations in or around 2001, and put up everything
for sale. What's hasn't been sold has either been scrapped or mothballed.
New Engines
However, you could still buy new engines from various agents or stockists right up to
around 2005. Toyota for one did this. They probably needed and got assistance for
Mercedes in Germany when they ran short of parts and things.
Atlantis's logical successor
CA Components
CA Components claim to "have a proud history of automotive component manufacturing
skills dating back to 1981 with the establishment of Atlantis Diesel Engines (ADE)."
They say "they are a world class automotive component, supplier,
manufacturer and distributor of complete engines, short blocks, crankcases,
cylinder heads, crank shafts, con rods, sumps, manifolds, flywheels,
complete diesel engines, natural gas engines and all associated small engine parts
for the Mercedes Benz and MAN 366, 400 and 440 diesel engine ranges".
Well, looking from the outside, they do supply cylinder heads & other components to major
engine parts suppliers that I know of, and judging from their website (I provided a
link above) they run a large, & pretty impressive operation at Atlantis. It seems that
they took over large parts of the Atlantis Diesel Engine factory, operations and staff.
Current parts and engine supplies.
General parts for ADE (Mercedes) engines like liner kits, bearings, gasket sets, cylinder
heads, and cylinder head parts are freely available and well priced (currently 2010).
By contrast, my experience is that special parts like sumps, fans, fan hubs, compressors,
& the like, are not freely available or competitively priced.
New ADE 352 & ADE 366 "short" engines are still available in kit form from time to time,
from various suppliers, but outside of "short engines" for those models new ADE engines are
not available to the best of my knowledge.
Above report by Steve Barrington - June 2010.
Barrington Diesel Club, your source of ADE engine specs and technical data.
