[note 2] In 1951, E. W. Kettering (son of Charles F. Kettering) wrote a paper for the ASME entitled, History and Development of the 567 Series General Motors Locomotive Engine,[2] which goes into great detail about the technical obstacles that were encountered during the development of the 567 engine.

These same considerations apply to the 645 and 710, as these engines were a development of the 567C, applying a cylinder bore increase (645) and a stroke increase (710), to achieve a greater power output, without changing the external size or weight of the engines, thereby achieving significant improvements in horsepower per unit volume and horsepower per unit weight.

[3] Pre-1995 engines have mechanically controlled unit injectors (UIs), patented in 1934 by General Motors, EMD's former owner.

[note 3] The use of EUI is EMD's implementation of non-common-rail electronic fuel injection on its large-displacement diesel engines.

The turbocharger is gear-driven and has an overrunning clutch that allows it to act as a centrifugal blower at low engine speeds (when exhaust gas flow and temperature alone are insufficient to drive the turbine) and a purely exhaust-driven turbocharger at higher speeds.

The turbocharger can revert to acting as a supercharger during demands for large increases in engine output power.

While more expensive to maintain than Roots blowers, EMD claims that this design allows "significantly" reduced fuel consumption and emissions, improved high-altitude performance, and even up to a 50 percent increase in maximum rated horsepower over Roots-blown engines for the same engine displacement.

Others have received modifications that permit lower fuel consumption (but possibly at the expense of higher NOx emissions or reduced power output), lower emissions, or even higher power (at the expense of increased fuel consumption).