Big Cam Cummins reliability

Later small cams did have piston cooling.

 

My son is overhauling this today. Big Cam 855 in a boat, 1984 model. They're still around,making money.

 

Which big cam 1 2 3 4 ? How often you change your oil? 10 to 15?

 

BC4 converted to high flow cooling, with air to air from a N14. Like to change my oil about every 10,000 miles....

 

Ok thanks

 

Does anyone know how to read the following badge on a mid-1980s Cummins?

It reads as "85NT400DBE4".

I've read that "88NT" or "NT88" was definitely a Big Cam IV.

But I have searched & searched & searched and I can't find anything on "85NT".

Is it safe to assume that the "400" means 400 HP?

And I don't know what "DBE4" means.

Thanks to anyone who can decipher this thing.

PS: Pictures of the engine here.

 

Looks like a big cam 4 going by the intake.

 

I take it , it had a electrical short that has been bypassed.

 

I take it that's a commercial boat running dry stack exhaust?

 

That is definitely a big cam 4.

I think those numbers just mean it's a 400 hp big cam 4 that was made in 1985 for the 1986 truck.

Call Freightliner with the VIN number and they can tell you what the original engine was for that truck. If that is the original engine it's definitely not the NT 88. That was a later version of the big cam 4 before the actual mechanical n14 came out.