Mercedes 4000 Good Bad and the Ugly

buy a 12.7 detroit 60 series motor

 

The mercedes and the 12.7 I believe are the same block, I could be wrong. I do know that the benz engine had issues with the liner at the top and the rings cracking. There is a solution for this with an overhaul and they are supposedly great engines after that, but those are rare. Be aware they no longer manufacture that engine in the states.

 

I have been driving a mbe4000 450hp/1900rpm motor and love it. Max torque is around 1100 rpm. You never have to get the motor above 1500. It's a workhorse motor. And it's a 6 cylinder so it's lighter and better on fuel. The motors in our fleet have over 1 million on the motors. Not sure if they've been rebuilt but I'm assuming at least once. If I was gonna buy a truck the Mercedes would be near the very top.

 

I worked for Crete. At one point they bought about 300 Mercedes powered Freightliners. Their fuel economy was about average compared to other brand engines. And if I am not mistaken, they had exhaust brakes and not engine brakes (I can't tell what the difference is) , but drivers said they weren't much use for slowing the truck. Go find a pre-egr engine if you can find one.

 

Hey Mattbnr, you might wanna go check out some of those other brand engines and see how many cylinders they have.

 

The engine brake on the mbe has max braking force at 2300 rpm. Don't go higher than 2500.

 

I think my Cat could out pull one of those benz motors if I took out two of the cylinders.

 

I drove a Columbia and a sterling with the Mercedes engine, both seemed very loud compared to the other engines I have driven. I think you ate better of with a an S60, unless you get a smokin deal on Mercedes I wouldn't buy it.

Adam

 

The s60 and the mbe are almost the exact same motor. Mercedes bought Detroit and the 60 became the mbe.