Fitzgerald 60 series Detroit 12.7

My Detroit factory reman 12.7 500 hp DDEC IV in my glider now has 625,000 miles on the reman. Great motor. Uses about 2 qts of oil in 25,000 miles. Oil sample results some of the best I have seen with any Class 8 engine. And it has averaged about 7.93 mpg. Only issue is that it has eaten a exhaust manifold bolt a couple of times. But it is one money maker of an engine.

Harrison Freightliner, where I got my glider put together, only used Detroit factory reman crate engines and Eaton factory reman transmissions. Harrison build virtually the same number of gliders as Fitz, except Harrison has an exclusive with doing Cascadia gliders.

 

What types of problems Sublime? It sounds like you had real issues, but with what and what set-up? Only ask because I have talked to plenty of guys running their 389, Detroit, 13/18 eaton, 3:55 rears, 24.5 low pro, 290 WB. They have been super happy. But if you bought 10 of them, then your talking over a million dollars in equipment, if you bought good ones. What went down?

 

I'd also be curious to hear about your problems with the Fitz gliders Sublime. I Have a 2014 Coronado with a reman Series 60 I purchased new from Harrisons in Iowa has 335,000mi on it now with only issue being a small oil leak on the rear cam cover at 30,000mi was resealed and fine since. Will be replacing the tractor in the 1st quarter of 2017 and was toying with the idea of a 389 from Fitz this time. Might be interested in an reman N14 this time too but haven't researched or heard anything about this set up from anyone yet.

 

how so

 

I have a 389 from Fitz and it is having issues at 100k miles. Blows blue/white smoke at startup or after idling at night when it's cold. It bucks and snorts for at least an hour if I do a cold start. My last oil sample was high on lead and potassium.

I am waiting to hear back from my mechanic and Fitzgerald on what they are going to cover. I am sure the the engine will need tore down and injectors replaced.

 

Sorry for the late reply, was trucking all weekend. The first problem isn't Fitz per se, but these rolling gliders we bought from Kenworth apparently have remanned rearends in them, so far two out of ten front diffs have gone out in less than 300k miles. We typically never have to do anything with rears on our KWs.

We went with, got talked into is more like it, Fitz/Clarke rebuilt engines. So far we've had to have 2 fully rebuilt, another one went back to Fitz for engine work. Another truck has seen 4 injectors go bad. We're getting quite good at replacing exhaust manifold studs, apparently a common issue. A couple water pumps, a couple air compressors, a couple turbos!(Wtf?)

These T660s are just shy of two years old and the highest mileage one has 321k on it.

At startup they all smoke and rattle like they're going to come apart and definitely need to be plugged in below 40 degrees.

On the other hand they are averaging about 8mpg.

Compare that to an equal number of T680s with ISX15s we bought in the same time frame as the Fitz trucks and they've been trouble-free. Obviously emission engines let you down later in their life but the Fitz trucks were sold as a way to avoid those hassles. They just brought new hassles earlier into the ownership window when a guy thinks he can run the piss out of a new truck.

Obviously other's experiences can and will be different. This is our experience. But, we know of a local bull hauler who's bought a few and have issues and another local tanker outfit that cancelled a fairly large additional order when they started having issues.

 

My company's Cascadias all have ISX15's and they get slip seated and ran the crap out of. The trucks themselves aren't the greatest but don't think there have been any engine troubles at all at ~250k

I guess I'll scratch Fitzgerald off the list of potential places to buy in the future. If I'm dropping big bucks on a rig it's going to have to be new-new everything.

 

I got same issues. all new injectors still rough . Theres a thread in here from alan5oh that has some insight on smoke issue basically he check cam timing it was out of factory spec . He also went into ecm and set up BOI(begining of injection ) it should be activated for cold starts check that and check to make sure you air intake sensor(located on intake side by cylinder 4) is reading temps at start up why your in the ecm. Air intake should read cold temps to adv timing for easier cold starts and to eliminate fuel knock.Read the thread Bubbles in davco fuel filter you see it there.

 

Unfortunately the warranty process was no help with these issues you list when the trucks were new.

#1 point for us is the majority of these issues should not have happened and to sell these trucks as being less troublesome than new emissions trucks is pure BS.

 

Could be reman parts in the engine. Most reman engines have reman injectors, reman cylinder head, reman rock arms. is it that hard for them put every brand new part inside the engine itself.