Has anyone here restored an old Tractor?

359 never came as a exhd with the big cam cummins a big cam cummins would have gotten a short hood from the factory. so if you see one with a exhd and a big cam cummins either the cummins was swapped in or it was converted to a exhd.

this is my 359 with a big cam 3 400 short hood





on the 359 unlike the 379 the extended hood was only available to accommodate certain engine options. the big cam 400's got a short hood.

 

Nice truck. Do you have any experience with Pittsburgh Power's parts for the Big Cam 400? Talking about upgrading the fuel delivery system, upgrading to Teflon ceramic coated pistons, etc. I've been reading their book on building a high performance Cummins.

 

I think it would be fun to fix up an old cabover, then put an RV body on the back. Wife would love that project...I'm serious. She loves RV camping.

 

Something like this? I was going to do that to my '85 Pete daycab, but ran out of steam.
Classic RV Motorhome | Vehicles, Cool rvs, Motorhome

 

A lot of people have different opinions about Bruce but I think we all agree that his parts are very very very expensive.

It really depends what kind of horsepower you are looking for and what you are willing to do. The formula for it really is not that difficult. You really don't have to buy the parts from him if you do not want to.

It depends how much power you are looking for. The fixed time engines are more limited to what you can do.

But whatever you do don't just turn the fuel up.

 

[QUOTE="Dino soar, post: 10475804, member:

But whatever you do don't just turn the fuel up.[/QUOTE]For what it's worth, I second this.

 

Thanks for the insight. I don't really know of anybody around me that knows the old Cummins engine as well as they claim they do so I never really looked around past that. We got a diesel shop in town that literally every construction company in the region sends their equipment to for work but I don't think they specialize in high performance building and custom tuning and things like that. I know they swapped my buddies dump truck engine out and changed the cooling system and he loved their work.

I'm looking for at least 600hp. I plan on sticking to the southeast maybe over to Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, etc. Plan on buying a step-deck to haul equipment maybe upgrade to a RGN in the future for larger equipment. Of course however I will haul anything that makes money. I never plan to see I-80 or the northeast ever again. FedEx has ruined I-80 governed out at 66 passing trucks going 65 then cutting them off forcing them to slow down, slowing the whole road up. I may consider a 3406B or a N14

 

This is one of if not the best restoration I have ever seen and one of the best trucks to do.

 

If you are looking for that kind of horse power then the mechanical n14 would be my choice.

 

I have been doing a lot of online research and it seems like as far as manufactures go, CAT seems to support their older engine models a lot more than Cummins and Detroit do. On the contrary they are also much more expensive. But in terms of afterrmarket high performance kits they all seem to be about the same price range.

Do you have any experience in acquiring parts for a mechanical N14?