Which old engines??

Back in the late 80s- mid 90s. Pulling a dry van. The KW T600, with a 12.7 Detroit seemed to get the best mpg, 7.5, up to 8. A little better than the FLDs with a fairing or condo, about 6.8-7.3. Fleet favorites, the 430/470 got the best mpgs. 430 with pedal, 470 with cruise. They had about as much power as the later 500. The early electronic engines were the first idiot proof engines. 430/470 encouraged using the new electronic cruise control. Even though you could beat the cruise, for fuel economy, if driven right. Cabover International’s and Freightliners with 11.1 Detroit Bus engines did even better. Many fleets had them set at 325 h.p. and 62 mph. when up to 365 was available. I’ve ran them all week and idled 3 days and still got just over 7 mpg. Pretty amazing. The 425 Cat B or C mechanical was the best for power and drivability. 5.2 mpg loaded or empty because of the excellent torque I imagine. I could get 6 from mine, sometimes a bit more, if I really babied it. That’s no fun. Had to really work hard at keeping your foot out of it. When the E model 435 Cat came out, it proved to be the best of both worlds. Better than the B and C models, that suggested rod bearings at 250k, and 500k I believe. The E could easily go over 1 million, and often with little problems. The 435 h.p. rating would out pull the higher rated Detroit. Detroit suffers from about 200 ft lbs. less torque. N14 proved to be a million mile engine, that could get sometimes get better power and Fuel economy than the Detroit 12.7. I like the 12.7’s best myself. Not the most powerful, but the most reliable. Just keeps on ticking, like a slant 6. Lol.

 

2000 or earlier is where the e-log exemption starts, and they’ll be speed limiter exempt for the same reason. Mind you, if you people let that speed limiter thing happen it’s over. I’ve already seen what speed limiters and e-logs did here, and you people can’t even imagine the magnitude of the ####show you have coming.

 

Excellent synopsis of Truck engines from the '90's....!!!

 

Ain’t but 1....B model CAT

 

A 3406 at 350hp had a 200ft/lb advantage on a BC1 400 or an 8V92. Even a 325hp would keep anything but a KT or 12V71 in sight.

 

The one I wanted back then was the Cummins Signature 600 hp. They really had some power, right out of the box.Some overheating issues at first. The 4.5 mpg reports I got from Owners, changed my mind quick. The look of the engine bay, with all the wires tucked away was so clean and simple. I guess the wires later got brittle also. Causing problems. Still like to have one. It was the winner of the HP race at the time. 1998 maybe? Before the big Cat.

 

The late B and early C is where they changed the rod bearing on 3406. From there all the way up to the Acert C-15 use the same bottom end bearings. The newer cranks will go right in the narrow journal blocks as well. Even the Acert, C-16 and C-18 though you have to use entire rotating assemblies there. And have the pistons machined in the bowl area if you really want it to work. I will admit CATS are finicky I mean there is a hundred combos to get 425. And ear balling the timing will not be as good as a meter. Once a year get the timing advance and govnor section redone with the correct parts, use correct injectors that match your bowls, and pump cam. Set the time to high side of OT spec for that specific engine and I promise you you’ll be a believer. Less than a grand on that tune up. Driven right they will get better economy than most will give credit for. But most have never ran one set up right. Their right is advance em all a half a hole or 3/4 whatever and they are all different. Even in specific serial number ranges. Don’t lug them, they are not designed to run along at 1300. I get 5 most weeks pulling a bull wagon through Kansas and Nebraska in that god forsaken wind. Without runnin full bore. However they are not for everyone nor idiot proof

 

My buddy has a Signature and a couple of CM870s. See them side by side with the hood up that Signature sure looks naked. He did get into the wiring issue a few years ago. Both brittle conductors and compromised insulation. Every wire on that engine has been changed.

 

Geezuz, how much manifold do you have to have on it to keep that drag chute of a trailer moving? My trains at 140,000 will do 4.5-4.7mpg in the wind out on the grass. The B and C both run 1600-1700rpm at cruise and if you’re careful you can usually keep them moving with 16-18psi on them. They usually run 5.5-5.7mpg avg. Going west out of Winnipeg in the breeze you’ll have them blown up over 20 a good part of the time, that’s where the 4.5-4.7 comes from.

 

This is true but in the end the caterpillar is just so much more expensive that it's mind-boggling.

I'm not knocking the caterpillar, they are good engines.

But when you consider overall what the price of parts are let alone having someone work on it, the big cam just wins hands down. It is a very simple, reliable, easy to work on inexpensive engine.

The big cam in an fld120 with no fairings and no wind deflector like a brick in the wind my last IFTA report was 6 miles to the gallon. Not bad at all for a 10-speed truck that does not have low resistance tires or fairings. If I had all of that and a 13-speed I would be 6.5 to 7 + easily.

And just as a side note, if the caterpillar is what you like that's okay. But to me, the idea is you go into business with something dependable and reliable that will cost you the least amount of money and that will keep working and make you the most amount of money.

So not to be funny but when I see a guy buy a Peterbilt and they spend $200,000 on it and then they have to spend another 50,000 to rebuild the engine because it's a caterpillar and they spend another 10- 15,000 to buy a hood (yes I did see a post on Facebook where they were discussing the cost of Peterbilt hoods and apparently a new Peterbilt hood is $21,000 and aftermarket one is $17,000 and if you can find a steal maybe you can find one for 13-14 $15,000 or whatever it is) it just kind of makes me scratch my head and say okay, is the broker paying you any more because you have a Peterbilt with a caterpillar?

The answer is no, so you basically just have a lot more cost involved which from a business point of view doesn't make much sense at all.

Now if that's what you like that's your business. It isn't the people that know what they like it's the idiots that listen to the idiots at the lunch counter that are idiotic enough to go out and blow a fortune on something idiotic because they heard some idiot say it was something good.

And in all seriousness you can't tell me there aren't people out there that were convinced they had to have the big Pete with the big cat with all the chicken lights and Chrome or I'm not looking at it... but ended up going out of business because their costs were just too high and they couldn't handle it.

Maybe if they used their brain instead of listening to the idiots they would have done better with a regular truck.

And the funny thing about that is that when you see a guy go into the trucking business and then you see him buy a new pickup truck and a motorcycle and a boat and he's buying his wife diamonds we all know that guy is headed for the crapper.

But when I see the guy with the big Pete with the big cat with the Chrome and the chicken lights I shake my head because to me that's the same guy that's blowing money on the pickup truck and the motorcycles and the wife and the whole thing.

Blowing money needlessly because some idiot told you that's what you should do honestly is pretty stupid and in the end when you do your accounting blowing money is just blowing money. Whether you blew it on a way overpriced truck that everything for that truck is outrageously expensive with an incredibly expensive engine to repair, or whether you blew it on motorcycles or your wife you still excessively blew the money.

In this day and age of outrageous fuel prices and unprecedented inflation and low rates it just makes me shake my head.

But I'm sure as soon as I leave this thread there will be another one that pops up, hey I found a big pete with the big cat it's only $250,000 I want to go in business...

Ok....