Mack Mp8

Ive enjoyed a variety of Macks from the early 60's most particularly through the later 90's daycabs, particularly the one with the 350 in it against a mack 9 speed short gear for Altoona PA on ice upgrade and down. It was a mountain goat with a 80000 pound flatbed constantly.

I did a google search and chose this article to read.

It seems that it's unlimited in it's ability to pull on every gear. Most engines try to not do any work for fuel mileage. This one appears to be 500+ horses and 1850 torque you can have on hand all day long in any gear depending on where you are on the RPM gauge.

I would not mind giving this one a go. But currently my personal favorite for heavy haul is a Freightliner SD122 with the biggest engine in horse and torque I can get. Preferably above 600 HP and 1900 torque plus a 13 speed under drive and a final ration no bigger than say 3.80 and it has to be ungoverned. Essentially unlimited, 400 gallons of fuel in two tanks. Or two tanks of 320 plus a tank of 100 for the APU that will run constantly when need to instead of that constant stop, restart lurching optiidle BS that will wake you up so many times at night.

Am I too much?

I like that mack you present. I'll give it a go. But I would be very careful if it was my own money on the block for it. I'll be looking at the SD122.

The Mack Pinnacle with MP8 505C+ engine - Truck News

 

New or used?

 

The MP8C, MP8A, MP8SE, or MP8HE, loos like they got rid of the MP8TC or Turbo Compounding is standard now...
Whatever the difference is it's a big secret or they can't be bothered to put it on their website or brochure. Need to talk with a salesman? :/

 

Used is a toss up, too many "it depends".
I bought new, and so far no issues. It has the 505 MP8.

 

Just be aware they are known for having injector issues. Even the new common rail design that came out last year might not of fixed the issue. Still too early to tell. Other then that I loved my Mack. I still miss it even with all the issues I had.

 

Depending on where in the country you're looking at $5,000-6,000 for injectors installed. (that includes cups since they sell injectors in a 6 pack). Personally I liked the older conical cups over the newer style. I had a brand new set go bad 7 months after doing them. Found out the head was bad also, so they covered the injectors under warranty. 3 months after a new head and overhaul, injectors started going bad again. Or at least 1-2 injectors started going bad, but I would need to buy all 6. Other then injectors, they're good solid trucks.

 

Company I work for currently has mostly Mack Pinnacles with the MP8, 10sp manual. We run a lot of dirt roads, farm roads, etc and we're paid by the load.. so we're not cuttin em any slack. I've been here just over 2 years and the oldest trucks we have are 3-4y/o with around 500k on em. Slip seat, 24 hr operation 5 &6 days/wk.

The Macks are solid for tough work. I've driven Petes and KW's in the oilfield that were about equal in dependability. Petes and KWs may have a few more creature comforts but I like the Mack too.

One thing is for sure, we don't have a terrible amount of emissions related problems with the MP8. The co. brought in some IH's with ISX Cummins. Just a guess, but my guess the Cummins have 10 times the emisions problems as our MP8s. They handed me the keys to a brand new Pinnacle just a couple months after hiring on and it just topped 300k in 2 yrs. Its been an awesome truck, still tight and solid for the most part and we run em hard and rough.

And... worth mentioning. We have 1 Mack with the Mdrive transmission and all of those IHs came with ultrashifts. There is no comparison. That Mdrive is awesome!

So, if I were looking at trucks for OTR, light duty work, I would be looking at FL and Volvos for their engines and fuel mileage. Off road, rougher work.. I have no problem recommending Mack because they do have an awesome emissions compliant engine with lots of low end torque and the availability of an awesome auto transmission.

My truck did have 1 injector issue at around 100k, but none since. I don't recall a lot of injector stories coming from the shop either so I'm not sure the injectors are a common problem. I mean, my company owns a LOT of Macks.. I should have heard about it.

One thing I will knock our Macks for is fuel Mileage. We are empty 50% of the time and 5mpg is about top. We do run a pto for about 20-30 minutes on 2-3 hr loads and I've never looked or asked about gearing specs or anything. 5mpg just seems awful to me for what we do.