Fuel Tips

Pulling mt. eagle my n14 will cycle between 200-210 pulling hard always has, it was a ryder truck and thats the way they had it setup. I cant complain about it, its been a good truck I could give it away and wouldnt be out anything its paid for itself many times over.

 

ya I was told by an "old hand" that last 5 degrees would make a considerable difference in the fuel mileage on my big cam.

WTM If the milage is down on the cummins I'd say it's a heavy footed driver banging every gear for all it's worth.
the detroits are fuel squeezers no doubt. THey can be a bit finicky but so can the cummins. I'v ehad good luck with the few detroits the old man had but we maintained them very meticulasly. We got a million miles out of them but that appears to be kinda rare in detroits. One thing to watch out on them is the alternator mounts to the AC compressor bracket and the adjuster bolt wollers out the bolt in the front cover. it will start loosing belts and constantly needing adjustment. it's a big pain in the rear. every time you look at the truck make sure it is all tight because once it wallers out the cover the only way to fix it is to replace the front cover of the motor and it's not cheap

 

N14 is probably the best motor cummins ever built. SOme of them seem to have injector issues and of course most every cummins has head gasket problems but all in all they are good motors. of course you always hear about the bad ones though

 

I just had to fix that same problem on that n14 with the alternater bracket but it didnt hurt the anything just broke the bolt off in the block and wallered out the bracket. I keep them both up the best I can that difference in fuel milage is big I know the detroit is getting better milage but I think its going to be in the seven range but 1.5-2.0mpg is big over a years time and I am in it for the money.lol I could care less about cat,cummins or detroit the one that puts the most money in my pocket is the one for me.

 

well you have to take into account repair and upkeep costs when you figure out that ever important money in pocket figure too.
this cummins I have, granted it's an old mechanical. I can fix for near free. but it seems like i'm always working on the thing. And that factors into it for me too. i'm on the road for a wek I want to be with my family when I get home not working on a motor. We ran almost exclusivly cats and we did becasue of one reason.... they almost never broke down! no down time, no missed appointments etc. Now when they did break down they cost more then the cummins but it still worked out in the end. Back then fuel was not such a big concern though (we are talking the days of mechanical motors here) we had a few of the first series 60 detroits in the early 90s. and we had decent luck with them. drivers liked them because they outran the mechanical motors and we liked them because they got better fuel milage. Now when the other manufacturers came out with the electronics they pretty much all outdid detroit in the power catagory but they still get the best fuel milage. there is a reason they are in 95% of fleet trucks.
I've never had problems with the big green motors, I'd take one before a cummins that's for sure. I've been trying to think of how much it will cost me to put one in my old pete

 

My thoughts exactly. If a 65' Hayes made me the most $$$ I'd be looking for one right now...

 

I take it all in to account but that takes alot of time and I havent got that far with this detroit as of now im liking it. As for the cummins theres no doubt its a good motor and the same goes for the 3406 cat. I have seen alot of cummins run a millon or more and ive seen some that didnt make it that far so far mines been good to me it did blow a head gasket when ryder had it just before I got it and wiped out a couple of cylinders at 700,000 and they went ahead and inframed all 6 holes since then its just had regular maintence from me I did have to replace a leaking return fuel line on it awhile back but other then that its been good to go it leaks a little oil around the followers but not enough to bother me. I hope this detroit is as good to me as that cummins has been. I just do regular maintence on them and oil samples everytime and try to keep enough cash to rebuild them if I have to at anytime. I have a old bigcam out here in the yard too I use to run around local with.

 

Well I look at it like this when I book a load they never say "well since u have that nice pete with that big cat ill give u a little more" lol Did u ever find u a trailer waldo?

 

that definatly sounds like one of the keepers then.


Don't get me started on the big cam...... not one of my finer decisions

 

mm I can help with what u have in ur other post about a owner op.