BD69: The Owner Operator Chronicles

I never had the pleasure of the big v8 cats, but i did put a heck of a lot of miles on a 3406b. It wss a great engine, but not miles ahead of cummins or detroits I've owned. Honestly i think the modern inline 6 cats are over rated. Sure they are a good engine, but not as good as everyone likes to say they are. Maybe back in the 70s those v8s were that much better than detroit or cummins...But not since then. An n14 or big cam, or Detroit's 12.7 and 14l series 60 are just as strong as any cat. I think the difference is that the average cat owner will do upgrades than the average cummins or detroit owner. Just as big an improvement can be made with a cummins or Detroit(maybe even more with detroit since they have high power marine application engines out there) its just not as commonly done.

 

Yeah the were good engines ...mine had 980k on it when I sold it and never did anything but maintenance on it ...had all the usual cat oil leaks too lol

 

What do they do get out of a Detroit for horses? I know a bully dog tuner gets you to about 700 or so on a 6nz and that's all it takes. I think a pittsburgh powerbox supposedly gets you 800 out of an e model.

 

You just refuse to stop making costly mistakes. The color of your next engine should be putrid green. Sheesh. Lol

 

How deep is your pocket book? The question isn't what can you get out of it, its what can you afford and what can the tranny and rears handle before they start exploding. They use these engines in tug boats, shrimp boats, and rescue boats. They can build them a lot more powerful than the rest of the truck can handle.

 

Yea see 4500 bucks extra and you've got a 750 horse kitty cat, I can only imagine how well that pulls until you have to back off to not melt it down. If love to put a cam in it and supposedly you can put c16 crank in an e model but I don't know enough about doing that sort of thing to try it.

 

I put a power box on my series 60 glider roughly a year ago. I am extremely aerodynamically challenged due to the nature of my business and run the hills about 50% of my time at 80,000lbs when loaded. I didn’t see any fuel mileage gains, but I wouldn’t sell my power box for any amount. The throttle response is great and it pulls like a team of mules. I have the horsepower when I need it but I still get the fuel economy I want. Most days I am cruising along in 16 at 64 getting passed by nearly everyone until we hit the hill. I leave it on setting 4 which gives me an additional 100 horse on top of roughly 600 with the other upgrades I have. The engine and driveline are not being overworked at this horsepower.

 

At times like this, I really hate apus! Have been in our shop twice today, and now at thermoking. Already have permission to idle truck if needed. Hate wasting that fuel tho, and it ain't even my truck.