Cummins N14 650-700hp build

Discussion in 'Trucks [ Eighteen Wheelers ]' started by killer120, Sep 10, 2017.

  1. killer120

    killer120 Light Load Member

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    If anyone is wondering how to build a cummins n14 up to 700hp heres my trick, boss gave me permission do upgrade our 1998 freightliner fld120 n14 350hp cummins. Took me a while to figure which route I wanted to do for the right price and reliability, talked to PDI diesel they said they don't do much with n14 but the most they could get out of it would be 550 and I thought wow that's it... so the route I decided to go was first with cummins insite and cummins incal, I went and rerated the engine from factory 350hp to factory 525hp, people say oh no the injectors cant handle it lol. well you're wrong they can, at the 350hp setting it was just barreling out black smoke and that shows you its running rich, by going to 525hp I barely got any smoke. just going from 350 to 525 felt like a huge difference but working for another company with fleets of 600hp Volvo's this n14 didn't seem all that great. so I decided to get ahold of bully dog and asked if I could get a heavy duty ecm tuner for a trial, they gave me a 2 week trial, I installed it and programmed it with the performance mode, at first I thought the bully dog wouldn't be all that great I thought it would be ####, but once I got it and installed it and tuned it, that made all the difference in the world right there, the throttle response was more like an x15 than a sluggish n14, I can feel the power pickup all through the torque and power band, I got a lot more low end torque. I convinced my boss to purchase it after having him drive it and see how big of a difference it made, I told him one last thing that would be a big improvement would be water methanol injection, we picked up a snow performance mpg max kit, after installing it the pyro temps dropped almost 200 degrees going uphill at wide open throttle. when that water methanol kicks in there is a definite notice in power. I felt that where it was at would be a good time to take it down and have the engine dyno'd. I know that the n14 blocks will crack once they get past 800hp. I spent a few days getting the engine pulled out with a backhoe, we loaded it up into our gooseneck trailer and hauled it down to caterpillar up in Portland Oregon. the engine made 687hp and 2643lbs of torque at the crank. me and my boss were extremely impressed with what little upgrades we did made such a huge difference in power. next month we plan on taking the truck in to do a dyno and see what kinda numbers we get to the ground. if anyone has a questions or wants to know any other performance upgrades for anything else just let me know, I know tons of ways to make power out of trucks, this was just a cheap and affordable experimental idea I had that turned out with great results
     
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  3. swaan

    swaan Road Train Member

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    Really? Oh geez.

    And you did all this with the stock 350hp turbo?

    No one turns up n14s past 550 because of the known block fretting issue. Those engines had trouble staying together set at 525hp. But hey it's your engine, oops, I mean your bosses engine.....

    Oh and yeah everybody loves water /meth on a truck that works everyday. Might as well pull a extra pup trailer around with a main line going to the engine. Lol
     
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  4. DUNE-T

    DUNE-T Road Train Member

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    Are you guys in trucks racing or something? What kind of work do you do?
     
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  5. snowman_w900

    snowman_w900 Road Train Member

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    Wow, a stock turbo, stock injectors, and a half worn out engine and you are proud that you put a tuner on it and it supposedly made big power? ....ok.

    As @swaan said, the dam thing isn't gonna last very long before a catastrophic event with the crank and block. You have no idea what you are doing. If the truck only had a 350 hp in from the factory, the transmission, clutch and driveline is not rated for the 525 1850 setting from Cummins anyways
     
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  6. Hulld

    Hulld Road Train Member

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    WOW!
    All these reality checks.. didn't see that coming lol
     
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  7. haz-matguru

    haz-matguru Road Train Member

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    Are you entering a tractor pull?
     
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  8. Bakerman

    Bakerman Road Train Member

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    I've had my '01 N14 Celect Plus tuned to 565/1850 from stock 435/1650 and that made one hell of a difference. Getting the same , maybe little better fuel mileage than before.

    I asked my tuner about the fretting, and he said it wouldn't be an issue at this hp.

    My engine is all stock at 1.7mm, and only rolled in rod & main bearings back at 1.4mm.
     
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  9. OLDSKOOLERnWV

    OLDSKOOLERnWV Captain Redbeard

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    Did you change the offset key on the Cam gear?
     
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  10. Brettj3876

    Brettj3876 Road Train Member

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    Thats a radical difference. Prob still has high comp pistons and smaller turbo. Lower comp and bigger turbo will keep the egt down. My dads 1993 mack e7 was a 350 he has the stock driveline with 1 size bigger injectors and a unit that plugs into the p pump to open the rack more. Prob pushing 475-500 and you have to know when to back off or you will not have it long. Its getting inframed this winter lower comp pistons and a larger turbo and sending out the pump to be turned up
     
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  11. benjamin260_6

    benjamin260_6 Medium Load Member

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    What's the before/after boost pressure?
     
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