Destroking a 14L Detroit Series 60 to 13.3L ?

Can't you achieve better economy by "building" the 14 litre engine instead of changing the displacement?

I'm saying little things add up when it comes to durability and efficiency.
Things like balancing the rotating assembly, (crank, pistons, rods), improving air flow through the engine, using aftermarket manifolds, smoothing the air passages with a grinder, (mild porting), optimized pistons, different camshaft, heat wrap or ceramic coating on the exhaust and etc.

An old friend of mine "built" a DD engine a couple years ago, cost a bit more than a basic rebuild, but he couldn't be happier with the economy or the power.
His year round average to date is only 7.2 mpg, but when you take into consideration he drives a 389, pulls a tri-axle cattle trailer and grosses 105,000 lbs, it's not too bad.

 

This is the way I see it too. Do all the things we know work first then do the experimenting. Sure would suck to do complete rebuild with an experimental parts configuration only to find out mpg went down.

 

I'm kind of in the mindset that 80k+ lbs and fuel economy don't go together. Then again I grew up around tridrives and 6+ axle configurations so fuel economy was never going to be good anyways.

 

It might not be good when compared to tandem dry van but it can be good compared to every other truck doing the same job. There's always room for improvement. I became an owner/operator to maximize profit and part of that is minimizing expenses. i don't think you could pay me enough to make me happy paying $800 at the pumps knowing I could have only paid $750 and kept the other $50.

 

It's TRUE. My ddec4 set at 650rwhp gets a honest 1/2 mpg better then my 2ws cat with about the same power doing the same job.

 

Youll get more money out of a georgia overdrive than a destroking job. Look into hypermiling and pulse and glide driving. Also into making a coroplast undertray. Ecomodder.com

Destroking will change the rod to stroke ratio, which changes the piston velocity pulling away from tdc and rising up from BDC. A long rod/short stroke lingers longer just past tdc and rises faster from bdc.