Swapping Detroit for CAT or Cummins

Wiring harness. Possibly engine mounts.

 

Be a lot cheaper to make a few tweaks to the Detroit if power is what you want. I've got one that started as a 430/470, injectors, turbo, ecm set to 500. Less then 2k for that stuff and will walk away from a stock 475 cat. A friends strong 550 e model will out pull me still but not by much. I think a cam and hotter tune would be the difference. And I get 6.0 to 6.25 loaded at 70 he gets 5.5

 

Wanna save money? Like catwrench said. Stay with the 12.7 and get ur tweaked. You need it. If you wanna some spend more $, then spend it on 3406e with possibly different mounts and new wiring harness.

 

It is hardly ever worth it. Not cost effective. You will need all new intake piping along with rad hose plumbing. Motor mounts and frame brackets will not be the same. Then you will need to find the proper wiring for the cab and in between.

 

It's one of those "anything can be done as long as you've got lots of money/time" type jobs. You're better off, as already mentioned, to just do some work to get that detroit working the way you want. They're cheaper to buy parts for, usually get better fuel mileage and you can get all kinds of power out of them

 

Someone was telling me today they had plans to pull their 12.7 and drop a 14L dd60 in. One, I didn't even know Detroit made a non-egr 14L dd60 and two he was certain the engine would drop in smooth with no harness change.

Thoughts?

 

Same block so should slide right in. Not readout worth it tho, at least i don't think so. And ya, they made a non egr 14L. Not common, but they are out there.

 

Detroit officially released the 14L engines in '01 although there are a few in '00 model trucks and they were available up to '03. They were DDEC IV and rated at 500, 550 and, exclusive to Freightliner trucks, 575hp all at 1850 torque. The blocks for the 11.1, 12.7 and 14 engines are all the same basic block. The 14L cranks will go into a 12.7 to make a 13.4L engine. I don't know if the liners are interchange as I've been told yes and no by 2 different sources and I don't have a 12.7 liner to check for myself

 

Unless the engine in the truck is blown, I'd leave it alone. The 12.7 Detroit is nothing to be afraid of.