cfherrman
Senior Member
I bet it takes more than 7 HP a cylinder to turn a 13k HP engine so that might be a net hp figure
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What is the most dependable truck engine of all time?
- Thread starter chidog
- Start date
I bet it takes more than 7 HP a cylinder to turn a 13k HP engine so that might be a net hp figure
kshansen
Senior Member
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2012
- Messages
- 11,270
- Location
- Central New York, USA
- Occupation
- Retired Mechanic in Stone Quarry
Wish we could have convinced people that was the problem with a little 3-53 Detroit they wanted to use just to power the block heaters of a 3412 Cat genset over the weekend in cold weather.
No one seemed to understand that the problem wasn't in the 3-53.
They even tried going with the smallest injectors they could find thinking that the originals were "over fueling" the engine. Not understanding that the governor controlled the amount of fuel based on the RPM of the engine, if RPMs dropped the governor increased the fuel injected and visa-versa.
Had an almost identical problem with another Detroit, this one a 6V-53 in a crane carrier chassis of a drill rig. That drill rig only moved around the quarry from one bore hole to the next so it never really had to work at all. Low speeds in low gear most of the time. Heck a 3-53 would have been underworked moving that rig!
Birken Vogt
Charter Member
I worked on a 60 kw John Deere unit the other day. From the late 1990s so it is old school fuel system. That makes it worse, common rail does better with light load I think. Anyway they had installed 30 kw of electric heaters in the radiator air duct out the building. When lightly loaded, it kicks in some extra load. For some unknown reason they had disabled 2 of 3.
92U 3406
Senior Member
A load bank is, in simple terms, a giant battery tester. Just wheel it over, connect it to the genset and apply however many kilowatts of load you desire.
Load banked many generators. They'd often come off rent being run at 50% or less load. Bigger is better, right?
I've had them shoot fire two feet out the stack, even had a couple catch fire inside the engine compartment due to raw fuel having leaked out the exhaust joints. Even had one so badly wet stacked that the engine would literally not even turn over because the muffler was completely plugged up inside.
Load banked many generators. They'd often come off rent being run at 50% or less load. Bigger is better, right?
I've had them shoot fire two feet out the stack, even had a couple catch fire inside the engine compartment due to raw fuel having leaked out the exhaust joints. Even had one so badly wet stacked that the engine would literally not even turn over because the muffler was completely plugged up inside.
Birken Vogt
Charter Member
This was from the 1990s so a bunch of relays in a cabinet, looked like a custom job. They had a current sensor on one leg going to the actual load, I assume if the real load gets over a certain point it will turn off the load bank. Also a delay for engine warmup. Otherwise it seems to be on at all times but I did not stand there and watch if it switches or not.
kshansen
Senior Member
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2012
- Messages
- 11,270
- Location
- Central New York, USA
- Occupation
- Retired Mechanic in Stone Quarry
The load banks I was around were basically just large electric resistance heaters connected in a way that by flipping various switches you could adjust the load on the generator along with fans to keep the resistance coils/heaters from getting too hot.
Truck Shop
Senior Member
Lets see it was 1979 IIRC. I was almost to Corning Ca. and could see the black smoke whirling thick
straight up from my fuel stop at the old Dudley & Petty truck stop. Fire trucks spraying it trying to
put it out, {early 70's 352 Pete with a Green Stinker. Seems the 40MT stuck and motored , overheating
the cables, which intern caught the nasty oily mess on fire. Apparently the inside of rails along
with most else was covered in caked up engine oil. Burnt that puppy to a frazzle it did along with
the front half of refer and load.
*
It wasn't uncommon to see a sign in the fuel islands stating-{If your driving a Detroit powered truck
please park in the graveled area}.
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Keith Merrell
Well-Known Member
I had a 1986 Freightliner FLC with a Cat 3406B engine with 13 speed trans. I now "upgraded" to a 2003 Freightliner Classic with the 12.7 Series 60 Detroit with 10 speed. I liked the way the old cat made power better, but considering its a smaller engine it really gives the old cat a run for its money. Both great engines. Sadly, some of the mechanical engines are a disadvantage if you have to hire someone to make repairs to it as they wont know where to plug in their computer! Hard to beat the big Cats for power but get ready to pay upfront and when you buys parts. All applications are different, thats like saying "What is the best gun to buy?"
OzDozer
Senior Member
Not surprisingly, we see a LOT of burnt modern trucks today (no particular makes) - but all the fires seem to start from shorts in those massive harnesses carrying huge amounts of wiring to and from the electronics.
Plus, nearly every time some gorilla with a wrench works on them, they rarely clamp the harness back into the position it originally was, nor do they make sure ALL the original harness clamps are in place.
Then you get the problem a friend had with his 5 tonne late-model Hino. The truck engine just stopped whilst driving along the freeway. Luckily, he was close to an exit ramp, so he coasted over to the ramp and parked up and called for a tow.
The truck was in the Hino dealership for THREE days, before they found a major wire to the engine ECU was broken - INSIDE the huge harness that ran underneath the radiator!
Friend remarked the harness had never been hit, removed, or damaged in any way - it could only have been a manufacturing fault in the wire, that saw the wire separate, via a small amount of movement over time. Truck is about 5-6 years old.
The wire that broke was in the centre of a big bunch of about 30 wires.
Plus, nearly every time some gorilla with a wrench works on them, they rarely clamp the harness back into the position it originally was, nor do they make sure ALL the original harness clamps are in place.
Then you get the problem a friend had with his 5 tonne late-model Hino. The truck engine just stopped whilst driving along the freeway. Luckily, he was close to an exit ramp, so he coasted over to the ramp and parked up and called for a tow.
The truck was in the Hino dealership for THREE days, before they found a major wire to the engine ECU was broken - INSIDE the huge harness that ran underneath the radiator!
Friend remarked the harness had never been hit, removed, or damaged in any way - it could only have been a manufacturing fault in the wire, that saw the wire separate, via a small amount of movement over time. Truck is about 5-6 years old.
The wire that broke was in the centre of a big bunch of about 30 wires.
And reason number one that this electronic crap has no place in a modern fire truck engine.
Fires ? What about DPF fires?
Birken Vogt
Charter Member
Most fire trucks had green or silver screamers way into the 1990s.
I didn't like them even back in the day but it was what everybody was used to.
But even in the early 90s they were DDEC full electronic by then. They even had torque rise!
Fire truck manufacturers and fire truck buyers do not care about all this stuff we talk about on here. They don't buy special programmed engines. They buy the cheapest engine that will give them the horsepower number that they want. DPF problems is something for later down the road. By that time the manufacturer and the buyer have handed it off to the station crews and the mechanics. Not their problem any more.
I didn't like them even back in the day but it was what everybody was used to.
But even in the early 90s they were DDEC full electronic by then. They even had torque rise!
Fire truck manufacturers and fire truck buyers do not care about all this stuff we talk about on here. They don't buy special programmed engines. They buy the cheapest engine that will give them the horsepower number that they want. DPF problems is something for later down the road. By that time the manufacturer and the buyer have handed it off to the station crews and the mechanics. Not their problem any more.
Truck Shop
Senior Member
Yep-people out for a walk pass by a burned house and don't even notice it. But they see
large puddles of oil in the street and think must have been a fire around there, why yes
there was a fire Marge look at that house and there was a fire truck parked right here.
large puddles of oil in the street and think must have been a fire around there, why yes
there was a fire Marge look at that house and there was a fire truck parked right here.
petepilot
Senior Member
I have 2 1984 8.2 v8s either one would be ideal candidates for that job
cfherrman
Senior Member
I'm pretty sure fire trucks are the only way international stays in business
Birken Vogt
Charter Member
That has been my thought also, that and school buses and other government agencies where the buyer has no concept of the ongoing cost of maintenance when you buy something from a company that has completely lost their way.
Are they still using internal corporate engines now or did they just throw in the towel and switch to Cummins? Can't remember.
Truck Shop
Senior Member
Now that we are on max force this thread is forced into dire straights.
