Truckers, lets see your rigs!

RascalMafia said:
With your experience, who manufactured the best OTR engine and why?
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Cat builds a good mechanically sound engine with the 3406 base structure, I would have liked to see them actually update the fuel system once in the life of the electronic version of the engine, bosch based HPCR would have been nice to see like was used on the Navistar version of the C15.

Other changes that date back to the inception of the 3406 that could have been carried over from the 1693 were things like the 2 3/8" exhasut manifold studs per cylinder when the 1693 use 3 1/2" studs per cylinder, and then going away from the dual overhead cam of that engine when it was way ahead of its time.

The B/C model fuel pump is ridiculously over built, but from a performance and repair standpoint it is awful unless you have deep pockets, a pump cam for example is more money than an engine cam and it isnt over a foot and a half long, a bosch setup like mack used would have been much easier to service and less money in the long run.
 
chevota84 said:
And flowed more fuel.



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Yes, from the performance standpoint this is correct, seeing people give $3600 for a set of aftermarket 13mm barrels and plungers drives that home even more.

People wonder why I built a big cam, and that is why, getting the amount of fuel I have was relatively cheap compared to a B or even an electronic.
 
SmokinCAT said:
Yes, from the performance standpoint this is correct, seeing people give $3600 for a set of aftermarket 13mm barrels and plungers drives that home even more.
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Now who would be that stupid?:hehe: I didn't pay nearly that much for my plasma cutter and it will probably do the same damage.
 
SmokinCAT said:
Cat builds a good mechanically sound engine with the 3406 base structure, I would have liked to see them actually update the fuel system once in the life of the electronic version of the engine, bosch based HPCR would have been nice to see like was used on the Navistar version of the C15.

Other changes that date back to the inception of the 3406 that could have been carried over from the 1693 were things like the 2 3/8" exhasut manifold studs per cylinder when the 1693 use 3 1/2" studs per cylinder, and then going away from the dual overhead cam of that engine when it was way ahead of its time.

The B/C model fuel pump is ridiculously over built, but from a performance and repair standpoint it is awful unless you have deep pockets, a pump cam for example is more money than an engine cam and it isnt over a foot and a half long, a bosch setup like mack used would have been much easier to service and less money in the long run.
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This is my opinion, but it looks like there is pressure at the corporate level to phase out components for non emissions engines.

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biggy238 said:
This is my opinion, but it looks like there is pressure at the corporate level to phase out components for non emissions engines.

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That would be odd to me since I believe they are still selling or offering a few mechanical engines the last I checked.

But in all honesty that wouldn’t surprise me, I only buy gaskets from cat when I open a yellow engine up
 
RascalMafia said:
With your experience, who manufactured the best OTR engine and why?
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I mostly agree with Cody, it seems with Cat the issues they have can be fixed. The S60 Detroit was a very reliable engine but because of the goofy seals and gaskets there was no fixing the leaks. And the myth that the parts are cheap only applies to the external parts, internal is the same if not more than Cat. With the ISX it's loaded with crap designs. The head around the injector tip is paper thin and crack, they break valves as often as a Cat would blow a HG. The wrist pin is way oversized which makes the distance between the pin and the top of the crown thin and they crack. Belt driven water pump is annoying, if my truck breaks a belt I can keep on trucking.

Cummins has one job and that's to build engines. They should be the best at everything and sadly they're not. I mean with Cat they build equipment and sold truck engines just as a side gig. The only Cat issues we had non stop was head gaskets and since we've been o-ringing the heads, filling the groves and lowering compression on the Acert's, (for anything over stock power) those issues have disappeared. Occasionally they will crack a liner flange but that's pretty rare. I don't know how to fix the ISX issues, I mean valves aren't new technology but it's apparently above Cummins ability. And these issues aren't on modified trucks, about 50% are stock so it's obviously a manufacturing issue. Seeing "made in China" on the new Cummins parts doesn't make me feel any better than these issues will be going away soon.
 
SmokinCAT said:
That would be odd to me since I believe they are still selling or offering a few mechanical engines the last I checked.

But in all honesty that wouldn’t surprise me, I only buy gaskets from cat when I open a yellow engine up
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We do, but the parts are more costly and more scarce.

We keep having to pull parts from ridiculous places offshore. I think we got a block from Singapore a couple of months ago. I pulled a cam from Russia last summer.

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biggy238 said:
We do, but the parts are more costly and more scarce.

We keep having to pull parts from ridiculous places offshore. I think we got a block from Singapore a couple of months ago. I pulled a cam from Russia last summer.

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That is not uncommon with any of the big 3 I believe. We ordered a Holset compressor wheel and it came from Singapore, cam I wanted to try was only in Belgium for my 855.
 
jfaulkner said:
I mostly agree with Cody, it seems with Cat the issues they have can be fixed. The S60 Detroit was a very reliable engine but because of the goofy seals and gaskets there was no fixing the leaks. And the myth that the parts are cheap only applies to the external parts, internal is the same if not more than Cat. With the ISX it's loaded with crap designs. The head around the injector tip is paper thin and crack, they break valves as often as a Cat would blow a HG. The wrist pin is way oversized which makes the distance between the pin and the top of the crown thin and they crack. Belt driven water pump is annoying, if my truck breaks a belt I can keep on trucking.

Cummins has one job and that's to build engines. They should be the best at everything and sadly they're not. I mean with Cat they build equipment and sold truck engines just as a side gig. The only Cat issues we had non stop was head gaskets and since we've been o-ringing the heads, filling the groves and lowering compression on the Acert's, (for anything over stock power) those issues have disappeared. Occasionally they will crack a liner flange but that's pretty rare. I don't know how to fix the ISX issues, I mean valves aren't new technology but it's apparently above Cummins ability. And these issues aren't on modified trucks, about 50% are stock so it's obviously a manufacturing issue. Seeing "made in China" on the new Cummins parts doesn't make me feel any better than these issues will be going away soon.
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While I agree with what you said, you have to remember that Cummins is just a fly on CATs shoulder in the grand scheme of things. Cat can (and probably has) sold engines at a financial loss just to keep sales from competitors.

Cummins likes to do cost downs all the time. Like you said, cheapen up the valves until they break, then that engineering team just blames it on the rod bearings going out and there's piston contact LOL
 
Got some cool news. Mike Ryan and his Pikes Peak freightliner are back! He fixed up the truck and will be doing another drifting video soon. Without jumps I hope.

Back in 2016 he had a bad crash on Pikes Peak and his future at the race was uncertain. Turns out it was due to doing a jump in one of the videos. Caused a crack that was missed.

Hopefully he stays safe!
 
JWhite said:
While I agree with what you said, you have to remember that Cummins is just a fly on CATs shoulder in the grand scheme of things. Cat can (and probably has) sold engines at a financial loss just to keep sales from competitors.

Cummins likes to do cost downs all the time. Like you said, cheapen up the valves until they break, then that engineering team just blames it on the rod bearings going out and there's piston contact LOL
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Yeah, because the 855 design isn’t one of the most sold engines all all time...
 
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