newmercman:
shirtbox2003:
Back to Caterpillar,i see they still make road trucks with the CT13 series engine with overhead cam, are these o.k.? : : 
I’ve no experience of them, I’ve also not seen one on a hook or at the side of the road with the hood open, so they can’t be that bad. They are thin in the ground though and mostly used as a tipper, I’ve seen one tractor unit on heavy haul and it had a big load on it, I assumed that it would have a 15litre engine as it was grossing around 100ton if the axle configuration was anything to go by, a 13litre is a bit puny for those kinds of weights.
It’s probably a case of a specific cut off reg year where 3406 and C15 etc are no longer type approved and in which case if anyone wants to use one they have to find something with the right registration date ?.
newmercman:
My company has just built a glider kit Peterbilt with a big CAT, the engine started out as a C15 ACERT, this had all the emission junk on it, but was also different to the pre emission C15 in that the ACERT models had the C16 crankshaft, increasing the cubic capacity from 14,8ltr to 15.2ltr. The engine was also one of the first ACERTs and was a hand built pre production model. In its current form it has had a new custom ECM (ECU) with all of the emission settings removed, it has a different camshaft and the twin turbo set up has been junked in favour of a big single turbo. it hasn’t been on a dyno, but they reckon power output is north of 700hp 
How did this truck work out in the long term Mark?
It had a few issues at first, the liner protrusion was out so it did a head gasket, since then it’s been fine and boy can that thing shift, it’s noisy though, the turbo is really loud, the bloke that drives it uses ear plugs!
Was it a Fitzgerald Glider with a Pittsburgh engine?
No the glider came from Peterbilt and the engine had the bits from Performance Diesel in Utah. A local garage built it for them.
Newmercman, I was also running a 2014 Volvo with a 475hp and auto box usually around the 35ton mark Texas to California on a mixture of hills and long flat open roads. Cruising at 70 - 72mph it would return 7 mpg US gall which equates to 8.4 mpg UK gallon quite an increase on the Petes we had previously which were between 5.5 to 6 US.
Never thought it to be underpowered as it usually passed most other trucks on a hill which looked to be similarly loaded, the only critisism of the Ishift is its programmed to start in 1st gear regardless of weight with no operator overide, presumably Volvo don’t trust drivers to select a higher gear still within the normal parameters of moving off empty or lightly loaded.
Was that a D13 or a D16 Chazzer?
One of mine has ishift and it will pull away in 3rd if it’s light enough, it’ll select 5th bobtail too, I used to drop it down to 3rd bobtail, 5th is too high in my book. It can also be overridden manually, maybe yours was programmed that way to avoid premature clutch wear, a lot of firms disable functions and some lock out the manual facility completely.
They do go well though, the one I have with ishift is a 455hp with 1750 torque, it’s very high geared, but still pulls like a train. The other one is a 500/1750 with a 13spd, it’s not geared so high, but I can’t tell the difference between the two to be honest.
The manual one has a strange setting to it that will be getting removed asap, it won’t go over 1400rpm in 12th, so splitting into top drops it down to 1100rpm and vice versa, that’s OK if you’re light and on the flat, but you can’t downshift early enough on a hill that would only need a split and trying to get into top gear at max weight (63.5tons) into a big headwind is next to impossible, I understand that firms have this set up to stop drivers revving the nuts off the thing trying to get up hills, but I drive this one, so I’ll only use higher rpm when absolutely necessary.
I won’t have any weird anti driver settings on my motors, if a driver needs reigning in then they’re not the kind of driver I want anyway, it’s a bit different for bigger fleets of course, sometimes they have to take what they can get, but with two trucks I can be a little more picky than Swift lol
Is there any difference in fuel economy and driveability between the I shift and the 13 speed?
One thing to remember for anyone who says that American trucks seem to be underpowered compared to European ones is that US trucks are higher geared, my Volvo being an auto box wouldn’t even go into top below 60mph, 4 mph above European speed limiters maximum another stupid rule dreamt up by the burocrats in Brussels. Anyone who has driven a truck at 60 - 70 mph will know that it is easier to stay alert at that speed on motorways than the 56 or less that trucks are limited to now.
Riverstick:
Is there any difference in fuel economy and driveability between the I shift and the 13 speed?
Early days yet, but mpg wise they’re almost identical so far. The pros and cons of manual or ishift, I like the way ishift drops a few cogs when using the engine brake, that is the thing I miss the most, the 13spd is better for shunting, especially when hooking up a set of trailers.
The 13spd has a lot less to go wrong though and although my ishift has been fine so far, you never know…
If I buy another new one I will probably go for ishift. That sums it up really.
Is 475 bhp enough for 63.5 tons?
It’s about the same as an F10 at 38ton, so it’s OK, but no hill stormer.
I run in the prairies which appear flat, until you run at 63.5tons lol
The thing is with the ishift it has a 500000 mile warranty and a 750000 service, should be time to trade it in before that.
That warranty is excellent, but you don’t need a warranty with a Fuller.
Riverstick:
Is 475 bhp enough for 63.5 tons?
The 1,750 torque figure matters more.Which would translate as around twice as much as an old school F12 
for around 1.5 x gross weight increase at 38t.To put that into perspective that type of figure would have taken something like a 600 ■■■■■■■ KTA or preferably N14 to match it.While using all the extra power over 400-450 on a regular basis would just run away with the fuel consumption in any case. 
Is the US version of the D13 urea or egr?
I notice Pittsburgh Power advocating the 12.7 Detroit set at around 650 bhp for US conditions. …especially in a glider kit. As operators on the ground, what do you guys think of that…or would you still prefer the comfort of the Volvo?
Riverstick:
Is the US version of the D13 urea or egr?
I notice Pittsburgh Power advocating the 12.7 Detroit set at around 650 bhp for US conditions. …especially in a glider kit.
If it’s possible to get the right year cut off point in a glider I’d go for the simplicity of the N14 over any of the OHC alternatives.
gliderkits.net/■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■
I’m with Carryfast on that, N14 all the way for me, set at 525/1850 with an 18spd and 3.55 gears, obviously mine would live in a 379 Pete. If I could get one, they’re not allowed to be imported into Canada, I’d have one tomorrow.
The D13s were EGR with a DPF up from the 07 model year when they were introduced, in the 2010 model year they added SCR, so mine have got the full bowl of alphabet soup.
Pittsburgh Power have a bit of a tarnished reputation as far as I’m concerned, they built an engine for a glider and it had serious problems. It was a “Signature” glider, which is promoted by a radio show host whose signature it bears. This had every conceivable thing done to it and it was a proper hound, it had to be opened up pretty soon and it all the water galleries were full of rust, many of the upgraded parts it was supposed to have appeared to be absent and they never stood behind it, even though it was heavily promoted on the radio show!
Bruce Mallinson of PP has long been an advocate of removing all the emission settings in the ECU and junking VGTs, EGR and DPF, however now the EPA are on to them he’s changed his tune completely and says that spending a fortune at PP to tune up the emission systems is the better option, him and his pal on the radio are just snake oil salesmen in my opinion.