Yes, I’ve listened to Kevin Rutherford a few times and found him very informative. I’ve read 100s of Bruce’s articles and find him very open about sharing his technology.
He certainly seems to know his way around a ■■■■■■■■ I suppose he has no other choice these days but to comply with the EPA as otherwise he’s out of business
Very surprised to hear about the Signature Engine. …Was it a one off or was it widespread? I thought they were advocating Evans Waterless Coolant in these engines?
I’ve met them both, I liked them too and both have given great advice over the years. Bruce is a legend in the ■■■■■■■ world, however his reputation has been tarnished by the signature truck fiasco and since then a few more people have popped up with similar bad experiences.
The show became an infomercial, the only products and methods that were featured were those of the ‘partner’ companies. KR was clear that he was on their payroll, but even so it was a 3hr sales pitch.
I don’t think PP are fans of Evans, I know they don’t like the extended drain intervals from bypass oil filtration, Bruce was quite vocal about oil with more than 60ppm of iron being a grinding paste, yet KR reckons 10ppm per 10,000miles is OK, so an engine with 300,000miles on its oil could have 300ppm of iron, so there’s a bit of a conflict between them on some things.
Another thing they’re all over is really tall gearing behind a double overdrive gearbox and running in direct (11th in a 13spd) but I’m with the manufacturers on this one, if you run direct top and say 2.47 gears then you need a beefier drive train for one and lower ratio gears through the box to avoid gradeability issues, running in direct only saves a few percent over running in overdrive and clutch and driveline components wearing or failing prematurely will soon cost you more than you save.
Very interesting and thanks for the perspective.
Yes, I am dubious about the tall gearing and running in direct, although I do prefer the older Scanias with a direct drive top gear.
Are guys really running 300,000 mile oil changes? Difficult to imagine the oil being good after that much work. Is oil analysis still the best way to go and if so what is the average change interval. …in your experience?
It all depends on the engine, a pre emission CAT, ■■■■■■■ or Detroit with no problems could easily get that kind of mileage from oil with a decent bypass filter. With EGR that would be hard to achieve, the increased soot alone will soon overcome the oil. Most people using the bypass filters seem to change their oil annually from what I’ve seen.
I like direct gearing too, my 670 has direct top with 2.47 gears, it will do 80mph and still be in the green band, although it’s limited to 60mph and the policy of the company I pull for is 100km/h max and they pay a bonus for that too, so that’s the speed it runs at.
A friend has a D13 with the XE package, that’s a single overdrive with, I think, 2.93 gears, at 62mph it’s turning 1050rpm. For contrast my 670 runs 1260rpm at the same speed.