Why was this big-capacity 14-litre straight-six diesel engine design so brilliant? Through all its stages of development: natural aspiration, turbo-charging, small-cam, big-cam, low torque at high revs, high torque at low revs - etc, etc etc, - this astonishingly robust engine design has to be one of the most iconic ever produced. From my brief research of this engine whilst putting together my book about the ERF NGC ‘Europeans’, I discovered that the installation of ■■■■■■■ NTC 335s in mid-1970s trans-continental ERFs proved to be highly durable, trouble-free, strong and resilient engines.
History appears to be on the side of this particular power plant. Can anyone add or subtract from this?
Robert
robert1952:
Why was this big-capacity 14-litre straight-six diesel engine design so brilliant? Through all its stages of development: natural aspiration, turbo-charging, small-cam, big-cam, low torque at high revs, high torque at low revs - etc, etc etc, - this astonishingly robust engine design has to be one of the most iconic ever produced. From my brief research of this engine whilst putting together my book about the ERF NGC ‘Europeans’, I discovered that the installation of ■■■■■■■ NTC 335s in mid-1970s trans-continental ERFs proved to be highly durable, trouble-free, strong and resilient engines.
History appears to be on the side of this particular power plant. Can anyone add or subtract from this?
Robert
Unlike AEC’s designs it had the right stroke measurement to maximise its torque potential and obviously loads of stress redundancy built in either by accident or design at the design stage. 
■■■■■■■ have only ever built Diesel engines. Their whole existence depends on a good product; they could not afford to get it wrong. As an engine vendor, they also could just concentrate r&d on one thing unlike Cat, Mack, MB, Rolls Royce and others.
in 1979 i was the proud driver of a new foden with the 290 big cam ■■■■■■■ . that lorry was double shifted 24/7 for most of its life , hammered and abused by the part timers who thought revs = power , service was patchy at best , but that engine just went on and on . it was renowned in our area as nothing could out pull it . i can’t think of another type of engine that would stand the abuse and give such sterling service , the only downtime was the update of the lorry to 38 tons , exchange pump at that stage and new injectors and it pulled as well as ever . it was finally sold of , not because of the engine , but because the lorry was knackered . dave
Certainly a successful engine, though personally I wasn’t a ‘fan’ of them but then I never had one as a daily driver. The ones in our Foden dumper’s were blooming noisy but did give good service, we had a couple in Foden road lorries which I drove very occasionally and I suppose I just didn’t get used to the engine revs taking an age to die down between gearchanges whereas the Rolls, ■■■■■■■ L10’s and Gardner’s dropped off as soon as the throttle was released? The 14 litres just seemed to keep roaring away, the regular drivers had no problems it seems! Fuel consumption was heavy compared to the Gardner 6LXB’s though, around 4-5 mpg wasn’t good for a 30 tonne eight legger! I think that in the six years we ran them they were only rebuilt once which was the same as the Rolls/Gardners. Not knocking them though, their reputation is excellent Worldwide.
Pete.
robert1952:
Why was this big-capacity 14-litre straight-six diesel engine design so brilliant? Through all its stages of development: natural aspiration, turbo-charging, small-cam, big-cam, low torque at high revs, high torque at low revs - etc, etc etc, - this astonishingly robust engine design has to be one of the most iconic ever produced. From my brief research of this engine whilst putting together my book about the ERF NGC ‘Europeans’, I discovered that the installation of ■■■■■■■ NTC 335s in mid-1970s trans-continental ERFs proved to be highly durable, trouble-free, strong and resilient engines.
History appears to be on the side of this particular power plant. Can anyone add or subtract from this?
Robert
It is just one successful engine. Its period of history contains several engines which, for a variety of reasons, stood out from the rest, sold very well and remained in production for an abnormal length of time:
Gardner LX series
Leyland 680/ DAf DK1160
Mercedes OM400
Scania DS14
Detroit 71 series
Mack Maxidyne
The ■■■■■■■ 14 litre certainly belongs in that group, but why did it stand out from the other 6 cylinder engines of about that size- Volvo TD120, Caterpillar 3406, for example? I would guess that it was a little bit more reliable than the Cat (was it?), and was sold in more markets than the Volvo (USA). Its success may be due to little more than good marketing and a slight advantage in detail development.
This motor had E320 ■■■■■■■ 14 litre and would outpull most other motors around in it’s day (easily overtook a 141 Scania going up Windy Hill loaded to 38 tonnes!), it did around 8mpg when working.
We ran loads of them in Roadtrains, Sed Ak’s, ERF and Guy’s, some must have done a million miles and only had new injectors, they pulled like nothing else, the only downside was the fuel consumption, they were heavier than most.
Best engine ever in my opinion !
My favourite lorry engine of all.
Needed regular servicing plus keep the injectors torqued down and they’d go on for ever and a day.
I had unblown 220’s and 250’s, a standard 290 then a big cam E290, then my last one was a E320 in a ridiculously high geared twin steer Sed Ack 401…incidentally the best all round lorry i ever had and i’d be happier to still be at the wheel of it now than in this modern automated tat.
That 320 had a set of test injectors fitted at Vee and Inline Diesels Daventry when it was still their demo which i reckon upped it to 350, it would pull effortlessly from tickover and cruise all day at 70mph @ 1100 rpm (my mate had an identical wtin steer 401 without the injector conversion and it wasn’t torquey nor as good on fuel), very good on fuel (as good as now without an ECU to its name), romped up hills, mated to an 8 speed Roadranger you didn’t need any more gears as the engine would lug down to silly revs and still outpull almost anything else on the road…where it scored over modern strangled vehicles (and the usually smaller capacity foreign engines) is that it would regain cruising speed so quickly, pulling away from junctions was a doddle and resuming speed after roundabouts on the A1 etc would see good journey times compared to the competition of the time which relied on 12/16 speed boxes given the tiny power band of their typically small but heavily blown engines.
Icing on the cake was the Jake brake fitted which virtually removed the need to brake anywhere, large capacity means good engine braking too.
The old saying about no replacement for displacement is as valid now as ever, that ■■■■■■■ and others like it were proof.
When we as a family meet, we often have nostalgia discussions about modern lorries compared to older designs of that peak period 80’s/90’s, we reckon you need about 500 modern horses to give you as much useful and useable power at the wheels as you’d get from a 320/350 14 litre ■■■■■■■■
Thank you all for your thoughtful and positive comments! I was fortunate enough to have driven the following models which had the 14-litre ■■■■■■■ in:
ERF B-series
ERF C-series
ERF E-series
Seddon-Atkinson 400
Foden S106
Ford Transcontinental.
Robert
The chap that was in charge at Vee & In-line at Georges Garage, Rugby, was acknowledged to be the best ■■■■■■■ technician in the UK,I can’t just recall his name at the moment (Denis Kulak ■■?) he may have been Canadian,I remember sending a couple of our 220’s into him in the early 70’s and he sure tuned them up ! Cheers Bewick.
My favourite engine ,only thing that lets them down is the big cam shafts lobes / rollers breaking up and going in to the oil pump ,although detectable to a regular driver before it gets that bad .
Juddian:
When we as a family meet, we often have nostalgia discussions about modern lorries compared to older designs of that peak period 80’s/90’s, we reckon you need about 500 modern horses to give you as much useful and useable power at the wheels as you’d get from a 320/350 14 litre ■■■■■■■■
To be fair the combination of the ‘right’ capacity and a decent amount of turbocharging and after cooling and crucially un restrained by speed limiters is always going to be a tough act to follow.In this case it would be fair to say that anything below a 400 hp N series was just a de rated peak but still had most,if not all,of the average available across the rest of the range.Which translated even in the day as needing something special to match it.Usually involving more capacity and at least two more cylinders.
Bewick:
The chap that was in charge at Vee & In-line at Georges Garage, Rugby, was acknowledged to be the best ■■■■■■■ technician in the UK,I can’t just recall his name at the moment (Denis Kulak ■■?) he may have been Canadian,I remember sending a couple of our 220’s into him in the early 70’s and he sure tuned them up ! Cheers Bewick.
I never met him that i’m aware of, they asked me at V&I to monitor fuel use so i often wondered if that vehicle was one of the test beds for upping to 350+ when the time came.
Whoever did the work the engine and vehicle was superb in every way.
What hasn’t been mentioned is just how quiet a good 14 litre blown ■■■■■■■ was, you could drive it on the whistle note the blower was giving out, the only other engine i’ve ever had that could be driven on turbo whine as accurately as that was a mid 90’s Landcruiser… 
Ive heard many times that the first volvo fh12s were based on the 14 litre and ■■■■■■■ common rail design which if true explains why they were so good .
Me old dad swore by ■■■■■■■ 14 litres.
He had them in a variety of lorries, transcons being the first, then all sorts followed, seddon atkinson 400, foden’s of varying ages, marathon, seddon atkinson strato, he never had ERF’s as his first o/d lorry was one and he swore he’d never sit in one again (sorry robert!!)
All was fine and dandy until he bought a man 291. Then followed by a couple of 331’s. That just kept on going and going with mo variation on fuel.
The ■■■■■■■ (imho) could be a bit fickle… I totally agree that a ■■■■■■■ when on “song” couldn’t be out pulled up any hill by motors of a similar hp. But…the moment (normally after about 6 months) that the injectors lost their way a bit they turned a tad gutless and very thirsty… Dad used to send them into ■■■■■■■ at rainham for a tickle up. Was cheap enough and worked well… But downtime that the mans etc never needed…
Having said all that cobblers… My old strato would ■■■■ rings round most anything when given the boot…
Let it lug, my arse, thrape it always the way forward !
Forgot to mention that besides the engine’s thirst there was also a weight penalty with them, possibly another reason why we only had a couple at Ballidon where payload was paramount! Our 1 ton engine crane couldn’t lift a ■■■■■■■ safely, yet it would easily move a 6LXB/LXC, the Rolls was heavy but still lighter than a ■■■■■■■■ I would guess that the ■■■■■■■ engined chassis was probably cheaper to purchase than a Gardner specced one?
Pete.
My favourite motor was an old M reg Guy big j with a 290 ■■■■■■■■ it looked nothing in it’s plain BRS colours barring the big dustbin stack up the back but on big climbs the look on driver’s faces in 88’s and 110’s when you sailed past them fully freighted was priceless, I never drove that motor flat out, you wouldn’t dare ,it was still pulling when it went off the clock 
Just out of interest what where the speed limits before limiters or how fastnwould they actually go up to legal or illegal 
and when did limiters come and spoil the fun,■■
windrush:
there was also a weight penalty with them, possibly another reason why we only had a couple at Ballidon where payload was paramount! Our 1 ton engine crane couldn’t lift a ■■■■■■■ safely, yet it would easily move a 6LXB/LXC, the Rolls was heavy but still lighter than a ■■■■■■■■
That would fit part of the description of stress redundancy.The result being that it ended its production putting out a reliable 500 hp + and over 1,800 lbs/ft.
