i know they used to be put in erf,s and most other brit motors i was wondering if they were a good engine the reason for asking is walkermovements have a couple of twin bunk erf,s with em in for between 4 and 5 grand
cheers carl 
The Perkins you are areferring to are actually Rolls-Royce derived engines, that were produced at the former Sentinel works in Shrewsbury.
Perkins bought Rolls-Royce Diesels, then bought Gardner as well. ERF installed these engines in the E-Series and the EC. The models to look out for are the E12-325TX, E12-375TX and corresponding EC models.
They were known for pulling âabove their weightâ if you see what I mean. the 325 apparently gave the impression of being more like a 350 and the 375 of an engine with 400+ bhp. Gilbraith Tankers had a number of ex-Sutton/Wincanton EC12 340 6x2s and ran them at 41 tonnes without any problem, so itâs plausible that the bigger variant could handle 44.
Iâm sure thereâs someone else on here who knows a lot more than I do about them.
cheers for that marky one of the trucks walkers are quoteing its got a tx410 bhp lump on an n plate witch for just over 4 grand aint bad i dont think anyway.although it has got an eaton twinsplitter which has put me off slightley
ive only drove the rolls royce 265l eagle in a seddackand the old 200/210 in a routeman the only perkins ive drove was the 6354? and thats a light weight enginem, adn pretty goo. the trouble is, i cant tell you how reliable the rollers are as i didnt have the thing long enough, but they go well, that i can tell you! i wonder why they didnt become more popular?
i can tell you a bloke that has run them in erfâs thats squires transport bloxwich. not the ones in fryers road that have gone hargreaves, but theyre behind a garage just out of town heading towards leamore, and their ec erfâs are very well kept!
perkins also own dorman deisel in stafford and make some pretty big engines there.
Carl:
cheers for that marky one of the trucks walkers are quoteing its got a tx410 bhp lump on an n plate witch for just over 4 grand aint bad i dont think anyway.although it has got an eaton twinsplitter which has put me off slightley
I thought a Twin Splitter was a plus point!
it would be as soon as he got used to it! 
saying that, its been a long time since i steered a motor with one of them in, i reckon itâd be painfull to the ears for an hours or 2!
Perkins are still going strong and are now owned by Caterpillar. The plant at Shrewsbury is still in business and does remanufacturing for Cat.
I was in DHL this afternoon and they were loading 10 pallets of cardboard packaging for Shrewsbury, which had been airfreighted from Chicago. Nice to know money is no object!!!
They still fit Perkins diesels in JCBâs which must rankle with JCB!!
Calv
I can only recollect ever driving one lorry powered with a âPerkinsâ and that was a Ford âDâ series with a âV6â which was similar to the â â â â â â â plated at 28ton it had a Ford box and a two speed axle, this was at 'Reeds in 73/74 but boy could it catch pigeons. I drove it on trunk running down to Halesowen from Darwen, no wonder it had twin tanks cruising down there at 85, honest 
whats wrong with the twin split carlâ â ? good old box, sooner have a â â â â â â â tho than a perkins, but thats just me
i tried to drive a twin splitter once and just couldnt get on with it and ive never tried to drive one since
Twin Splitter, Foden Twelve speed it doesnât what box, just get out the yard and past the workshops without a crunch and away you go
Taskman:
Twin Splitter, Foden Twelve speed it doesnât what box, just get out the yard and past the workshops without a crunch and away you go
My old boss was like an anorak truck spotter, he could be laid in bed at home as one of us pulled out the yard, he could tell exactly who was driving, which truck they were in and could hear a missed gear a mile away 
It makes you a better driver 
The yard exit was on a slight incline on a bend so you only had one chance of getting it right
Taskman:
Twin Splitter, Foden Twelve speed it doesnât what box, just get out the yard and past the workshops without a crunch and away you go
true words!
the first twin splitter i drove was sounding like jimmy hendrixâs guitar for a day or two!
Wheelnut is spot on with his observations about old Bosses from all those years ago, I always remember my old boss Joseph Clarence coming down the the tip side one day from his house which was at the top of the tip with a number twelve shovel in his hand and a dead cat and saying to me â It wonât â â â â in bloody house againâ
marky:
The Perkins you are areferring to are actually Rolls-Royce derived engines, that were produced at the former Sentinel works in Shrewsbury.Perkins bought Rolls-Royce Diesels, then bought Gardner as well. ERF installed these engines in the E-Series and the EC. The models to look out for are the E12-325TX, E12-375TX and corresponding EC models.
They were known for pulling âabove their weightâ if you see what I mean. the 325 apparently gave the impression of being more like a 350 and the 375 of an engine with 400+ bhp. Gilbraith Tankers had a number of ex-Sutton/Wincanton EC12 340 6x2s and ran them at 41 tonnes without any problem, so itâs plausible that the bigger variant could handle 44.
Iâm sure thereâs someone else on here who knows a lot more than I do about them.
This ^^^ all true , back in 2002 my dad bought a Ec12 340 and a man who worked at Shrewsbury in the testing division turned in to a genuine 410++++ by fitting new injectors pump turbo intetcooler and radiator , it pulled far better than a 410 .
Iâve no experience of the later Rolls/Perkins engines but the earlier 265 & 290 were pretty good and mostly reliable. The weak spot was the oil pump idler gear which tended to throw itâs locating roll pin. If you werenât an âold schoolâ driver who constantly watched the gauges you ended up with a terminally sick motor. As I recall, you had about three minutes from the oil pressure starting to drop before nasty things started happening.
I had a Perkins engined motor once upon a time and it was a great engine! Does it count? Left â â â â â â because I was spending more time in France than home in the early 90âs. 
Retired Old â â â â :
Iâve no experience of the later Rolls/Perkins engines but the earlier 265 & 290 were pretty good and mostly reliable. The weak spot was the oil pump idler gear which tended to throw itâs locating roll pin. If you werenât an âold schoolâ driver who constantly watched the gauges you ended up with a terminally sick motor. As I recall, you had about three minutes from the oil pressure starting to drop before nasty things started happening.
I had a Rolls 265Li in a Foden and that did ten years without as much as an injector change but was totally knackered by then so an engine from a scrapper was fitted, that was even more worn out! 
We ran a fleet of them and had no oil pump drive issues. Then I had a new 3000 series Foden with the basically similar Perkins 335 in it, it went well but had an awful rattle on it from new. I took it into Charnwood Trucks (the supplier) and they diagnosed timing chain rattle which I knew was wrong as they were gear driven! Anyway after a few months the rattle stopped, I left the company when the truck was a year old to drive a D reg Foden with the â â â â â â â L10 but that is another story! Alan Alcock had the 3000 series after me until the company folded but I donât know if he had any problems with it.
Regarding Perkins, the Late Peter O Leary who before he had his own lorry was a fitter at Barlow and Hodgkinson of Biggin told me that when they ran Perkins engine Dodgeâs a chap came from (I think?) Churchill tools trying to flog them a compression tester. Pete was told to take the injectors out of one of the Dodgeâs and the guy stuck his tester in. Apparently he then asked Derek Barlow if the lorry actually ran as he couldnât get much of a reading! 
He was assured that yes it did run and had recently come back from Kent with a load of flint, the chap shook his head, packed his tester into its box and said âYou donât need thisâ and left. What he wasnât told was that it took about a can of Easystart to get the thing going and you darenât shut it down during the day!! Pete also told me that the pistons on the P6âs had to be machined down by several thou to get the correct amount of âstand proudâ above the cylinder, usually done with a lathe. However they did it with a hacksaw, not very precise.
Pete.
They must have been quite popular in Italy , in the late `80s we had a job from Du Forest Trafford Park to Como with mainly groupage but also deliveries and 1 was a 07.30 tuesday morning to Perkins at Casnate con Benate this was a regular job sometimes up to half a trailers worth of boxes and pallets . I would think they were for agriculture vehicles. Perkins had a place at Trafford Park at the time
