High Performance Diesel Engines

One amazing aspect of the diesel engine business is you never know what is coming through the door, or what the cat dragged in. When you have the attitude, anything is possible. People with trucks and diesel-powered equipment know that you must be ready to accept the challenge. This week in the shop we have a Caterpillar C-32 V-12 equipped power washer. This machine can pulverize concrete up to 18 inches thick using high pressure water. The reason the machine is in our shop is for vibrations. The V-12 Cat engine is solid mounted along with the water pump, which is going to transfer vibrations through the entire machine. The short drive shaft between two rubber mounts might be a problem. This Caterpillar is equipped with 2 torsional dampers which we are replacing, along with adding the FASS Fuel System to remove air from the diesel fuel. We are adding a COMO/ Harvard 1000 by-pass oil filter that filters to one micron, replacing the fan belts repairing the fan hub. There are videos of this machine in use showing the vibrations, it will be interesting to see how much smoother the pressure washer will be after the work we performed.

About 1 month ago I mentioned an owner-operators wife that was kind of a super woman. She home schools her children, raises about 200 chickens for eggs, makes Goat Milk all natural soap and body lotions, takes care of the paperwork side of the trucking business, and keeps a very clean house. Her name is Heather Olson, husband is Marty. Because of sensitive skin, Heather decided to study what it would take to have clean skin without harsh chemicals. The answer was oil, there are many different oils and natural scents. Marty told me about the soap while we were tuning his N-14 and Heather send me some samples. I can tell you I love the soap and lotion and the smooth skin after a shower. If you’re interested her phone number is 320-241-1030, please leave a message because during the mornings she is schooling the children. She will call you back. Her web site is Riversidegoatmilksoap.com

Tuning ISX Cummins engines, our electrical engineer JR has been successful tuning the ISX by only adding 96 horsepower and the engine will produce 400 more-foot pounds of torque. The difference from 1600 ft. lbs. to 2000 ft. lbs. is staggering on how the truck will pull on the hills. There are about 1200 parameters to change when tuning an ISX so it will take a few hours. The result is phenomenal, and the timing is NOT advanced. A truck set up this way will take 80,000 pounds across I-80 in Pennsylvania and never touch the shifter. This tuning can be done at any of our 50 remote tuners throughout North America.

We’d like to take some time to explain our cost benefit analysis behind Max Mileage Fuel Borne Catalyst. So it costs $220 per gallon, but is highly concentrated at a ratio of 1:3200 meaning your per gallon fuel cost is increased by $0.07 cents per gallon. Assuming you’re averaging 7 miles per gallon, your cost per mile for the Catalyst is $0.01 cent. The national average for diesel fuel at the time of writing is $3.06 which breaks down to $0.43 cents per mile. If you see a 10% improvement in mileage like many are, then you’re cost per mile is down to $0.39. Including the cost of the Catalyst you’re saving $0.03 cents per mile. So just with the fuel mileage alone the catalyst more than pays for itself. Many drivers are also seeing a 20% reduction in DEF which can be very expensive depending on where you buy it from. Not to mention the thousands saved on preventing emissions system repairs and the lost revenue from down time. We encourage everyone to track the numbers for themselves so you can see how it’s working for you.

You have a rare opportunity to purchase one of our legendary Signature Rebuilt engines. It’s a CAT C-15 (one of the best Class 8 engines ever made) that’s been recently rebuilt. It was built for roughly 700 HP, but could be tuned for more or less depending on your application. All the parts used are of the highest quality available with everything on it either new or reman. It has one of our performance manifolds, CAT HP Turbo, new damper and balancer, and various other high performance parts. This engine was actually built at the Kevin Rutherford’s CMC event last year by one of our most experienced mechanics and then inspected by Bruce himself. Please call us if you’re interested.

By Bruce Mallinson and Andrew Wilson, Pittsburgh Power Inc., 3600 S. Noah Dr., Saxonburg, PA 16056. Phone 724-360-4080