OT - Top ten best/worst Diesel engines

Seeing in another post about an AC 4w-305 transplanted with a Cummins 855, prompted me to checkout that engine’s specs. Anyway, I stumbled onto this link “top 10 best and worst Diesel engines.. I own & operate two of these ten listed. And jogging back in memory, I’ve operated another four of them in rentals in the past. Please give it a read & comment.

https://www.capitalremanexchange.com/best-diesel-engine-list/

interesting read. I guess my semi has the "best diesel engine of all times" in it. 93 freightliner with the 12.7 in it. I certainly do like it. darrel

farm I harvested at had 3 Volvos with N14 Cummins in them. I preferred those to any of the other trucks. the Mac was my second choice and the IH with a DT466 was my last choice. it was unfortunately the most underpowered truck. Most of the tractors at the farm are Cummins powered I prefer the 855 big cam powered 9270.  it starts well has lots of power and isn't to hard on fuel. The real fuel sippers are the IH 1086s The DT414 just runs and runs. I suppose its because there run lightly loaded but I rarely have to fuel one I'm only pulling a 15' bat wing mowing roadsides but I mow 22 miles of road and barely use any fuel.

They were punished !!   Ford Navistars and Dodge Cummins totally ruled the world while GM went thru the 350 diesels, the 6.2 ? diesels and finally the 6.5 diesels before they finally bought the DURAMAX, which has been very very good.

I didn’t realize that JD & GM engineers worked in conjunction on the Detroit 60 series.

Mike Kroupa wrote: Easy now I once had one of those GM 5.7 Diesels in a 82 Monte Carlo. Not a powerhouse, but nothing was back then and a good long drive would make mid 20's mpg. My girlfriend then, wife now ,put 100k miles on without any major repairs. Always ran Mobil 1 in it. , Mike

My brother had one of the 5.7 diesels in a chevy 4 door car, an 84 I believe. He had nothing but good to say about it. I had an 85 suburban with a 6.2 diesel. that was a good one in my opinion. darrel

Consolidated Diesel Company 1980 (CDC) was a joint venture between Cummins and Tenneco. Tenneco bought Case and International. Out of this came the B, C, L series engines.

The B series engine came in 2 different configurations. 4 cylinder 3.9 liter or 6 cylinder 5.9 liter. The 4 cylinder versions were used a lot in Case uniloaders 1840 and 1845. The engine would come naturally aspirated, turboed, or turboed and intercooled.

The B series first came out with a lucas CAV injection system,next was Bosch VE rotary pump injection, then a p7100 pump, VP rotary pump, to common rail.


The C series was a 6 cylinder 8.3 liter. The C went through the same fuel system except the bosch vp 44 injection wasn't used on the C series. They came up with an over complicated CAPS Fuel injection system.

The L series was a 6 cylinder 8.9 liter. The L series was the first to go to roller tappets in a mid range engine. They used a roll pin to hold the tappers from turning in the bores. It was a mistake. Didnt work well. The L series used the same injection system as the C series.

The N series dates all the way back to the 1950s. It was one of the best engine families Cummins ever made. This engine went through several changes. Small cam to big cam for better injection timing control. The Big Cam went through several changes. Im sure you have heard of the big cam III and Big Cam 4. The difference was the cooling system to warm the engine up quicker to reduce emissions. Then they came out with STC (Step timing Control) used oil pressure to advance injection timing at idle. Emissions control. Then came the N14. One of the most solid truck, agriculture, industrial engines ever built.

The reason the N series was scraped in 2002 was the oil system couldnt handle the extreme heat from EGR. plus the engine would of had to.be redesigned for all the EGR plumbing. So if you ard redesigning, might as well build from a fresh slate. Out of this came the X series.

The X series is a 15 liter engine that has gone through several injection systems and piston design due to emissions controls. The first injection was a HPI system and then common rail.

I could talk hours on both injection systems. Maybe another night.

I guess that is why these older tractors and machinery are so intriguing to me, is the simplicity. I cut my teeth wrenching on electronic controlled engines. Spending a weekend working on my wd and 33 corn picker or AII combine is theropy. They are so simple. Bobby Mo

Worst diesel engine I ever had personally was a 4-cly diesel in a Ford 2000 (old style). I had foul acrid exhaust that I could never find a fix for and gave me constant problems. It seems that the Ford 4-cyl was a great gas engine, but made a terrible diesel. Conversely, the Ford 3-cyl was a great diesel, but not such a great gas engine.

I was the motor office in a construction equipment company in the Army back in the early 1970s. My experience with diesel engines at that time was that Cummins were always coming apart (shallowing valves, throwing rods, etc.); the Detroit Diesel always had head gasket problems; and the Cat engines just kept on running.

AC7060IL wrote: darrel in ND wrote: interesting read. I guess my semi has the "best diesel engine of all times" in it. 93 freightliner with the 12.7 in it. I certainly do like it. darrel My 1995 has the 11.1L & it’s been most reliable.

I have 2 12.7 Detroits. One has 975,000 other one has 1.2 million-neither one has been apart-knock on wood!

Completely agree MacT- one of my 12.7's has 37000 hours on it.

I think your rite.. If I remember  Penske bailed out DDiesel. They had no Class 8 engines cept 2 Strokes

What most disregard are the antiques that made it all worthwhile. The DV550 V8 IHC or 555 V series Cummins, the GM Toroflow or the ignorance of Multifuel junk from the 60's and 70's like the Continental or Hercules in the M35. Start on Gas run on K1 or Diesel as IH preferred. Some of You all are too spoiled to remember rooting thru some of the Old Monsters we had not so long ago. Old standby's, 6L71 238, 8V71 318 Detroit, Cummins C & J series and H series, Cats big torque high horse last forever 1693. Can fault the old two strokes, they are STILL running and lasting so long the new engines can only PRAY they last half as long.

Edited by DMiller - 10 Feb 2019 at 5:27pm