hey everyone, i am looking at purchasing a 2005 sterling dump truck with the mb4000 motor, has 125 miles, and the seller knows nothing about the trucks history. it has an 8LL, does anyone have any experience with this motor. are they junk or worth it? opinions please, i am hoping to pull the plug on this truck by saturday.
Absolute junk, we have two and can't give them away. I have rebuilt both of them in the last year. Parts are very expensive. A poor design to start with. Head gaskets give a lot of trouble and oil lines leak. The EGR system gives a lot of trouble too. Buy anything but one of these, IMO. It will break you.
Money pits
I have one in my sterling / boom truck love it, cheap on fuel ,not a rocket but seams to have lots of power ( I'm 49 thousand empty) starts every time ,down to minus 10 without being plugged in. Having said that I've never heard anyone that drives them down the road hard all day that had anything good to say about them. Mine sits and idles 8 hours out of ten, and I change the oil every 150 to 200 hours, different strokes for different folks.
We had the same....450 Mercedes in an 05 Sterling, same trans. Also have one in a Freightliner. Trucks gross 80,000 pounds and we have had no problems at all with them. And they are incredible on fuel. I haven't gotten this kind of mileage since my 1988 R Model Mack with an E-6 350. They have lots of low end torque and pull well, but only to about 1500 RPM, then they go flat. Good money makers....but I like my bigger motors for myself, lol.
RUN!! those engines were proof that a Mercedes engineer caught his wife with a diesel mechanic and wanted revenge.
Good engine but no powerhouse
And nobody has had one that eats EGR coolers yet? Ive seen that one a few times.