I have a 73 diamond reo single axle that id like to repower with a diesel. Its got the reo comet gasser in it now and it runs fine but id like to put it back on the road with a diesel. I was leaning towards a cummins M11 because of its size and lighter weight but came across a 1990 Volvo,White,gmc with a 11.1 ddec2 60 series detroit for a decent price. I even thought about body swap to the newer chassis. 11.1 an ok engine? maybe another engine i should look for?
I would use a DT 466 if i was going to use it with the dump bed. Stay away from engines that have computers.
Yair . . . Various 71 series will fit . . . and sound very original. (ducks and grins) Cheers.
I agree with that. The Comet wasn't a very large engine and a 5.9 Cummins could probably replace it easily. But the 466 would give a little bit of reserve life with maximum loads. An 8.3L Cummins could be a possible fit too.
How about a 6V53? I've seen 2 old Reos with those... Bring ear protection.
6-71 was factory i believe but i don't want 2 stroke noise
If the 11.1 will fit it is way more engine than any of the others listed here. Maybe too much on second thought but it would probably be the nicest so long as you are not breaking things.
My vote-8.3 Cummins with Eaton RT 8709B transmission. You can find an 8.3 with 250 to 275 HP non ECM. Truck Shop
Scrub, That would be my first choice too! Second might be a NH250 Cummins if there is room or any of the higher HP versions you can find.
Noise? That's music!
Yair . . . . Good one kshansen. Love them or hate them there is some thing about the sound and smell of a General Motors two stroke that is quintessentially "American" and to me they engender a certain nostalgia for a way of life and working that folks today will never understand, Cheers.
They have a classic sound.... I love 'em! Well, listening to the, just not trying to pull a hill with them DB
A bit OT but..................... Just two days ago I was in need of access to a valve grinding machine to touch up some valves for a Tecumseh engine I am working on. Called the boss at the quarry where I worked to see if I could sneak in and use the one in the shop, "No problem!" Well while I was there took a look at the old 4-71 Detroit stationary engine in the storeroom next to the valve grinder machine. A couple days before I retired back in April of 2015 I had hooked up a battery to this engine that had not been used for well over 15 years and at that time it took a few seconds cranking to fire up. Well I noticed that in the 20 moths since I retired no one had bothered to disconnect the 4-D battery. So just for kicks I decided to push the start figuring the battery was most likely dead. To my surprise it was a little weak but cranked it over and the old Detroit took right off like it was just shut down the night before! Just makes me wonder if these "modern" computer controlled engines are going to be able to do that after sitting that long? I'd like to take some credit for the way it runs as along with another guy in the shop we did a major rebuild on it probably over 25 years ago and it was only used for a few months running a jaw crusher at a portable plant, but 99% of it goes to the simple basic design they were built with back in the day!
i think size wise the 6-71 and the 60 series are pretty similar in weight and outside dimensions. the short nose cabs like mine needed a doghouse in them to fit where my gasser cab doesn't have one
I cant remember all the times i went and started a truck or piece of equipment that hadnt run in years and drove it home or put it to work for a day. I dont think boys that are are very young will ever be able to do the same. Maybe i am wrong but the future looks like a train wreck.
How about back in about 1968 when after mowing the lawn for a couple years for an older lady finally got the nerve to ask her if she would consider selling that old 1950 Buick Special I'd been mowing around for a couple years. She said what would you give me? Not knowing if it would ever run I said $20 to $25. She said $25 and it's yours! Talked dad into towing it home behind his Ford pick-up. About a mile from home I go to wondering if a DynaFlow transmission would let you tow start a car. Slipped it into "Drive" while moving about 40 mph. Two surprises, first it started to turn the motor over, next even a bigger surprise. That old straight 8 actually fired up an ran! Drove that old car for a couple years and only parked it because reverse failed in the transmission often wished I had just bit the bullet and pulled it out and ripped it apart, probably just a failed band that could have been replaced.
That was a very common engine in Diamond Reos around here. I remember it in both garbage trucks and oil trucks. Noisy as hell!!
Well, we expect modern engines to do things the old ones cannot...like run with low emissions and high efficiency. I am a fan of the old Detroit Diesels, rugged, flexible and for the era, durable. Howard
I will give them that, but hate to think about all the ones that will end up in the scrap heap when the only thing that might be wrong is a little corrosion on a conductor inside one of those "magic boxes". I'm all for clean air and water but maybe it's time we gave the engineers some time to work on making the systems more durable instead of constantly trying to chase some magic numbers. Just having the computer on a machine show a simple message like "Injector #6 current high" instead of just some abstract "error code" like 4857-11.0098 would save lots of lost time and frustration. I mean, if I can type in the address for some house the other side of the country and have the car/truck plot the route out in a few seconds how hard would it be to have it tell me something is drawing too much current two feet away? Rant mode off, till I get another cup of coffee!
With thoughts like a simple readout instead of a code, I vote for you for king Ken. It's a good and sensible rant.
The engineers can give you good data and readouts, I think you want to look at the marketing people who don't want a computer built into the dash board. All the codes can be downloaded with the correct interface and equipment, but many companies want to keep those readers and software to themselves to improve service revenue. Only when the customers insist on common interfaces or low cost, high availability code readers will things improve. Howard
Maybe if some people in government would stop worrying about a few people sneaking in to work here picking our fruits and vegetables and stated pushing for freedom of information access to the computers in our trucks and autos things might improve!
I passed on the 60 series detroit due to its size and weight and found an L10 cummins. 240hp and is closer size wise to the gasser thats in it. It was still in a truck and surprisingly it fired up in the cold. they are going to cut the frame of the truck its in and give me the whole front half. Being a mechanical motor it should make for an easier swap.
The L10 is a pretty decent engine. The early ones had cooling and head gasket problems but they got that figured out within the first two years of production. The company I worked for bought a number of tractors with them when they first came out and they got nearly double the fuel mileage of the 855 Cummins we had been running. Ours were rated at 300hp.