oldmisterbill
Grumpy Old Man
My father had a boat for 7 years that was powered by twin 6-71 turbos. You wanna talk about loud. Man I loved that boat.
Show me another engine that displaces 426 CU IN that gets 450 hp at 2100 rpm. (marinized version. OTR N/A was ratede at 238 horses)
also it had a manufacturing run of about 60 years.
Drove a 671 over the road (full size semi) with a IH CO4000 (the first of the square series cabovers-Before that almost every manufacturer has some kind of a rounded or sloped nose version. 238 HP w/a mechanical blower (they all had blowers there were no NA Detroit's they has asthma without one). What was it like? Well 1st of all set the Governor to 220 RPM instead of 2100. Shift down at 1800 RPM wind up to 2200 then shift. You kept it wound - never lug it. Of course put a drain pan under it to recycle the oil it would leak. They didn't like to idle to keep the cab warm at night if you set the idle up a little it would either drop to idle or wind out after a while. I remember having it "resealed" to stop the oil leaks (did it at an international dealer in Boston). 1st trip was to put a computer system in Omaha (for Mutual of Omaha) in January, cold as the devil , so I had to idle it to keep warm while I slept. When I got back to Boston a few weeks later - I needed a new drip pan to catch the oil. It seemed they would all leak after a lot of idle time. It had no AC , steel interior and the log books?? = a lot of tired hours. Example I was going down hill in Connecticut wound out screemin at me,trans slipped into neutral (so tired it didn't register) and was slowing down - real slow ,wondered why it seemed so slow (no speedo),engine sounded like it was ok wound right out.It sunk in that I was slowing down even though the engine was still wound out & screamin,because it was in neutral. Point the noise could make you numb. For the times it wasn't bad speed wise-after all cummins had the 190 -250 NA,270 & the 290s were just out in the field. 8V71 were the thing to beat back then with 318 HP WOW!!
I remember when they got me a new Ford 9000 with a 318 & AC and a diamond tuff interior -even had a radio.WOW I was a big dog and it wasn't so noisy because of the insulation & interior upholstery. They were good in many ways the bottom end was bullet proof -most of the problems came from the top end. They had a real bad fuel addiction. I guess that gives you an idea what driving one OTR was like. Oh yes they never got warm enough in the winter to keep you comfortable until they were working.
For some unknown reason I wound up with an affection for these old man killers - I'll never understand why.