Detroit 6-71T Info please

[VanBoy]

Alright, need some info on this thing.....

It's in an early 80's S- series International truck, 10 speed, twin screw. Use to be a dump truck, but they put a 5th wheel on it. Govt Rig, odo reads 106K- yes, that low- hour meter says 5000 hours. I think it had a snow plow prior or to the dump bed being removed. Had nice emergency engine kill knob too... along w/ the normal engine shut off. It had a low boy trailer pulling a track hoe on it for a local irrigation district.... they complained it lacked power. But the area is mightly hilly....

I didn't find any engine plates, but it's a 6 cylinder two stroke w/ a turbo. Not intercooled/aftercooled. (Any how, online searching says it's HP is between 230-275. Kind of hoping it's the 275.) It was in the mid 20F when I went to look at it. Any how, after about 3 attempts of starting (has sat around for some time, maybe two weeks not started), it fired right up. Cleared up and idled fine w/ 5 min. Original and second owners are govt. entities.... its being surplused, kind of incling about it.

What kind of performance should be expected. I've heard that this engine should be driven near full throttle all the time? My only experiance w/ on the road semi engines is the 3 Cummins NTC's I have (all 1977 vintage). Heck, my little NTC 290 seems to pull better then my NTC 350!

So, educate me on these engines/tranny/trucks......

(Oh, and the tires are decent..... lock ring still, but usable. The IH Transtar II twin screw in my sig. needs some cosmetic work inside and electrical wiring before being road worthy.... this IH S series is road legal as-is).

(This is being posted on other forums.... under my other handle...)

 

[Papabear]

take some pics

 

[1dieselman]

As a 30 year diesel mechanic I have worked on dozen upon dozens of detroit diesels 2 and 4 stroke. What would you like to know. Yes this engine does best above 1800 rpms I could tell you more about horsepower if I knew what injectors are in it (small round tag on the injector body) Normally horsepower for these is 250, use straight 40w oil keep it changed and cooling system in good condition, very hard to kill these engines. I have seen many 6-71s go a million miles between overhauls. Hopefully this engine has the 4 valve head on it. What else would you like to know?

 

[VanBoy]

Interior was fairly decent in my opinion. Has power steering....

I was thinking of getting it as a back up to my K100 tandem.

When I looked at it Sat, it was snowing, temps were in the upper 20's, maybe colder. It had not been started for some time according to the gent. who showed it to us. It took some cranking, but it fired right up. Idle was rough for a few about 30 seconds, then after about 4 min. it went to a steady purr....

 

[galute]

I had an old GMC dump truck with one of those engines for 10 years. Not the most powerful thing in the world but great engines. I loved it. Just make sure you keep a good muffler on it unless you like saying huh a lot. The first thing you need to do when you drive it is slam your finger in the door to get good and ticked off then drive it like you stole it. They love to scream.

 

[VanBoy]

I had an old GMC dump truck with one of those engines for 10 years. Not the most powerful thing in the world but great engines. I loved it. Just make sure you keep a good muffler on it unless you like saying huh a lot. The first thing you need to do when you drive it is slam your finger in the door to get good and ticked off then drive it like you stole it. They love to scream.

Was your 6-71 turboed or N/A? Do you recall how many HP your engine was rated? Oh, and what tranny did you have with it? Just wondering .....

 

[1dieselman]

I should have asked you, is this a 6-71 or 6v-71?

 

[galute]

Mine was N/A. More commonly called a 238 because thats what it's rated horsepower was. It had a 13 speed road ranger in it. Sounded really mean on take off but it really wasnt going anywhere fast. I had a turboed one once. If I remember right it had somewhere around 270 HP. It had considerable more power than the old 238, but still nothing to brag about. They are good engines and pretty easy on fuel.

 

[VanBoy]

I should have asked you, is this a 6-71 or 6v-71?

Inline. 6-71T.

 

[6.9poweredscout]

i was under the assumption they had superchargers on them...

btw. that's a sharp looking IH there!

-Jon

 

[1dieselman]

All two cycle detroits use a blower, won't run without it, has no intake valves. If you need more info let me know, I can give you horsepower rating once you know what injectors are in it.

 

[69dieselfreak]

All two cycle detroits use a blower, won't run without it, has no intake valves.

thats it
you beat me to it

 

[Gary79F250]

426 cubic inches.........
in the marine world we stretch 485 horses outof'em

Injectors and turbo numbers and I can tell ya watcha got

 

[1dieselman]

Yep its amazing what you can do with water cooled intercoolers, aftercoolers, water cooled turbo's and really big injectors. We actually had one pushing 525 hp

 

[VanBoy]

Thanks for all the info.

The truck in question was on Ebay. The auction ended last night at 8pm Pacific. In the last 5 min, the bid went up from $1025 to the selling price of $3550.00. Personally, I wasn't going to bid more then $1200.00. Who ever ended up with it, in my opinion, paid WAY too much. I say this since at a local auction, a 97 Mack COE went for $1800.00...... granted, that was a COE. I'm guessing someone prob. has a dump box and might convert back to a dump truck.

Again, thanks for all the info.

I guess I'll just start fixing up that Transtar II w/ the Cummins formula 290 that I have.....