V-8 Cummins

[Duke]

They do make some good diesels. The 5.9L and the N-14 are good.
The 855, 8.3L & M-11 are decent, too.
The 903, 555 and L-10 aren't too hot.

Hey, they all make good & bad units.

 

[Copper]

903's really weren't all that horrible, but they weren't great, either. I had a couple N/A's in farm tractors, set at 300 hp. from the factory, and they held up pretty good, both got inframes at around 5000 hours and are still kickin' at 7-8,000, last I heard. (They found new homes about 10 years ago). There's still a VT around here, set at 330, and running fine at 6,200. They wound up tighter, 2800 I think, than the 6's. The biggest problem with them now is planned obsolescense - they're getting pricy to work on, if you can find the parts to begin with. The last one I saw die got replaced with an 855 and new ring&pinions, it was cheaper.

 

[Duke]

Seems like a lot of these "bad" diesel engines are victims of putting a "round peg in a square hole".

A lot of diesels, like the IH 9L were originally designed as N/A tractor diesels and they work pretty well in that role. Then some truck engineer gets the idea of shoving it under the hood of a tandem and things don't work out so well.

Then they get the "boat anchor" monaker.

 

[Billysgoat]

There have rarely been truer words spoken, I have to agree with you on that Duke. Years ago back home they took a lot of chevy and ford gas V-8's, converted them to Propane and put them out in the fields as well pumps, they ran fine for about two years, maybe three. Those engines just could not take running at 90-100% power levels for weeks on end. They were never meant to do it, and it showed.

 

[BuckeyeQuickey]

I drove for a company that bought 90 GMC that had the 903 Cummings in them, 3 month after they took delivery of these POS they fired the ******* that spec'd them out and ordered them, the only thing good about a truck equipped with the 903 was the great workout you right arm and left leg received driving one, because alls you ever got done doing was shifting gears, top speed with a good load on was 98mph going down hill in neutral.

 

[BiigCheeze]

At least one 903 that runs ok

http://www.bigrigspulling.com/bigtime.html

http://bigrigspulling.com/news-release-friedline-7-11-2005.html

 

[tractorman86]

yea john deere ran a 903 in 8850's and they where crap along with the rest of the tractor(altho i hate almost all deere's)

 

[scrappy]

We all know from our dodge friends that Cummins could do no wrong...

Adrianspeeder

Yup, everyone is entitled to make mistakes as long as they learn from them! But unfortunately some still haven't learned from theirs :draw ;p

 

[Talltimber]

had a triple nickel in a Washington Skyloc 78 logging yarder years back I probably would have actually made some money logging if not for having to put all the profits back into rebuilding that motor. I made the mechanic a rich man though. As far as V-series Cumins go the best i've ran was the VT-1710 V-12, what a horse. 700 hp and enough torque to pull world around the block several times.

 

[7.3IH_Eggrole]

well all I know is that we had a 1978 Ford FW30 (built by Steiger) and it had a 903 in it run to this day, it wasnt pushin a great deal of power about 270hp (remember its a tractor), but it was enough to pull our 19' offset disk. But the engine was very dependable. However it did not have a turbo, the FW40's(295hp) and FW60's(360hp) had a 903 Turbocharged. But other than that I dont know anything about it.

 

[hugeredford]

we had a 903 in an fw60 had lots of power at high rpm but wasn't to hot backing up heavy drills into the corners of field so it's gone got a steiger pta 325 w/inline cat and allison tranny lots of power and you can take off from a dead stop with a seven shank ripper in the ground - that takes some real power

 

[7.3IH_Eggrole]

I bet she was a hoss