The Addiction of Movement
The Art of The Ride, The Thrill of the Throttle, The Love of Movement, The Thrill of Acceleration while going uphill ! I know my mind can work in strange ways; however, this is what I feel especially after being at a motorcycle rally and riding the Harley for 6 straight days or being at the Owner Operator Snowmobile Conference and riding the Turbo Ski Doo for 3 to 4 straight days, and after a long road trip pulling the trailer with my Ram 3500 or my T-600 KW. When my body has been in motion for several days, it just wants to keep going. My feeling is that many of you owner operators feel the same things. There is another aspect of these feelings, that is the better the vehicle runs, the more the addiction of the ride becomes. Once I realized these feelings several years ago, I figured out why many owner operators can only stay home for about 3 days until they're back on the road.
I have been helping a young man by the name of Ben in Lethbridge, Alberta improve the performance and driveability of a 2007 Mack powered with a Mack engine. We have no way of increasing the power with fuel, so we look at the exhaust system and what a morphodite it was. Mack got very creative and put a small resonator outside of the frame rail on the right side of the truck. Then with a series of 90-degree bends brought the exhaust back under the cab and with a very restrictive Y pipe connected to the dual exhaust stacks. I have never seen this truck, just pictures, Ben was doing the labor. I shipped him a Pittsburgh Power 30-inch shorty performance muffler, and a Fleet Air Filter. Ben converted this Mack into a weed burner, (exhaust under the truck), eliminating the horrible OEM system. The results were phenomenal, the Mack engine produced 25 PSI of turbo boost stock, after the exhaust modification and the installing of the Fleet Air Filter, the turbo boost climbed to 35 PSI, the truck was much more responsive and now fun to drive. It's not always fuel that is needed to improve the performance of a diesel engine, it can be air intake flow and exhaust flow. A 10 PSI gain in turbo boost is a 250 degree drop in exhaust gas temperature.
Heavy Haul with 2.64 Gears
Get her out of overdrive and into DIRECT gear. We have talked about this subject many times over the years. However, we always said if you are a heavy hauler, in farm fields, soft dirt, gravel, or sand the 2:64, 2:53, 2:47 and 2:28 rear gear may not be for you. Now we have a change to this thinking; Gary Johnson, 67, hauls farm equipment out of the Dakota’s with a 379 Pete Acert Cat with the Pittsburgh Power Tune and an 18-speed transmission equipped with 3:36 gears. Gary listens to The Pittsburgh Power Hour on Kevin Rutherford’s radio show on Tuesdays at 11:00 AM on his phone. Gary decided to try the 2:64 gears even though he is around 117,000 gross weight. Our concern was the following is first gear low enough to start out, as we never recommend the high gears for heavy haul. Gary is the first to try and he is very happy. With a gross of 117,000 the Caterpillar Pete had no problems starting out in first gear, and he says he has more power going up through the gears than he did with the lower 3:36 gears. So, think about this, with the 2:64 he will be making 2 less shifts because he will be cruising in 16th gear, which is his direct gear. There is also about 240 more-pound feet of torque. With the taller 2:64 gears he will be in the lower gears about 2 seconds longer’ thus allowing the engine to continue to pull. With shifting less, the engine is pulling more. On the level he was able to cruise at 5 psi of turbo boost, and on grades where he usually used 30 psi of boost, he now uses 18 psi. 12 psi of boost less is 144 less horsepower to pull the grade with the Acert Caterpillar. Gary Johnson says he wishes he would have made the conversion to 2:64 gears years ago. If you want to talk to Gary, his phone number is 605-661-7316. He runs the max Mileage Fuel Borne Catalyst in his diesel fuel to keep the entail side of the head clean. The actuators actually allow exhaust to enter the intake ports leaving behind what Caterpillar calls Acert Snot, which is carbon and soot. Acert Cats greatly benefit from the Max Mileage Catalyst.
Written by: Bruce Mallinson, Pittsburgh Power, Inc., 3600 S. Noah Drive, Saxonburg, PA, 16056 Phone(724) 360-4080 Email: [email protected]