High Performance Diesel Engines

Bruce Mallinson
January 2017

It’s that time of the year again where owner-operators get together to snowmobile with each other. The date this year is arriving March 2nd 2017 and departing on Monday March 6th 2017. We will be riding at Bear Lake Utah, which is in the northeast corner of Utah; in fact the lake extends into Idaho. We are staying at the World Mark Condominiums in Garden City, UT; phone number is 800-867-2095 and ask for Lori. If all of the rooms are gone, please call me at 724-360-4080; we will do our best to find you a motel room or a rental home in the area. If you love power, speed, climbing mountains, and enjoying the companionship of other owner-operators, you will want to join us for this fun filled 4 days. The Ski-Doo, Polaris snowmobile dealer from Ogden, Utah will be there for one day with new demo sled for us to try and I have been told some of them will be turbocharged. A turbocharged 800 cc snowmobile will accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 2 seconds. It’s amazing the attitude of a trucker when there is a mountain if front of him!

Soot Separation, John Walko, our technical director and service manager is building a soot separator for all EGR, 2003 to present engines. Our goal is to remove the soot from the EGR gasses entering the intake manifold and allowing only the gasses to enter the combustion chamber. By doing this, the EGR system will work longer before needing cleaned. The soot that is hard on the cross hatch of the cylinder liners will be caught in a trap and all you have to do is remove one clamp and dump the soot into a trashcan when changing the oil. With this soot trap mounted in the EGR system there will be no accelerated wear of the diesel engine. The first one is getting mounted on a DD15 Detroit and the second is on an ISX Cummins. We will keep you informed as to how it works in the months moving forward. The first test soot separator was tested using talcum powder and it did remove about 80 percent of the powder from the airflow. The Walko family already has a patent on this product.

In search of fuel mileage; there is a treatment called WPC and its micro peening of the surface of gears to hold more oil. The micro peening would look similar to the surface of a golf ball if you were to magnify it with a 1,000 power microscope. The purpose of micro peening is to keep metal from touching metal and eliminating internal drag and wear. The micro peening holds the oil similar to the cross hatch of a cylinder wall. When the cross hatch is gone from the cylinder wall the engine will consume oil. So think about the gears in the transmission and differentials, especially when accelerating and climbing a hill, as the teeth mesh, the force generated is greater than the film thickness of the oil, so accelerated wear and internal friction occurs. We have an 18 speed transmission already done with the WPC peening process and would love to have a test truck try it out for us and give us feedback. The owner-operator will have to be a fuel mileage conscience operator.

Our current leader in fuel mileage is Steve Kron; Steve runs an International with a 12.7 Detroit with our Full Tilt exhaust manifold, the Pittsburgh Power Variable Geometry turbo system and our 3-position power switch. When he is empty he can cut the horsepower back to around 300 hp, and when hauling heavy still have 600 horsepower. Steve’s average is 9.6 miles per gallon.

Adam Strafford was recently in with his Western Star powered by a DD4 Detroit and we installed the variable geometry turbocharger and the 3-position power switch. He has gained 7/10th miles per gallon in fuel savings and the ability to run with a low power setting, stock power, and high performance power such as 750 hp.

Next we want to try this system on a DD4 Detroit that has the Pittsburgh Power Computer, along with the Full Tilt exhaust manifold, and install our variable geometry turbocharger and the 3-position power switch. Think about this, there would be a total of 27 power settings! The power box has 9 power settings, and the 3-position switch means there is 9 settings in each position or 27 settings! Talk about putting control into the owner-operators hands! Think about this, if this truck would be equipped with the 2:64 rear gears, a double over 13 or 18 speed transmission, and the 27 power settings, it would truly be an Unlimited Truck. Unlimited speed and unlimited power!

Our remote tuning and troubleshooting is doing great, if you would like more power from your Caterpillar, Cummins or Detroit, give us a call and we’ll tell you the closest tuning site to you. The next site will be on Interstate 80 in Lincoln, NE .

Written by; Bruce Mallinson, Pittsburgh Power Inc., 3600 S. Noah Dr. Saxonburg, Pa. 16057. Phone 724-360-4080. Web: Pittsburghpower.com