Cummins diesel engines - Whats to know?

[dubwarrior2]

Over the last few weeks I have been checking out a few vids on youtube of rat rods running Cummins diesel engines.
They seem to be putting out massive power but appear to be very agricultural chucking out masses of black smoke.
From what I can see they appear to be tuned by just whacking on a bigger turbo and firing bucket loads of fuel into them (rather than any sort of refined ECU tweaking).

Anybody got any experience with them?

[Dez]

they're not sophisticated by any means. they're a composite engine, so are basially 4 or 6 seperate units with a common block, crank and cam- hence the separate rocker covers.

all diesel tuning basically comes down to more air and more fuel. they use bosch VE pumps so are massively tunable with little more than a screwdriver. from memory they 12mm elements as standard. massively expensive to upgrade the size of those, but they should be good for knocking on 300hp anyway with a more aggressive ramp profile and some pin grinding.

as standard they're designed for torque not HP. turbos are on the conservative size, so a stock 6BT is only quoted at something like 175hp. from ym research, you shoud be able tog et close to 300hp with essentially bolt-on mods, if you pick the right turbo.

[heathrobinson]

There's a chap called Ash Witty who's put on in a landy. I seem to remember he's put bigger injectors in it, a bigger turbo, and turned up the pump. That's pretty much it, and it's making 300 ponies without much fuss at all.
They're pretty much bulletproof, and relatively cheap to buy (our 4x4 daf army truck has one, and cost £2000 with about 28000 miles on it) but parts are pricey. The rocker gasket for a 10 litre e10 was over £200, and there's no such thing as after market spares...

[jules1200]

I worked on them for years as a truck mechanic, at a couple of different companies. I worked at Ryder truck rental for 10 of those yrs & we had quite literally hundreds of them, mainly in DAF 45's. I can't recall us ever having one go bang.
Obviously turbos need attention after high miles, but the actual lump is mega.
There are various options, but for a car, the L10 & it's derivatives are what you want..

[mertzman]

Still love the 4BT and 6BT. Mega engines.

[andyborris]

Not sure which engine type it was, but the Cummins that powered the deluge system in a chemical plant where I worked was so big, it had a Ford 1500 pre-xflow engine as it's starter!

[ditchdigger]

The 6BT weighs in at half a ton. Mind blowingly heavy things. By the time you get a transmission behind it they can tip the scales at 1400lbs or more.


And all that black smoke is for some reason a trend here in the states. They can be tuned to make monster power without it, but folks like to "roll coal" so they make it as dirty as possible.

[Rob M]

I'm happy to be corrected but I'm fairly sure the Dodge Commando drop side I used to do deliveries in for a company back in the mid 80s was powered by a Cummins lump.
There wasn't much that could have me off the traffic lights, it was seriously quick.
Always wondered how a car would perform with one fitted.

[heathrobinson]

As ditchdigger points out, they are a hugely heavy lump, but the torque they make is what makes them worth it. There's a ton of engines that'll make 300bhp for less than half the weight of the 6BT, but very few that'll be able to match it's torque. The one in the landy's reckoned to be making in the order of 750lbft!! I'd imagine your face would end up a different shape if you drove that for long enough!
That thing doesn't make clouds of smoke either, I'll try to find a video.

[heathrobinson]

This is ash's, just pottering about -

[heathrobinson]

And here's another bloke who's tweaked his a fair bit -

[joe90]

Jan 24, 2015 19:35:39 GMT Rob M said:

I'm happy to be corrected but I'm fairly sure the Dodge Commando drop side I used to do deliveries in for a company back in the mid 80s was powered by a Cummins lump.
There wasn't much that could have me off the traffic lights, it was seriously quick.
Always wondered how a car would perform with one fitted.

Fitted in Dodge truck's from around 1978.

Bryan

[redratbike]

Welder up sin city motors use this engine builder..$$$$$

www.industrialinjection.com

[heathrobinson]

That's surely the point of using the 6bt though, isn't it? That you don't need to get spendy to see silly figures. You can pick up a truck for £2k, and sell the rest to buy the bigger injectors and turbo, and come out of it having spent very little. Then you need to get a mortgage to cover your fuel bills, but that's another story...