One amazing aspect of the diesel engine business is that you never know what is going to come through the door. But, when you have the right attitude, anything is possible. People with trucks and diesel-powered equipment know that you must be ready to accept the challenge. With this in mind, we recently had a Caterpillar C-32 V-12 equipped power washer roll into our shop. This machine can pulverize concrete up to 18 inches thick using high-pressure water.
The reason the machine was in our shop was for vibrations. The V-12 Cat engine is solid mounted, along with the water pump, which is transferring vibrations through the entire machine – the short drive shaft between two rubber mounts might be the problem. This massive Caterpillar is equipped with two torsional dampers which we are replacing, along with adding a FASS Fuel System to remove air from the diesel fuel. We are also adding a COMO/Harvard 1000 by-pass oil filter that filters to one micron, replacing the fan belts and repairing the fan hub. There are videos of this machine in use showing the vibrations, and it will be interesting to see how much smoother the pressure washer will be after the work we perform.
About a month ago, I mentioned an owner operator’s wife that was kind of a super woman. She home-schools her children, raises about 200 chickens for eggs, makes her own all-natural soap and body lotions, takes care of the paperwork side of the trucking business and keeps a very clean house. Her name is Heather Olson (husband is Marty). Because of sensitive skin, Heather decided to study what it would take to have clean skin without harsh chemicals. The answer was oil. Marty told me about the soap while we were tuning his N-14 and Heather sent me some samples. I can tell you I love the soap and lotion! If you’re interested, her phone number is (320) 241-1030.
The ingredients for her soaps include goat milk, olive oil, almond oil, lard, coconut oil, castor oil, sodium hydroxide, oatmeal and honey. Think about this: if you are working on you truck and your hands are dirty and there is no soap and water available, you can pour clean motor oil on your hands, scrub them and then wipe them clean with a rag or paper towel. Oil does clean and lubricate – on your hands or in your engine! Check out her website (www.riversidegoatmilksoap.com) for more details or to buy some of her all-natural products.
Our electrical engineer JR has been successful at tuning the ISX Cummins engine. By only adding 96 horsepower, the newly tuned engine will produce 400 more foot-pounds of torque. The difference from 1,600 ft. lbs. to 2,000 ft. lbs. is staggering on how the truck will pull on the hills. There are about 1,200 parameters to change when tuning an ISX, so it will take a few hours, but the results are really phenomenal – and the timing is NOT advanced. A truck set up this way will take 80,000 pounds across I-80 in Pennsylvania and never need to be shifted. This tuning can be done at any of our 50 remote tuners throughout North America.
I’d like to explain the cost benefit analysis behind our Max Mileage Fuel Borne Catalyst. It costs $220 per gallon but is highly concentrated at a ratio of 1:3200 meaning your per gallon fuel cost is increased by $0.07 cents per gallon. Assuming you’re averaging 7 miles per gallon, your cost per mile for the catalyst is $0.01 cent. The national average for a gallon of diesel at the time of writing is $3.06, which breaks down to $0.43 cents per mile. If you see a 10% jump in mileage like many are, then you’re cost per mile is down to $0.39. Including the cost of the catalyst, you’re saving $0.03 cents per mile. So, just with the fuel mileage alone, the catalyst more than pays for itself. Many drivers are also seeing a 20% reduction in DEF, which can be very expensive, depending on where you buy it. Add to that the thousands saved on preventing emissions system repairs and the lost revenue from down time, and you can see why we are so excited about this product. We encourage everyone to try it and then track the numbers for themselves to see how it’s working for you.
Lastly this month, you have a rare opportunity to purchase one of our legendary Signature Rebuilt engines. It’s a CAT C-15 (one of the best Class 8 engines ever made) that’s been recently rebuilt. It was built for roughly 700 HP but could be tuned for more or less depending on your application. All the parts used were of the highest quality available with everything on it either new or reman. It has one of our performance manifolds, CAT HP Turbo, a new damper and balancer and various other high-performance parts. This engine was built at Kevin Rutherford’s CMC event last year by one of our most experienced mechanics and then inspected by me personally. Please call us at (724) 360-4080 if you are interested.