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Diesel Swaps Ain't Cheap: City to Spend $52K Per Vehicle

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  • #46
    Re: Diesel Swaps Ain't Cheap: City to Spend $52K Per Vehicle

    Originally posted by SpiderGearsMan
    better hurry , I an sure fiat will be using their junk as opposed to scummins
    curious , why not the slave - o - max ? other than govt. mule motors ?
    with a little maintenence [which hardly any of my customers ever do ] they are better than the other 2
    duramax is a good engine, but that "little maintenance" is a LOT of expensive. Parts are expensive, and the engine is hard to work on because it's a V-design.

    I can swap injectors in a Cummins in 45 minutes. Probably 20 minutes if I were any kind of decent mechanic. What's book hours on injector swaps on the Duramax?
    www.realtuners.com - catch the RealTuners Radio Podcast on Youtube, Facebook, iTunes, and anywhere else podcasts are distributed!

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    • #47
      Re: Diesel Swaps Ain't Cheap: City to Spend $52K Per Vehicle

      I'm no expert on the cost of diesel engine replacement, but the $52k doesn't sound unreasonable considering the cost of replacing the bus itself. The city of LA bought a bunch of new buses a couple years back and they were quoted as saying the cost of each city bus was $330,000. $52k to keep an old bus running a few more years looks real cheap comprared to bus replacement.
      BS'er formally known as Rebeldryver

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      • #48
        Re: Diesel Swaps Ain't Cheap: City to Spend $52K Per Vehicle

        Originally posted by dieselgeek
        Originally posted by SpiderGearsMan
        better hurry , I an sure fiat will be using their junk as opposed to scummins
        curious , why not the slave - o - max ? other than govt. mule motors ?
        with a little maintenence [which hardly any of my customers ever do ] they are better than the other 2

        duramax is a good engine, but that "little maintenance" is a LOT of expensive. Parts are expensive, and the engine is hard to work on because it's a V-design.

        I can swap injectors in a Cummins in 45 minutes. Probably 20 minutes if I were any kind of decent mechanic. What's book hours on injector swaps on the Duramax?
        warranty pays 8 hours {takes a couple of houirs to get the balance and flow tests ] , a true money loser on an LB7 - cp is like 20 hours,turbos and heads , I took the hint from the ford guys and lift the cab from the frame

        yeah - scummins are easier to work , especially the original tractor motored ones without efi
        stock , they do not come near the power of the duraload
        but the , I believe , the 8.1 outpowers em all
        I worked on an 8.1/allison - what a monster road test ! the symetrical heads work so well on the eight one , we will never see nothing like those again
        8.1 suburban is still my dream truck

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        • #49
          Re: Diesel Swaps Ain't Cheap: City to Spend $52K Per Vehicle

          I am in charge of Fleet Maintenance for my local County Parks & Recreation Dept., with 220 plus pieces of motorized equipment of all makes and models, gas and diesel, so I may be able to shead some light on why a City would make that kind of investment in the old equipment they have.

          In the way goverment budgets lay out, it most likely is easier for the City to get budget line funds for "Repairs" then to just spend a small amount more to just replace the equipment with new. I go through this every year when I make my equipment replacement requests. I'm told that the "tax payers" would rather have us repair our equipment to the dier end, then to replace it with new.

          If you look at large national Fleets across the US, you will see that they turn their equipment over in a shorter time frame because the nickel and diming adds up fast. Goverment steps over dollars, to get to pennies.

          I was just told by a friend about a local town Highway Dept. that is rebuilding a single axle International Dump/Plow truck because the town board won't approve funds for a new truck but, approved 90% of the cost towards repairs of the old truck to "save some money". The crew there is putting new frame rails, spring hangers, springs, cab mounts, tank mounts etc. etc. etc.,all because of rust, all in a truck that is a 1992, and has 100,000 miles, to "save some money".
          Jeremy George in Windsor NY

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          • #50
            Re: Diesel Swaps Ain't Cheap: City to Spend $52K Per Vehicle

            when I was at the public school district bus garage - we changed the oil on 26 quart cat oil pans every 1300 miles , a sweetheart deal with motor oil and waste oil guys
            government garages are festering piles of corruption in new york state

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            • #51
              Re: Diesel Swaps Ain't Cheap: City to Spend $52K Per Vehicle

              My 2 cents on the cummins/navistar debate..Before I became self employed I worked at a Ford dealer for 15 years and prior to that, Detroit diesels and Allisons for 10 years.The 6.9 and 7.3 idi's were good engines but weak as a kitten,especially the ones with C-6 automatics. Ford saw that the Cummins was getting better fuel mileage (still does to this day) and more torque which is what does the work. They sold their 10 percent share of Cummins to help Navistar develop the 7.3 powerstroke. When it came out we were bombarded with injector o ring upgrades,reprogramming PCM's for driveability issues.The 7.3 was still a fairly good engine but the Cummins has always had a lot less little things to go wrong. The 6.0 and 6.4 are JOKES in the diesel world. Go to a Ford dealer and see how many cabs are up in the air having head gaskets done,egr coolers,injector driver modules,turbo's replaced,oil coolers,injectors. Being self employed now for 7 years and working on the Cummins and Powerjokes I can tell you from experience that the Cummins is a better engine than the 6.0 or 6.4.The most common problem with the 5.9's are fuel related, lift pump failures causing injection pump failures on 98.5 to 02 models.And injector failures on 03 to 07's. You can thank the government for those problems by taking out most of the sulfur which lubricates fuel related parts. Failures on the 94.5 to 03 7.3's include injector driver modules,inector/glow plug pigtails either melting 95-97 or coming unplugged 99-03,injector replacement and fuel filter drain valves by the dozens caused by low sulfur fuel,water pump leaks,high pressure oil pump leaks,oil coolers leaking oil when cold, ICP sensors leaking oil,ICP regulator valves failing,cam sensors by the truckload, now recalled. Ford filed a lawsuit against Navistar on several areas so that ought to tell you something about dependability. One of my customers is an attourney and he has quit practicing everything except class action lawsuits against Ford for repeated failures on the 6.0. He mailed out 13,000 letters last month to local 6.0 owners. He is getting the typical owner with repeated problems from 8,000 to 10,000 dollars back from Ford.

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