How Just One Mistake Destroyed The World's Greatest Engine Company

Comments · 408

• ME

  @MettleUK · 2 months ago · pinned

  The stories we tell here, written down properly. Read the first chapter free — no cost, no card: <a href="https://mettlehistory.co.uk/">https://mettlehistory.co.uk</a>

• MA

  @MartinStinnett-x6l · 3 months ago

  I have a 1985 Prevost XL LeMirage tour bus with a rebuilt 8V92 Detroit in it. The same engine it always has been, no engine management computer, no three week down time in the shop, just good, honest horsepower doing it&apos;s job day in and day out without complaining, in fact, singing at the top of it&apos;s lungs, celebrating what it is. And if the driver, me, keeps his right foot in check, she delivers equal, adequate MPG and hardly any soot from the tail pipe, as todays problem plagued Volvos and Cummins attempting to do the same, and carries the bus she is in and the musicians who count on it forty or so weeks a year to deliver the music they make to a continent wide fan base, the old Silver 92 is the very foundation of our income and the duty we have to play the same old songs for the same North American continent that we have always played for and makes the smiles appear, ear to ear, and the toes tap on the hard wood dance floors, and gives this world a reason to pause and enjoy life again for a few brief moments every time the Detroit Diesel powered home away from home we exist in pulls up to the load in door of any dance hall, bar, or music festival, that we are summoned to and does it with a 98 percent on time schedule! Long live the wonderful two stroke Detroit Diesel Silver 8V92!

  122

• WI

  @williesweetjr8713 · 3 months ago

  Drove a 12,000-gallon jet fuel tanker powered by 6V71 GMC. Started first time every time in heat of summer and dead cold of winter. Mechanics only had to perform oil and filter changes.

  82

• DE

  @debrabolton7748 · 3 months ago

  Dad drove a GMC Cracker Box w/6V71 hauling steel in the 60s out of the plants in Gary and East Chicago to the auto plants in Michigan. As a young boy, I can remember that screaming Jimmy even now. I miss him and that sound so much.<br><br>In the 70s he had an Astro w/12V71. I remember washing it and cleaning it inside and out. By then, the economy made it too hard for an owner operator to survive and he then drove company trucks down south where I was working. He worked at the manufacturing plant where I was production manager. He drove a Peterbilt till he retired after a few years. He died almost immediately. It&apos;s been 36 years since he has been gone. I am an old man now. I miss him so badly. I still have his final Peterbilt key ring. I will give it to my son before I die.

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• MR

  @mr19471985 · 3 months ago

  I was the president of Viking truck which built a front discharge truck, I used &nbsp;6-71 TT as the main engine and we had a very good unit, I sold the plant in 1980 and it was closed down,

  22

• TI

  @timhill4451 · 3 months ago

  I drove a Western Star dump truck with an 8-71 and a straight pipe, had to wear earplugs and ear muffs to drive that thing. It was old, had a very rough life but it always started and did the job.

  11

• MB

  @mbazzy123 · 3 months ago

  The sound of that engine winding up just makes me smile. It&apos;s so distinctive and so powerful.

  3

• KN

  @knightmare1015 · 3 months ago

  Another saying that I fondly remember from my trucking days about the old 2 stroke Detroit diesel engines was &quot;if wasn&apos;t leaking oil, it didn&apos;t have any oil&quot;. My favorite diesel engines was the Cat C18, Detroit 60 Series, and there was 2 from Cummins that I liked. The Cummins N14 Celect Plus with a 13 speed transmission and a Cummins 600 Signature Series with a super 10 speed transmission. We fondly called it the &quot;stupid 10 transmission&quot;. These engines that I liked had no &quot;def fluid&quot; and in some cases had better emissions than today&apos;s engines with the def fluid.

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• JU

  @July.4.1776 · 3 months ago

  Drove 871 NA 318HP in a Chevrolet Astro.. 671 238HP in a GMC Brigadier… 8V92 in GMC General..

  4

• NO

  @NoferTrunions · 3 months ago

  I&apos;m 73 and always loved the sound of the Detroit Diesel. &nbsp;They were BadAss

  11

• HA

  @haydenwatson7987 · 3 months ago

  In the early 1980&apos;s I drove a truck with a 12v-71. &nbsp;Fun engine. &nbsp;One night, it grenaded 3 cylinders and threw fire 50&apos; into the air from both stacks. &nbsp;It was towed to the shop and parked on the lot. &nbsp;In the morning, the mechanic wanted to turn it over to make sure it would rotate. &nbsp;He reset the emergency dampers and bumped the starter and the darn thing fired up. &nbsp;He drove it into the shop and tore it down. &nbsp;three cylinders had softball sized holes through the wall but it still ran.

  44

• TO

  @tonytartaglia1740 · 1 month ago

  Used to hear these being broken in on the Dyno love there note