When to tune up a detroit diesel from my expriances of having seen inside hundreds.

I have had the experience of having the heads off and been inside engines that have had up to and over 2 million miles on one engine. I know this because I have a few customers that I do their every repair on and that is their actual mileage from my maintenance tips and repairs and these trucks are clean and running coast to coast on a daily basis and have a minimum repair on the road like lights or an alternator. They say that my repair advice is the best most honest cost effective diesel repair That they have ever found. That is what i take pride in and i will always tell you what is wrong with your truck you might not like it but its my job and you can fix it or go on down the road the choice is yours its your truck.

My repairs when i take on a truck I want them for every service if possible. Some I only see every 2 or 3 services it depends in the age of truck and drivers expectations of the truck. I will go over the truck with my eyes and hands and I will know if and what is not going to make it at least 20,000 to the next service like drive line, belts, breaks, slack adjusters, seals, ect.

I have took on accounts like ADM and a Un named union car hauling companies and performed all their maintenance and the only bad review is the first couple services that I pick on the truck and request a list of repairs and after that they say my repair costs according to their other terminals I average thousands less in repairs a year on each truck with almost 0 road repairs. These companies have sent their supervisors and Foreman's to check these trucks over to see which ones to trade off since they are asuming they are raggs by what their repair bills are and they are amazed and say they are some of the best trucks in their whole fleet and they want to keep all of them in their fleet and usually give bonuses to the supervisors and drivers like more trucks, bigger plant operations and more bonuses like better fuel milage incentives. That's enuf about me i am just trying to give some examples of how much trust my customers have in me my crew and my procedures.

When to tune up a Detroit diesel? I am going to talk about a Detroit because it is the one diesel engine that valve adjustment is most critical to not have engine failure! A Detroit diesel has one of the smallest longest valve stem which makes it the most fragile of all diesels. I have ran the overhead on hundreds of these at every mileage range you can imagine. A Detroit diesel has the tightest intake valve setting of .008 where most other diesel engine's are in the teens. A Detroit diesels valves are one of the worst for the valve to wear up into the head and the valve get tight since the valve head is so small compared to others.

Here's a tip for you truckers from experience every Detroit diesel that I have disassembled that dropped a valve there was 0 valve lash on all other cyls and they were all very tight to the point that the valve doesn't seat tightly. My opinion of why it dropped a valve is from neglect around 99percent of the time. The other times I find a Detroit diesel with dropped valve I find markings in the carbon build up on the top of the piston from worn out rings and has been burning lots of oil. That's how close everything gets inside. Its also shows how fragile the valve is that if carbon starts touching the valves it makes the valve head wobble. Any at all for a very short time the head just pops off It usualy dropes a valve from this when when the jakes are on is what the truck driver has told me. I have fixed motors that others have overhauled their self and dropped valves aft 3 sec of running from having the cam timing off and there was the smallest marks on the tops piston and it dropped 3 cyls in 3 sec the owner couldn't believe how fragile they were and wished i would have done the work instead of their self to save a buck.

So how often you want to know? I recommend running the overhead on a Detroit diesel The first time at 100,000 and every 300,000 to 500,000 aft that depending on what the driving conditions are and how much you idle. If you have your foot on the floor all day hauling rock with a Allison I recommend the lowest. If you are over the road and have a gen pack of some kind you can push it to the max. If you idle every night I would recommend somewhere in the middle. If you have a valve job or a new head on your Detroit diesel you need to start this procedure all over!

I will recommend any time you have the valve cover off to set the valves and inj on a Detroit diesel! This procedure will ensure that you will have done everything you could possably do to ensure you never drop a valve and you will get the most mileage with the best fuel milage you passably can out of your Detroit diesel engine.

I have had claims of receiving up to 1 mpg better mileage after a tune up. That should be enuf reason right there to never neglect your overhead on your Detroit diesel engine.