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Old 01-16-2009, 06:46 PM   #33
Baker
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City: League City, Tx
Vessel Name: Floatsome & Jetsome
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Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 7,332
RE: My engines are better than yours

No sweat Willy and no offense taken. The only reason for my short answer on my previous post was that I was posting via a PDA and it isn't all that fun doing that. So I had to leave out any tact and go straight to the point. My point was and FF I think has made it best, is that there is really no free lunch in the longevity of engines. That Cummins engine is a fairly "small" displacement engine. In it's NA form it produces 115hp. I LOVE THAT PARTICULAR ENGINE AND WISH IT WERE MORE POPULAR. That is an emotional statement because I do believe the Cummins 6BT to be a great engine in it's own right...I can only Imangine the NA version. But 5.9 liters all the way out to 450hp(most I have seen from this engine....maybe there are more powerful versions) and you are giveing up engine life...it really is as simple as that. If you have a powerful engine of the 6BT and you run the piss out of it, it will not last you very long. You take that same engine and go easy on it, it will likely provide more service life(in hours). I think the 210hp version ofthis engine will provide many many years of truoble free service. You start increasng te horsepower, and you start increasng the "trouble" and decreasing the longevity....nothing mysterious about that. That s my point. My opinion is formed by evey higher time Cummins boat I have seen has at least one rebuilt engine on it and likely 2 with the seller boasting that fact. Now take the 3208. It is 210hp in its NA version. That engine will last forever much like the Lehmans and Perkins. A popular version of the 3208T has 375hp. I have seen those engines well into the 4000 hour range and still providing good service. I would say the 375hp version of the Cat is synonomous to the 210hp version of the Cummins....both mildly turbocarged but not stretching it. When you force enough air and fuel to quadruple the power of the NA version, then I think you are asking for a shortened life span of that engine.

And as far as the reference to "normally aspirated" Detroits, I was just going with what the industry calls them and actually yuo made my whole point.....that I think they are "wierd" when you call an engine NA when it actually has a supercharger on it. It was a tremendous surprise to me when I learned that about 5 years ago. And my added point was that it is just one more thing to go wrong with it....and they don't look "normal" to me. But as we all know they are fine engines....and yes, I do engine the noise they make....the smoke....not so much.

It's all good brutha Willy!!!

John
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