chaikwa

Yes, I have proof to support the statement; A man by the name of Ellis Harvey, an instructor/engineer with Caterpillar in Florida. (May be dead by now for all I know... it was the early 80's when I took a class he taught). He told the classes he taught that in his 30-something years with Cat, they had never been able to get the service life out of any V configuration diesel that they could with an inline, due primarily to the inability to internally balance a V engine. Other issues involve heavy parts and more of them as well as side stresses on the crankshaft that are not seen in an inline. There were other reasons too that I don't readily recall, but I remember spending the better part of a whole day discussing this issue. I would imagine that all V configured diesels suffer the same basic principles that Mr Harvey spoke of, thus my comment.

chaikwa.

chaikwa

I agree with your view to a point. I had a 7.3 in a 1600 series International. I took immaculate care of that thing, but it worked hard everyday. It didn't go a million miles! 246k actually before it started having blow-by issues.

But I agree that in a light duty application that'll probably NOT see any regular amount of work, it would last substantially longer. I also think however, that an inline would last longer under working conditions.

Just my one cent worth.

chaikwa.

randallp84

I was referring to the first post in the thread. You don't have to explain to me why I-6s last longer than V-8s because I understand the fundamentals.

chaikwa

I'm sorry. Your post was right under mine, so I thought you were addressing me.

Go to the breakroom and grab a coffee on me!

chaikwa.

randallp84

Thanks for the apology. I should have made it more clear that I was referring to the first post. I don't drink coffee, is there any beer in the fridge?

hoot

I think the highest dynoed 7.3 Powerstroke was Greg's (DockBoy) at over 800hp. It blew up. Seems like the V's aren't as strong overall mechanically.

chaikwa

The boss won't allow it. With that said, <it's under the fuzzy stuff in the tupperware container on the bottom shelf of the fridge!>

chaikwa.

Raspy

You might be confusing how Ford shortcuts everything as far as possible with an inherant design problem. Or because someone was able to blow something up under race conditions that that somehow proves it's weak. How does a blown up racing Powerstroke prove that all V8s are weak?

Most heavy trucks are inlines and the inlines that are available are very serious machines such as Cat, Cummins, etc. Cummins makes V8s too and I don't hear about them constantly blowing up because they are such a poor design.

I chose an inline for my truck and I'm glad I did, but I see no value in claiming that it is scientifically proven to be the "best" and therefore V8s are somehow no good. Each design has it's advantages and disadvantages. The choice depends on what it will be used for, where it is to be installed, etc. Cummins builds a very strong inline and Ford builds a very weak V8. That's more of a manufacturing problem than an architecture problem.

hoot

Notice I used "seems like"