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Odd engine question ?

Started by BargeMonkey, July 05, 2016, 11:14:48 PM

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BargeMonkey

 I know a few of you guys own trucks, I've asked around but figured I would ask here. Anyone have any good / bad experience with an MBE 4000 Mercedes-Benz engine. 450hp, 12.8 liter I believe. Fairly low milage. I've heard they had headgasket issues, that's the concern with this one. Good or bad engines ???

starmac

I have heard they have had issues, low power compared to others and shorter lives. I have no first hand info, but they never caught on in the bigger fleets, and from what I have seen, their reslae value is near nonexistant.
Old LT40HD, old log truck, old MM forklift, and several huskies.

bushmechanic

 They are expensive to rebuild. The guy that buys our firewood has several in some Freightliner's and he hates them. He asked me lately if I would help him rewire one of his trucks, he is going to replace the MBE 4000 with a C12  Cat. I worked with the Dept. of Transportation we had a fleet of them with very little trouble in Sterling's. Most of the issues we had at the highway's were fuel related.... broken lines, pump drives slacking up, etc.     

snowstorm

i know someone that had 175 of them at one time. they were good on fuel. like the others said. low power short life. mb said they may not make it to 500k miles. weak engine brake

coxy

the guy that hauls our ash logs has one in his tractor and says its junk has had lots of trouble with it      barge you know the hill on rt8 from deposit to masonville  he can only pull that hill at 25-30mph with 6000ft of ash he has a pic of another guy passing him with a t trailer loaded with logs  :o :o

BargeMonkey

 I live and work in some rugged hilly terrain and have dragged my timbco around with a  350hp mack tractor for yrs.  :D I wouldn't know what to do with 550hp and 18spd.   I see ALOT of Sterling trucks out there with these in them, we only know of 1 guy out here with 1 in a triaxle and he actually claimed to like it. The truck is beyond clean, waiting on a spot at Detroit Allison to find out how bad a head is. I guess the C-12 /C-13 swap has been done quite a bit, calling around today while I'm stuck on the boat to find out exactly what's involved.

starmac

If your 350 mack is healthy, I doubt you are looking at much of an upgrade as far as power goes, with the mercedes or the c12 or 13. Them macks are just torquey for their horsepower rating. Now comfort rating may be a different story. Sterling trucks themselves just never got very popular with the owner operator crowd either for one reason or other. I have never driven one one inch, so can't personally say anything bad about them. I used to know all the guys that picked up new trucks and delivered them to all the major shows, they literally hated sterlings to a man, but that was several years ago, haven't been around those guys for about 12 years.
Old LT40HD, old log truck, old MM forklift, and several huskies.

coxy

we had an old mack and dad use to say it went up hill so slow he could count the fleas on the bulldogs butt  :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

millcreek40

I have a old mack dm690. 300 hp log truck. It only has 111000 original miles. It doesn't go uphill fast empty or loaded!!  A old timer that used to work for my father said it not how fast you go over the hill. It's how many times you do it!!  Seems like the low hp ones last longer. Of course I am a little late getting there but it always seems to get it done
Two 240A Timberjacks, Mack log truck, Multitek 2040 wood processor.

treeslayer2003

barge......i wouldn't touch a sterling or ford with a ten foot pole. i have a 95 ford i'm going to get rid of soon if that tells ya any thing. they are white elephants, can't get cab parts.

Loghauler86

I have heard about the the difficulty with cab parts. Seems as though freight liner wants nothing to do with Sterling now. I have not heard much good about the MBE engine either. I am a Paccar fan, they command more money but it's for a reason. I can get every single part for our 1989 T-800 KW.

snowstorm

ford hasnt built a class 8 truck in the us since 1997. they are still built in europe

BargeMonkey

Quote from: treeslayer2003 on July 06, 2016, 05:39:37 PM
barge......i wouldn't touch a sterling or ford with a ten foot pole. i have a 95 ford i'm going to get rid of soon if that tells ya any thing. they are white elephants, can't get cab parts.
I grew up with the LTS's, LTS and LT 9000's, they honestly where not a bad truck. I know some of the parts are getting harder to get, my county highway depth paid dearly for an OEM hood for their newer sterling tractor. My father basically wanted a sister to the others, and we have had good luck with these sterlings so far, other than cracked dashes they are a pretty tough truck. Just hoping this Mercedes-Benz isn't to odd or expensive, I see alot of them out there and it's a 1/2 love 1/2 hate from everyone we have talked to.
The 237 R-model we had left 4-5yrs ago, another truck you couldn't kill.  :D 

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