Detroit Diesel

[five]

I'm looking for a forum that has a topic on Detroit Diesels. American Coach has started putting some DD13s in their coaches.

Any suggestions appreciated.

[obedb]

The Series60 Detroit that I had in my Western Star truck was an excellent choice. I do not know the DD13/ perhaps it is a downsized version of the newer Detroit that is in the 15 liter class. There are not as many choices out there in the way of big blocks.

[erniee]

I have had 3 Detroit Diesel engines in 3 different coaches. The best one is the Series 60. It is a 4 stroke, whereas the 6v92, 8v92 were 2 stroke and required specific weight oil.

[obedb]

I took a look at the website for the DD13. Very impressive. American Coaches seem to be side radiator configurations. That would give the tech easy access to the engine. The Detroit Diesel service centers that I know of have Allison Service as well. I am not talking about a Freightliner store. Detroit Diesel-Allison service centers. We have one about 30 miles from me along I-83 before you get to Harrisburg. They never let me down with my big rigs, and after we bought our humble RV I took it there for a full Allison service. I know truckers that miss their series 60 engines (built 1 million of them by the way) . They are running other power now but I am not telling the brand.

[jleamont]

Allegiance40x.

We have around 300 DD13's in our fleet here at work. It is actually a Daimler product (more on the Mercedes Benz line, than the Detroit line) not at all like the good old Series 60. We have very minor problems with the DD13, (usually just sensors and DEF component problems never major internal failure) good engine, much better on fuel than the series 60 (we also run those as well).

I have always liked the Series 60 it was a powerful dependable engine, good for a million miles if cared for properly.

Most of the true Detroit designs dropped off when Detroit was sold to Daimler, but still a great product.

[five]

Appreciate the information. It's hard to find info on the DD series, to include a forum. They do have some interesting maintenance practices. Oil changes are at 35k or 895 hours for RVs...no time restrictions. Same for fuel filters

[jleamont]

The only thing that I could see as a perceived problem is changing the fuel filters and priming them. We have a machine that connects to the housing after the filters are changed that primes the system. If you pay a dealer to do the work it shouldn’t be an issue, on the side of the road or at home could present a problem and I am not sure if there is another way around it without accidently introducing any dirt into the system.

[five]

My Allegiance, on a Spartan chassis, had a filter bay...last basement on the curb side. I could sit on a stool and change both filters. The DD on a Freightliner, still has the filters on the engine...think I'll let somebody else do that when it's time.

[John Shulse]

We have a 300 Mercedes in 07 Tour Master by Gulfstream. Love our motor home but we suddenly had engine light check, shut engine down. All gauges were good checked oil,tran,radiator all seemed OK. The engine ran fine but would stay on. Had Mobil diesel mechanic come, pressure checked the radiator inspected engine.When you slow down will go off then come back on as you apply accelerator.

Where is the code check(It a freight liner chassis)?
Any help
John Shulse
jshulse1938@gmail.com

[tbutler]

John,

You may want to start this as a new topic since your engine is not a Detroit Diesel. If you put Mercedes 300 and Gulfstream in the title of the topic you should get some specific answers to help.