So at work today they were clearing everything off of the upper lot where we park the overflow trucks and the trucks we don't really use anymore. My job was to see if I could get an old 1990 Gradall truck that is used for making splices in high line power lines running enough to make it about 1/4 mile to the shop. When I went to look at it I found that it had an old C-series Cummins 8.3 in it.  I was told that the truck had not been started in five years. I checked the fluids and everything was there, you could tell it had been there a while. I went to the shop and grabbed a couple of batteries and replaced the 2008 batteries with them. Also I had taken some tools with me because I was prepared to have a fight on my hands. When I jumped in the cab, I wiped the dust off of everything and turned the key. I was shocked because it literally took less than a second before it fired up. One puff of white smoke and she purred like a kitten.  Getting it back to the shop was a little scary because the brake pedal was sticking and so was the accelerator. When I wheeled in the garage no one could believe it. Our company is hard core International, so when I shut it down, I fired it right back up and told them that is the reason they should switch to Cummins!

Even the Brazilian copies are very hardy. Had one in a bucket truck that just ran & ran.

 

Ed

I got to admit there is nothing like a good Cummins. Funny though in the industrial world for over the road truck most didn't like them.

I got to admit there is nothing like a good Cummins. Funny though in the industrial world for over the road truck most didn't like them.

Most didn't understand or know how to work on the bigger Cummins as they did things a bit different on the 855 / N14 / ISX and the L10 which turned into the M11 and ISM series and were not as simple as other engines.

The 8.3 was like the 5.9 a very common probably the most common engines in the mid sized truck, bus and motor home coach market and were easy to work on and very reliable and bullet proof.

 

I think I have worked on the 8.3 cummins more than any other engine besides the 3400 and 3500 series Cat engines over my career.

The 8.3 was used in every application one can imagine, very extremely common in trucks, ag and construction equipment lines.