Does anyone know much about this engine? I was told by the seller to of my 84 35' Regency to run with a larger filter and on the low mark of the dip stick. He said it would blow oil if not ran on the low side.

I was also told by the seller to run at 1700 rpm. I did this but found that I have an oil leak. I was just told by a friend that these motors will blow oil if not ran at a high enough RPM, that I should be running at 2100 rpms. Does anyone know this to be true?

I was also told by this person that Detroit tried to go with a 15w40 oil and then 6 months later sent out a bulletin to go back to the 40W oil, year around, as the 15w40 causes oil leaks and usage.

I don't know anything about this engine to speak of, but I've "been down the road" with GM/DD and oil issues.

"Blowing oil" is basically a cop-out term. The topic is oil consumption, and I wish I had a buck for every "mission statement" GM made about its diesels. They "come-and-go" regarding the use of multi-viscosity oils. Use of a 40 (not 40W) oil year-round makes no sense.

Leaky seals is "leaky seals", and there may be some seepage in the engines front and rear seals. But if the oil's "blowing out" of these seals, that's a symptom of blow-by (meaning a problem with leaky piston rings causing overpressure in the crankcase).

It won't necessarily be cheap, but a compression/leakage test would be in order for this engine. A leakage test will disclose leaky cylinders. If the engine fails the leakage test, an overhaul is usually in order, or at least a switch to an oil like Rotella T ot Mobil Delvac to see if the problem is stuck rings. Blow-by is not something that will usually get better by itself, and it can lead to catastrophic failure of the engine.

Like I said, I'm unfamiliar with the oddities of this engine, but it seems to me what you've been told approaches parity with the fecal deposits of a bovine male...

My information is that the engine has tubes on top of the head that allows oil to leak out. I have not gotten all of the information yet so do not know much more than this.

The shop that did the service told me that I have a leak on the top of the head and that I would have to have the head pulled to fix the part that is leaking. This will not be cheap! My next stop is the Detroit Diesel dealer to find out if this is correct for this model.

I know you don't want to hear this but... The motor has issues, Detroit Dealers don't even want to work on these motors so expect a run around. They are known as "THE throwaway motor" because of the lack of a cylinder liner.

DON'T EVER overheat them. If the temp. starts to rise pull over and let it cool down... FIX the problem there and don't attempt to make it to the next exit.

How many miles are on yours?

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http://www.truckroadservice.com/

The early ones, like early CAT 3208's, had head/gasket/bolt problems. A friend who is a DD service mgr. said they were reasonably good engines after the modifications. Mostly the DD dealers don't want to work on them anymore because they have been out of production so long that none of the mechanics have much experience with them, so can't make any money beating the "flat rate" system. They stopped making them because they couldn't get them to meet emissions requirements, not because they were so bad (after the fixes). CAT 3208's are also no longer being made because of the same reasons. He also told me that if you have ANY trouble to speak of with the engine... save a water pump or something ancillary like that, that you should simply replace the entire engine with a current re-man from DD. The latest having all of the engineering "fixes". Cheaper in the long run. Sure confirms Bill's "disposable" statement. He also said, like Bill, under NO CIRCUMSTANCES do you want to let it overheat. PERIOD. So, keep an eye on the temp. gauge.

[This message has been edited by duteman (edited October 10, 2005).]

I should not have implied "all" mechanics... there might be some "old" ones around who remember working on these engines... (see post elsewhere about "old" guys being able to figure stuff out, "young" ones being parts-changers, etc.!).

If (when) mine goes I'm planning to put in a new CAT engine... not a reman-3208, as they are a dying breed also, but one of the newer, more efficient types. about 10k, 2-3k more than a reman DD 8.2. I have just under 60k miles on my coach, these 8.2's are reputed to be long in the tooth at 175,000, so, I'm hoping for another 100k.

P.S. jefflarsen: How is the radiator on your coach? Mine was not leaking, but it was flaking fins, enough that I had it rebuilt. While it was out, since it was all open, I put in a new water pump and front oil seal. And a new oil pan. I still have an oil leak, but it is a miniscule one. Good Luck!

I remember working on these engines for Roadway Express. They bought a fleet of these for the Ford C-800 series truck.

I have replaced blown head gaskets only to have the other one blow out a short time later. Unless you have a very special injector timing tool don't try this at home. These motors always leaked and that made the DOT inspectors very mad. The motors seemed to go about 150,000 miles before any major problems.

Now the reason I suspect they had so much problems is that a company driver will always make it to the diner, next exit or back to the barn if it's late enough in the day. The motors would overheat and because they had no investment in the rig they kept driving them till they blew up! I also blame the mentality of the dispatchers who tell drivers to go to the next stop 40 miles away and call them with a report.

We had several blow up because the drivers would put cardboard in front of the radiator in the winter time and then when it warmed up never took it out. I don't blame them for putting it there to keep warm it's the taking it out part that always amazed me!

I work on diesel engines for a lot of companies in this area and only saw Roadway's trucks at the worst time. You never see a truck until it won't run anymore. Out of all of the engines that were made around the time of the 8.2 years these were by far the most trouble.

The funny thing with the oil leaks, we never had one blow up from low oil. All of the problems we had came from overheating and injectors.

The easiest fixes were the no start complaints. The fuel shutdown solenoids would burn up. You would just pull it off and remove the plunger until the part came in.

When you shut down an earlier style Detroit the gov would force the injectors to go to full throttle under the valve cover. So when you start one of these up it would start up and rev then bump around till the gov kept it in the idle range. This is what we call a humming and surging condition. If it wasn't for there breakaway racks the motors with injector problems would have blown up from over revving.

Because of there injector design it had a governor just like what was found on the big Detroit Diesels that were made way back in the 40-50s till the 80s. This style gov. is very confusing to the average mechanic and required a lot of special tools to set.

The good news! There are a few drivers that loved their truck and working for the companies. If their truck ran hot they would pull over and wait for roadservice or a tow truck. These drivers had their trucks go 250-350,000 miles. We still have one in the fleet that has over 700,000 miles and has been well maintained. No one drives this guys truck because it still looks like it came out of the factory. It is a daily driver and he takes care of it!

So the moral is "NEVER OVERHEAT IT" and keep a drip pan for where you park it. The joke was... buy a detroit and get free rust proofing. It's kind of hard to have a truck rust out that's covered in oil.

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http://www.truckroadservice.com/

Finally! I've got HOPE for the future! Bill you're the best! I see the silver lining in every little rain cloud. I'm a nut about maintenance, and have got my leaker down to a small drip... "a drop a mile" I say, probably a quart every thousand. Not so bad.