Thursday, March 15, 2012

DT 466 Diesel Engine Overview

DT 466 Diesel Engine Overview & Why I Think They Rock!



I found that Wikipedia is a great resource for information. For example here is a link for info on the DT466 Diesel Engine. That's what the Internet is all about..... The 'information highway' as you may have heard before is what the internet is here for. Google has a mandate to supply the best information online to answer your question. If you need diesel engine information... 9.99 out of 10 times you will find the details you are looking for. 


That's my plug for Wikipedia, I've used it many times before for basic information. But now I want to plug my own experiences and thoughts on the DT466 as I know it. 


These diesel engines were designed for the owner operator/fleet operator. They have a wet sleeve...this is the key. You can rebuild in-frame and save a ton of time and money.


If you have ever rebuilt a dry sleeve engine you will know exactly what I mean. Imagine you have a collapsed piston and you have to pull the head, oil pan and remove one of the pistons that has either scored the liner or has broken a piston ring. 


A dry sleeve design means the complete engine has to be removed, stripped down and the block sent out to the machine shop for boring and re-sleeving. You need to find a very good machine shop that knows what they're doing. 


OK pain in the butt right?


Now looking at the wet sleeve design of the DT diesel engine all you need to do is pull the head and the oil pan...replace the liner and piston kit. Done..bingo bango kick'er out... back into service!


So if you're looking for a good used truck, try as hard as you can to find one with a mechanical injected DT 466 Diesel Engine! 
My 2 cents...


Please Comment!





6 comments :

Anonymous said...

Can you give us a list of trucks with a mechanical injected DT 466? Maybe even rate them from most favorable to least favorable?

Thanks, I really like the blog!

Unknown said...

The DT466 is only available in International trucks in the medium duty range.

Nancy Knaack said...

Nice information, thanks towards the author. It can be incomprehensible to me now in general, the usefulness and significance has my head spinning. Thanks again and best of luck!
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Unknown said...

Pretty good post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have really enyed reading your blog posts. Any way I'll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you post again soon.


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Buskenny said...

I have a 95 Thomas with a dt466. I love it. I just completed a 4000 mile trip through the west. I even climbed to the bristle one pine forest at 10000 feet! What is the safe operating speed of this engine? I drive only 55 and it runs 2250 rpm. I shift,at max, at2500 from 3rd to forth because the gear ratio is wide. I also heard the power can be increased. What is involved with upping the power? I'm a poor man so I dread the time when something goes wrong. Which spare parts should I begin to acquire so I'll be ready? Thanks!so

Unknown said...

BusKenny,
2500 rpm would be around the governed setting. Just don't coast with a load and over run that rpm. You can't predict what parts you may need and I'm not one for recommending jacking up the fuel setting since it stretches the limits of the engineering and you might experience an unwelcome failure. Just run it nice and maintain it to the Max!