Quote:
Originally Posted by Steel Horse Cowboy
Well here is what I decided to do...... I am keeping the IH and selling the FLD. The Peterbilt dealership offered me $14,000 cash for it and i said why not. The IH is paid for and just turned 500k miles. It has the ACERT kitty which sucks ass but I am going to make a few changes like Tracer said and get rid of the muffler system and go free-flow and also some PDI upgrades.
I think that's a right decision. I'm also keeping mine for a year or two more. Talked to a bank who does Small Business Loans (guaranteed by the Government) and it's now here prime + 3 or 6%. She ran some numbers and with 10% down the monthly payment would still be 2 grand on a 120K truck. So, I'm going to keep mine for now...
Re: the CAT - I'm telling you, once you get rid of that stupid muffler and make sure there's no leaks anywhere (charge air cooler, exhaust manifold) you should see good fuel mileage. If you can afford to spend a couple grand on an extrude honed manifold, that'd help too. I noticed a difference once I did the change on mine. When my local CAT runs specials on top set work, I do that on top of the regular PM.
Once in a while I go to the CAT or International dealer and ask them to pressure-test all clamps on the air-to-air hoses (turbo-charge air cooler - back to engine). The clamps may SEEM tight but it happened to me more than once ... under pressure there were bubbles coming from under there and the mechanic had to tighten them even more - until bubbles stopped appearing.
All this stuff affects the fuel mileage.
By the way, my International just turned 500,000 miles; so there's no reason why your truck shouldn't get the same mileage as mine.