Anyone know about Inter DV 550 V8s ?

[Inter Bloke]

My nephews father in law has just bought a truck with one of these old IH DV 550 Diesel V8s in it. Aparently it has very low oil pressure when idling hot and a lot of rattle at mid rev range no load. Talking to him it may only be Diesel rattle but as I havn't seen the engine involved I was wondering if anyone with experiance on these could tell me are they noisy when running and do they run very low oil presure at idle or am I looking at deeper trouble ?
He recons it seems to run OK and is very economical but is a bit worried about the above.

Graham

[PFT]

Inter Bloke, we ran one of those in our tow truck for several years. They are not known to be great engines, but you can get decent service out of them with a little care. Ours suddenly dropped oil pressure one day, I pulled the oil pan and checked out the pump. Found a small metal chip caught in one of the pressure relief valves (they use 2, big pump). The rod bearings are a weak point these, we replaced them with 9 liter (a newer version of the DV550) bearings, they are slightly narrower and require a small notch to be ground in the cap (I think) for the tang.
The best thing to do to preserve these is to cut governed speed down to 2600 rpm, the factory setting of 3000 rpm is to high.
Have to go now, if you have more ? you can contact me later.
PT

[Inter Bloke]

Thanks for that Paul, I hope to see the truck in the next couple of weeks so I may get back to you after that when I have a better idea whats happening with it.

Graham

[Ray Freeman]

What is it about Quairiding blokes and Inters Maybe your neighbor should have had one instead of that 3306 he's rebuilt 4 times in the last month

[Inter Bloke]

Had to rebuild the 3306 in our own Leader before harvest last year but at least its still going.

All joking aside, Ozfarm will be getting really cheesed off with it, its been a nightmare !

And as for Inters, Reds a nice colour !

[PFT]

Graham, have you had a chance to check out the truck yet?
A little more info on the DVious 550:
The narrower 9liter bearings are a good thing. The big end of the rod is offset to one side and the wide bearings seem to flex the rod slightly causing uneven wear. The narrow bearings center up under the rod beam better and reduce this problem.
These engines have an injector pump that cuts off fuel to 4 cyl. when starting, idling, and running at light load. I understand that this was an attempt to reduce smoking. 8cyl of air and only 4cyl of fuel, diluted smoke, the EPA probably loved it.
1 other wierd thing, they usually have a knob on the dash labled "swirl destroyer". This thing was a butterfly type valve in 4 of the intake runners close to the ports in the heads. You use it just like a choke on a gas motor, pull it out to start and push it in after a little warmup, push it in to soon in cold weather and it quits.
Good luck with it.
PT

[Inter Bloke]

Paul, I still havn't heard it run !
My nephew has it in bits at the moment fixing a roadranger gearbox problem (not serious),but apart from the engine noise they are very happy with it. He is going to check out the condition of the oil pump and see what it's like now he has a bit of time. Aparently it's very economical (compared to a 360 Dodge petrol) and they are happy with its starting and running performance, but still woried about the noise.

I will let you know how we get on ,
Graham

[PFT]

Graham, ours was fairly good on fuel. I ran it from Marietta NY to Rochester NY one day and towed back an auger truck. This was an F800 with a 534 Super Duty gas motor and 4wd. I guess that it wieghed around 20,000 lbs. Our tow truck wieghed 15,000 lbs. We figured that the old DVious got about 10 mpg. Not too bad considering the gross and taking all secondary roads on the way back, never got into high gear or over 40 mph.
PT

[ozfarm]

Originally Posted by Inter Bloke

Had to rebuild the 3306 in our own Leader before harvest last year but at least its still going.

All joking aside, Ozfarm will be getting really cheesed off with it, its been a nightmare !

And as for Inters, Reds a nice colour !

cheesed off would be something of a understatement

[PFT]

Inter Bloke, how has the DV 550 worked out?
I haven't heard anything and was just wondering if it was still running.
PT