Gambi80

I bought mine because it was cheap...the best bang for the buck at the time I was looking. It works quite well for what I do with it, construction/end dump work and goes where my brother's Pete won't go half the time. Typical maintenence and a few other odds and ends I've thrown at it and it's been a good truck...1997 CH with 645k miles. I've got some before and after pictures I'll have to post up sooner or later.

Hmm...mine must either work differently or improperly. Service guy said low/hi is either half or full jake. I had the floor pan off last winter and could see the air cylinder open and shut the valve for both.

I had it fixed at the local Mack dealer here last year...new solenoids, ran the rack and so on. They say..."it works great!!.." It worked well for a while, but now there's no difference between low/hi. I unhooked the exhaust brake underneath just to see if the jake on the motor was working at all and it was-only on the low side. I guess I want to know if these things can go "bad" and if so, if it needs to be replaced if one off a later model engine would bolt right up and do away with the exhaust brake and be more effective...for simplicity.

I've got a '97 CH with the "stealth" engine brake. I'm just curious what all is different with the regular jake vs. the stealth in my Mack. All I've been able to find is that other than the obvious lack of noise and the butterfly in the exhaust and from what I've read, stiffer valve springs. Mine doesn't work with a crap really and I guess what I'm getting at is could mine be changed to the "regular" style...with minimal engine mods...?

I've got a 97 427 you could buy if you don't want to tear that one apart. I'd have to say I'm content with the power. It'll hang with most Mack 460's I've run with and outrun a couple 400-ish hp N-14's. Unfortunately, there's no replacement for displacement. I'd like to score a C-16 600hp Cat some day.

What are you looking for...maybe I'll sell you mine...

That'd be a good price...50k at the least. Sharp lookin truck.

I've found mine gets the best overall milage around 1350-1400rpm. 22.5 tall, 3:86 and 18sp. The bulk of my work is hourly, so 55 mph is max (nobody wants an over-achiever)...but that puts me almost between gears...1250rpm or 1500. Best I've been able to pull out of it is 7.65 mpg.

By the way, for the initial poster...GO CUBS!!! Anyway, the main truck stops around here...Sapp Bro's and the now bankrupt Flying Hook and I think Loves...have their islands split between low sulfer and ultra-low sulfer, all of which are bio. I've noticed a difference in MPG's between ULSD and the 'regular'.

I ordered from JpChrome almost 2 months ago and have yet to receive what I bought...back ordered the email says...

I've got a '97 CH and run the bio all the time. I've never had any problems with it, just add an additive when it gets cold. Usually Stanidyne(not sure on the spelling)...and have had no trouble. I too am in north central IL.

It wasn't brake cleaner per se, but some kind of cleaner in an aerosol can... Anyway, I figured just some water and an air gun would do it. Every time I turn the fan on med. or hi the cab is invaded with the bees wings. lol Thanks for the tips...next rainy (or snowy, already) day I'm going to get it done.

It's the bees-wings among other things also. I work construction most of the year, so the ins and outs in different quarries does it too and the dust in general does it. I've had those filters on it since I've bought it, but the crap still finds its way in.

Bah...if it's in kilometers it's in the wrong part of the world for me! 12 & 38/40 are all I'd need tho.

I had a suggestion by someone to use some sort of brake/parts cleaner on the cores to dissolve the crap then blow it off/out. The part I'm fuzzy on is getting to it. I'm thinking on the lower right side of the doghouse (or whatever you call it) under the dash there's a curved big piece of plastic that comes out with a few screws. If removing that exposes things enough I'd be happy.

I've got a 97 CH that needs the heater core/AC blown out. Anyone have some reasonably easy tricks to do so without having to tear the whole dash/dog house apart? The dust and beeswings have taken their toll. Thanks in advance!

How 'bout the spec's? Is it a daycab? I wouldn't mind having something like that, if set up the way I want.

I was thinking about re-routing mine the same way you did...between the filter and the turbo. I didn't know if there was some methodology with that or not and the service guy I had asked didn't know either. The up-side I guess is that it pumps up PDQ when you're at full throttle.

Yea, I've hauled sludge before...dredged out of the IL river. Reminiscent of explosive diarrhea when you pop the gate. I see Beelman trucks quite a bit up this way. About 10 years ago I was the gopher for the Mack dealer here and they bought/traded for or whatever, about 30 ex-Beelman trucks. Me and another guy would make twice a week trips down to the St. Louis area to get them...my job also was to clean 'em up to throw on the lot. Never seen so much coal dust crammed into a cab.

Yikes...I don't think I'd be taking a long dump out on the back 40 like that. What were you guys doing?

I think I'm just looking for any excuse to do so. Sad thing though, the straight pipes and related hardware will cost about 4 times what it cost me to put new mufflers and turn-outs on a year ago. However, I do think the Mack with straights has the best sound compared to the rest. Unfortunately, I've got the combination jake brake and exhaust brake...so there's relatively little noise...almost sounds like a wet fart. I suppose I could clamp off the air line to the butterfly under the cab...which would make it more useless than it already is.

Hmm...I've got the twice pipe set up w/mufflers...any mpg increase with straights over mufflers with 2?

I had a coolant-push problem last summer...ended up being the air-compressor head gasket being bad and pushing compressed air into the coolant. Started with being random amounts at random times, then into full blown inability to hold coolant. Anyway, try bypassing the air compressor coolant lines when you're at idle.

Check the pipe for the compressor intake! A hole in mine cost about 10lbs boost on my truck.

I had (...well, have) the same problem when I got 8 new drive tires put on my truck last year. When I bought the truck it had a mis-matched set of about 6 different brands of tires on it, but went down the road like a dream. After the 8 new tires were put on the handling is a bit wishy-washy and I've been blessed with an intermittent 'hop'. While I'll admit, the tires I bought weren't the highest priced/quality tires on the market, but still they were a matched set of new tires. Due to the nature of the work I do...construction work...a lot of stopping/starting and turning and off-road...I'm not going to grind off a set of $400+ tires in 50,000 miles. I'm sure a lot of it has to do with new rubber being more flexible...and more tread enabling the tire to feel as if it 'rolls'. As my tires wear down that feeling has more or less gone away.