jzack

Find a good Ravens and you'll be close to 30,000. I've owned a couple of them and pulled many other brands, but the Ravens are the best in my opinion. My current trailer is a 45'x 96" spread with duel tool boxes, 15" cross-members, and a lift-axle and weighs in at a feathery 8,300 lbs. Put a 52,000 pound coil in the middle of it and it still had some arch left! Too bad they got bought out by Fontaine who then pissed away all the great design knowledge that Ravens built up over the years.

Whats this "mystery oil" supposed to do? Wash out sludge or carbon build up? I've recently started adding Lucas every oil change based on knowledge from another owner/operater who used it religously. This guy amazingly got 1.6 million miles out of a 3406 Cat before his first rebuid! I was never much of a believer in oil additives either but Lucas seems like decent stuff. They claim it would work great for motors that sit a while between starts too.

It wouldn't hurt to have the valves done. Did mine at 500k and made a big difference in power and mileage. Should help the Jake too. BTW, I wouldn't doubt the previous owner, 32PSI boost is about right for a 427HP.

Maybe I'm different, but I'd rather have one of the last 1,000 than one of the first 1,000 off the line.

Gambi- you must have missed my posts from a few weeks ago. I had that same line go bad in my truck too! Took quite a while to track it down. Moist up at the head where you have to crawl up there and look straight down to see it.

Yes. I believe if you want mechanical you need to look at very early 90's. We even have a '93 E-7 thats electronic. I also think 400HP was the limit for factory mechanical E-7's. We actually owned five of the first generation electronic Mack E-7's ('93-'97) and found the system to be really reliable. All of the electronics are in the cab where they should be, and the system isn't overly complicated like their current abominations (thanks EPA).

Ya know I think the cable show "Myth Busters" tested that theory out in one of their episodes. They found that at freeway speeds they actually got better mileage with the windows up and the A/C on than with the windows all down. Of course in a big truck the variables would change a bit.......

Exactly.

I guess for the kind of work I do I can honestly say that yes I DO need AC up here in Minnesota. I drive a black day-cab -think "greenhouse". Most of my deliveries are local, I probably only average 35mph some days, not enough breeze to get the heat out. When I do get out of the truck I get to stand on a shiney aluminum flat-bed chaining and unchaining sheet metal -think "tanning bed". When I get back in my cab after a delivery I sometimes have 5-10 minutes of paperwork. So its just nice to have a place to work thats a few degrees cooler.

I also agree with you on the plastic leveler valve parts. Seems to me that parts on a truck that are moving all day long should be made out of metal and not plastic. I usually replace mine with stainless steel heim-joints found at the local hardware store. I for one though couldn't drive w/o AC. I have mine running from May through September! My older CH does have the vent in the door which I do use from time to time. Keeps the feet and legs nice and cool.

Well she fired right up Sunday night so I'm fairly certain the new return line was the fix. Thanks to all who contributed, it was greatly appreciated. Jeff

Reminds me of a quote I often heard from one of our O/O who's Mack lacked all the chrome "trinkets" always found on the Paccar's- "chrome don't get you home".

Well, I THINK I found my leak. I'll know for sure next time I let it sit for over 24hrs. I pressure washed the motor the other day to start out fresh and the next day I noticed a tiny bit of wetness around a fitting at the front of the head behind the waterpump (tough bugger to spot). It was the 3/16" fuel return line from the injectors back to the pump. The line looked to be all dry-rotted and practically desintegrated when I removed it. Went to Mack and got a new line and clamps and all was dry today. Fingers are crossed............

Thanks for your input HK. I'll check all my lines and filters to make sure they are tight this afternoon. The reason I've been focused on internal parts (check valve, seals) is because I've yet to see any wetness on lines or fittings. I figured if air is getting in that fuel would make its way out, but this is just my backyard mechanic logic. I've never worked on trucks for a living. Curiously, after replacing the plunger and check valve the problem did get better. Back to happening once a week rather than every day. So after replacing a part I would think its fixed until the next Monday morning rolls around and no fuel....argghhh!! I'm starting to think I should have just taken it to Mack in the first place rather than trouble shoot it on my own.....we'll see. Jeff

Well I've replaced the hand-pump and it still leaks down. Then I noticed when I prime with the hand pump I can hear fuel splashing back into the fuel tank. So I replaced the check-valve in the return line, but I am still getting leak down over a weekend. So Rob, now I'm thinking the next step would be the supply pump which I believe is what you were referring to in your last post, correct? If so, my dealer here told me there isn't a rebuild kit for my E-7 and a new one is about $200-300. Oh well.... Thanks, Jeff

I've seen a couple here in Minnesota. One looking pretty at the dealership in Roseville and another in the yard at Lefebvre in Elk River. The one at Lefebvre is interesting because they've run Petes and Kenworths for as long as I can remember. I couldn't help but think Mack would sell more of these if they would square off the hood in a retro/modern sort of way ala Mustang/Challenger, put a sleeper on it and rename it Superliner........lower price probably wouldn't hurt either. Haaaaah to dream.

What you described above sounds real similar to how my '94 CH 350 runs. The boost builds fast and peeks around 30lbs. while going through the gears (accelerating), but when I dip into the throttle at cruising speeds I can barely get 25lbs sometimes. Not sure why this is so. Maybe it is in the programming like fjh said. I am currently running the Blixxton box which has increased my peek boost (22lbs. to 32lbs.) but I still notice the variance. One other noticeable improvement with the Blixxton is better throttle response and lugging power in the lower RPMs. I believe the box fools the electronic nannies into providing full fuel in the lower RPM range. My pedal used to be dead between 1200 to 1400, now it feels like the pedal is connected directly to the pump if that makes sense. I know Blixxton only mentions E-7 300-400HP but the 427s and 460s all had the same pump so it may be worth a shot to give you a better torque rise in the lower RPMs. I've been running mine now everyday for a year and a half with no problems. There is a guy on BMT here who runs one on his 454HP and knows quite a bit about them........