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Hi fellow Mack guys.

My Mack days started in 1970 when I just finished my apprenticeship and took a truck mechanic job at a lime quarry.

They had a few B 61s that were very beat up and a couple of new DMs and R 685s with 237s. None of these trucks ever seen the highway but spend a life haul rock in the quarry.

After choking on lime dust for a year I left and went to a Detriot Diesel dealership and worked on about every 53-71 and 92 application, from power units to generators, marine and trucks.

In 1979 I went to a Mack dealership as the Detroit Diesel tech and after a couple of months got the shop froreman position for the night shift and spent a lot of time running the chassis dyno and that's where my love for Macks started.

Still remember the first Mack on the dyno. It was a R 686 and the torque of that engine just blew me away after running whimpy Detroits that could smell a hill a mile away.

I left Mack and moved to Florida and after 8 years working on boat engines (everything from Detroits, to Volvo and Perkins) went to a fire Dept. to take care a fleet of trucks which were all 475 HP 8V92TAs with Allison tranys. This job was my last before retireing and moving to New Mexico where I started an automotive machine shop which I still operate to this day.

In 2006 while still working on the fire trucks I bought a 1986 RW613 tandem day cab tractor.

I removed the 38K tandems, stetched the wheelbase to 275" and put in a 20K Rockwell rear with air suspension and 3.54 gears.

Added a 3 man crew cab and built an aluminum body to carry an 11ft. camper and lots of storage.

I went thru everything on the truck from radiator to rear U-joints replacing everything that was worn. Also did a custom red and black interior.

The drive train consided of an E6 (4 valve) 350HP with dynatard which got from a wrecked truck, Spicer clutch, T2090 trans and the rockwell rear.

I used this rig to tow my 28ft. dragster trailer across county many times, traveling to Nostalgia drag races cruising at 65mph @ 1400RPM averaging 9 mpg. What a great truck!!!

I sold the truck last year to buy more Maching shop equipment and now am looking to build a B61 to haul a 40ft Toy Hauler. Wpost-10492-0-49416200-1356318936_thumb.jould like to repower the B61 with a ETAZ 300+ and a RTO 9513 trans.

Wayne Ludington from New Mexico

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Thank you for sharing and welcome to the site. Great rig you had there! Do a search in the last week or so on this site and you will see a B61 that is converted from a fire truck to a race trailer hauler. I think you would appreciate the build as it will closely resemble what you are looking to do yourself.

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Thanks for the welcome guys. I will search for the fire truck. I found a B61 already done in El Centro, CA. the ad says it's been repowered with an E6, still wondering how he rigged an E6 front mount aftercooler on a B61?

Here is the build I mentioned. Super nice work

http://www.bigmacktrucks.com/index.php?/topic/6853-b-model-car-hauler/

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  • 1 year later...

Hi everyone: It's been a while since I have posted. Have been very busy around here considering I'm supposed to be retired.

Was unable to find a decsent B61 to haul my race trailer so I settled for an 89 International S1900 with a DT 466. Truck only has 120,000 original miles.

Just finished detailing engine bay with all new hoses and new clutch. Next will be a ring and pinion change from 5.29 to 4.11

post-10492-0-49681800-1411399374_thumb.j

post-10492-0-26594500-1411399413_thumb.j

post-10492-0-51062200-1411399468_thumb.j

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79-80 was really the official production of the big V8 engines,they had versions from 360 to 400 hp ,although there were some prototypes earlier. 81-82 they started calling them E9's and had a 400 and a 440 hp version,then in '85 they bumped the 440 to 450 hp and added the 500 hp. E9 . Much better engine than the earlier V8's

You still have your Superliner? I remember it being on Ebay but didn't know if it ever sold.

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