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2021, DD15, Garage -

Several years ago, I wrote an article stating that if you are a young owner operator, think about building a garage for your truck and other equipment, however, make it large enough to build living quarters on one end.  Situate it so if you get married and she wants a house you can build one on the same property, either attached to the garage or not.  Several years later a young owner operator by the name of Chad Tennant from Spearfish, SD took my advice and built a 50’ wide by 90 ‘deep garage. On one side he built living...

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2021, DD15, Fuel -

  Cab Corrosion: it’s winter again and our part of the country has seen no shortage of snow so far this year. When the season is over, we often find lasting damage in the form of corrosion on the cab floor of many trucks. Calcium chloride and magnesium chloride are great at melting ice, but as you know they accelerate corrosion too. We’ve seen them rust both from the underside with salt spray, and from the top down with the salt that you track in on your shoes. Oftentimes mud, dirt, and other road debris combine with the salt and...

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2021, Big Cam Cummins, DD15 -

High performance trucks are a keepsake! Chuck Carlson of Western PA owns this beautiful 4300 IHC originally powered with a Big Cam III 400 horsepower Cummins engine. Once it was time for an in-chassis rebuild he brought it to our shop for an ultra high horsepower rebuild back in the late 1980’s. After disassembling the deck surface was cleaned, inspected for cracks, upper counter bores miked for liner protrusion and concentricity, and upper counter bores machines for .020 liner shims. We then installed new cam bearings, a high lift camshaft, and timed to a retarded setting. Always retard timing when...

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2019, DD15 -

                 HIGH PERFORMANCE DIESELS We have good news for the owners of DD15 Detroits, Paccar, and Volvo engines. We have been working with a European company to develop a performance enhancement computer that will add up to 20% more horsepower and 300 plus pound feet of torque.  This is a new product for Pittsburgh Power so the first couple of computers must be installed at our facility in Saxonburg, PA. where we can dyno the truck to verify the horsepower and torque. It will NOT void the warranty on new engines, everything fits under the hood, no holes have to be...

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2019, Catalyst, DD15, Detroit, Emissions, Rebuild -

What is a blown-up engine?  Many times, we get phone calls from owner-operators and they say, “I blew up my engine.”  After a few questions we find out that they scored a liner, blew a hole through a piston, or blew a head gasket.  The term blew up my engine is a harsh term and immediately we think that you broke a connecting rod and now have a large hole in the side of your engine.  Always try to be a little more specific and say exactly what happened to your engine, it will allow us to better help you....

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