Detroit 8v92 with allison automatic

Drove a lot of them in the oil patch... but not in the last 30 years. I worked for Dowell (then became Dowell Schlumberger, then Schlumberger) and almost all of our pump trucks (cement, acid, frac) and body-job bulkers were 8v92s with either a 5-speed, or 6-speed Allison, none of them had Jakes or a retarder though.

From what I remember, they drove alright... just mash the pedal and go. Pretty much indestructible, which is important when your fleet is mostly off-road and in the hands of severely sleep deprived 20-somethings (log books? We didn't run no stinkin' log books! We worked stupid-long hours; not uncommon to pull 24 hour or 36 hour shifts, then drive back to base... especially during spring break-up).

The engine and transmission combination pulled double-duty because once we were on location we flipped the lever for the A-box which then directed the power from the drive train to the downhole pump(s) and hydraulic system(s). Of course, if one forgot to flip the lever and then proceeded to put the transmission in gear from the operator's station on the rear deck things could get interesting (if things weren't working properly). Pumping operations are really hard on the equipment, so, again, a durable power train was really important... and they were.

Loud though... I'm practically deaf in my right ear from the twin cementer deck engines (same power train, but right behind the operator's station).

 

I put a few miles on some back in the day. My opinion was they shifted very harsh, very nasty on slick roads, low end power seemed to be good. The retarder sucked, heated up real fast and you could hardly tell it was doing anything. A jake on an 8V92 was almost worthless also.

That was back in my mid 20s, and I just wanted to drive real trucks. When I got much older and allison had evolved I began to think about ordering a pete with an allison but never did.

The trucks I'm talking about were Shupe Bros out of Greeley Co. W900s great looking trucks. Some of the old hands out west should remember Shupe Bros.

 

I was young, mid 20s I just remember the trans temp gauge climbing fast into the low side of a red scale on the gauge. I dont even remember if the gauge had degree readings on it. Now this was heavy going down some long grades

 

I can't think of anything that would get worse fuel mileage than 8V92 with an old school allison transmission. A lot of the big motor coaches had them back in the day

 

You mean oil millage right????

Seemed like I always heard stories of guys checking the fuel level when filling up on oil. Never ran them in trucks but rebuilt a few that went in fishing boats. Call me crazy but love their sound.

 

That was both poor oil mileage and fuel mileage.Lol. They slobbered a lot of oil and if you got 3 MPG you were doing good.

 

As crazy as it sounds . I think the 6-71s sound better than the 8-92s.

Worked on rerigging a Sportfishing boat couple years ago that had some Johnson n Towers 6-71s .

Pure Harmony when you had those 2 opened up turning big RPMs.