Volvo D12- whats your take

I am a company driver in a 06 Volvo 670 with a d12.

It is gutless as spec-ed out by my company. It is accompanied by a 9 speed eaton fuller.

Motor has been completely reliable, I have had it for 100,000 miles, and the only thing dont to it was a valve adjustment, and a egr or something on the exhaust side, that caused coolant to leak into the exhaust.

OK, on my fuel mileage...

I get right about 6.0 per trip, some times more, some times less. Truck is governed at 65, and will get closer to 7mpg if I am behaving in Ohio. I also IDLE The truck 100% of the time, I tend not to use the TAS system.

If I was an owner operator I would want a motor similar to this, it is gutless, but in most cases you make more money be driving slower than faster.

Something I heard on this show the other day...

When Buying a new truck....

1. Have truck dyno tested, with blowby test and oil analysis.

2. Have someone, not the dealer, go over the truck and list possible problems.

3. Get a complete history printed off from the computer, this will tell, lifetime MPG, Idle Time, average MPH, average RPM, any codes, etc.

check out kevinonxm.com he has a PDF list of trucks spec-ed out for maximum fuel mileage.....remember, 1mpg a year will save you 8-12k in fuel per year.


K

 

The D12 is a decent engine. Volvo, like most european makers, build engines to get good fuel mileage rather than being the fastest on the block. European trucks generally are limited to 80-90 km/h so they're slow going but when you're paying $5-6/gallon for fuel and a full tank will cost you a grand or more, you're going to want the most efficient engine possible.

 

i have 2007 Volvo with d12 engine i run 75000 pound gross from Alabama to Ontario and am very happy it goes over hills with minimal shifting with a blown egr valve which has drated my engine and still gets me 7 to 8 mpg i run it at 60miles going down with empty racks and 65 coming back loaded over the mountain then again at 60miles i also got k&n performance air filter and exhaust. I figure i am saving between $1000 to 2000 dollars in diesel per month. I am also saving money on oil change since i am running gulf coast filter with shell synthetic oil 100000km oil change intervals getting oil check at every 30000 to 50000 km for the last 500000km, runs sweet. As a o/o this trk engine combo is the best, as diesel is the biggest expense so i am happy the money saved helps me and lets my wife stay at home with my kids.
Hope this was helpful also Volvo engine don't smoke like other engine i got pulled over with blown egr in new jersey scale and passed with flying colors no black smoke. i am running experiment to see the best way to get 9mpg and above with load since i can get that with a tail wind and running from Winnipeg to chicago as i did last week.

 

Really the best was D12C Euro-II/III w/o EGR. D12A was a good mechanically engine, but too simple (I'd say primitive ECM).

D12C ECM has one weak thing - Voltage converter and only sourse to change it is JY faulty ECM