DT408 - tell me about it

[RolesvilleMarina]

I just bought another Vista

A mate was about to get it towed by the city, tried to bring it to my place in NC and it broke down almost here. He's outta cash and time and patience

Since I have a vista I figured spare body parts (like hood) might be handy down the road. I have a T444E and I upgraded to an Allison 2000 5 years ago so Engine and drive line parts any good to me. Mine is also a 7 window and this new one is a full sized.

So we paid the $900 tow, gave him a few more $ after passing the hat best we could.


The bus runs, but otw down it kept shutting off on him.. fire it up he would get a few minutes or not and then it dies, then it starts again and runs some and dies.

So after tow truck leaves I did get it to run and drive enough to get up the wee hill and into my back garden shop area. It would cut off sometimes, but seems to idle fine.. it's intermittent

I have no plans to ever move this bus. We are going to leave it where it is parked and turn it into a stationary guest house.

I haven't looked at the transmission but I wonder if it is a AT542 or a 545.. haven't looked yet as it's been raining and wet


Background aside my main question is this:

I need to go through this engine and so far I know little about it being a T444E guy. So give me your knowledge and tips

I am thinking, that unless major issues on the engine I will use it to power a genny... I have the fabrication skills to pull this off but not sure if I should keep the trans in the link or run right off the flywheel.... and will worry about this later


I also looked briefly and I don't see any air compressor. This thing has air brakes, but I don't see the belt driven compressor I have on the T444E. In fact I couldn't see any compressor... does it have a cam driven one? Again this is just my quick once over


And the last question so far is would this thing run on WVO or bio without issues? I know that the T444E is a big no


That's about it. When it stops being wet and it warms up I will look in more detail of course. But this gets the ball rolling and maybe someone else has one of these

initially when my friend bought it he thought was a DT466 Lineset proved us wrong

cheers

 

[Diverdude0075]

So your new to you bus has the T444E? It's difficult to kill a diesel engine once it's running. My guess is fuel filter is clogged, old diesel, or something plugged in the tank/lines. I would start with reading fuel pressure, not just at idle but also while under load. It's been two years since I did my A2000 swap, using your posts to a large degree. Where does the time go!?

I have a second international bus now also with the T444E and it has air brakes and suspension. There's a huge compressor on the engine. Yours has to be somewhere... If your air pressure fails the brakes will default to staying on. It means the bus doesn't move.

EDIT: I just saw where you put DT408, my bad. I would still start with fueling issues. Keep us posted!

 

[Booyah45828]

dt408 would be mechanical injected. If it starts and runs at all, then it's likely a fueling issue. Seeing how your friend was cash strapped, this thing was likely neglected as far as maintenance is concerned. Fresh fuel and filters would be my starting point.

 

[Omnibot2000]

DT408 is very similar to a dt466. Only ran for a few years in the early/mid 90's.

The air compressor should be mounted on the left side of the engine toward the front of the engine, about midway down if not a little lower, kinda in the frame rail.

My first look at shutting off and a restart scenario would be the fuel shut off solenoid to make sure that it is functioning correctly. Fuel lines as mentioned is a good start too since these rigs are now 30 years old but it restarting right away tells me its a solenoid.

If I remember correctly, I have heard of people just fabricating a bracket and mount a fuel shut off cable.

 

[sportyrick]

My 1995 DT 466 has a manual fuel shutoff cable, works real nice. My air compressor is front lower left side just like a Cat C7. Should be a great engine if taken care of.

 

[brokedown-SKO]

DT408 is pretty uncommon in buses, I've only seen one in a bus in person so far and that was 4 years ago! It's a big brother to the DT360 and little brother to the DT466 but likely set at a pretty low tune and matched to a slush box. They're much more simple engines than your T444E and diagnostics should be pretty straightforward.

 

[Albatross]

I have no plans to ever move this bus. We are going to leave it where it is parked and turn it into a stationary guest house.

...

I am thinking, that unless major issues on the engine I will use it to power a genny... I have the fabrication skills to pull this off but not sure if I should keep the trans in the link or run right off the flywheel.... and will worry about this later

I also looked briefly and I don't see any air compressor. This thing has air brakes, but I don't see the belt driven compressor I have on the T444E. In fact I couldn't see any compressor... does it have a cam driven one? Again this is just my quick once over

And the last question so far is would this thing run on WVO or bio without issues? I know that the T444E is a big no

That's about it. When it stops being wet and it warms up I will look in more detail of course. But this gets the ball rolling and maybe someone else has one of these


cheers

Being more of a mechanical diesel, I would imagine that it could rather easily run on WVO/biodiesel/WMO/black-diesel with the appropriate equipment/conversions made to it.


I wasn't familiar with the engine, so I went and looked it up briefly, and I found some interesting bits, so here they are:



HP ratings for this engine were 175 - 230 HP @2600rpms w/ 430-650lb/ft @ 1800rpms.


http://www.thedieselstop.com/faq/9497faq/download/2003EngineQuickRefrenceGuide.pdf


Based on this stuff, it seems like you would want to eliminate the transmission in order to hook up a genny directly, and if you could find/build a 1:2 transfer case to the genny, you could hit the perfect 3600 rpms at the torque peak for a perfect 60hz sine wave, and could probably even run 3-phase off it without too much trouble. At 150 HP, you can theoretically get about 100 KW of juice off that negine.

 

[Slacker1965]

I have a DT 408 and a 94X Coke truck
Simple, mechanical injection. Yes, there’s a solenoid turns fuel on and turns it off.
It also has a prime pump. You need to check your filters.
Depending on where you are in North Carolina, I may be interested in your automatic, trans

 

[demoman]

A possible problem with fuel delivery can be caused by a leaky fuel line allowing air to be sucked in and losing prime. Try disconnecting the fuel from the tank going to the injector pump and put a cheap fuel pump and filter
hooked up to a five gallon tank. You have to worry about the return line back to the tank but this should work for long enough to eliminate other problems.

 

[cadillackid]

the DT408 is much closer to the DT466 than the DT360. it is an NGD (94-96 style) DT466 belt / gear drive.. the air compressor and pwoered steering are both gear drive..


most of the DT408s ive seen use a fuel shutoff solenoid vs a pull handle on the dash.. these are known problematic issues.. if yours has the manual fuel shut off then as others mentioned start with looking at things like fuel filters and any place where you might see seepage when the bus is turned off.. these are a negative pressure lift pump system (lift pump is on the Injection pump) so they are prone to sucking air if absolutely everything is not tight..



if it has the solenoid, honestly I would just convert it to a manual fuel shut off and be done with it.

 

[Slacker1965]

if it has the solenoid, honestly I would just convert it to a manual fuel shut off and be done with it.

so you just hookup a manual puch/pull cable to shut engine off?
I have a old coke truck that has a dt408......

 

[cadillackid]

so you just hookup a manual puch/pull cable to shut engine off?
I have a old coke truck that has a dt408......

thats exactly it.. the vast majority of DT360/DT466 and probably DT408's were sold with manual shutoffs.. (DT466E cannot use a manual shutoff)..
my DT360 has it factory.



theres a few other parts like the bracket and such you would need but essentially all that solenoid does is push the lever on the Injection pump back and forth.. and the solenoid is known to fail...