Efc7207?

[Theneillsonthebus]

This is my first time posting. We live in Idaho and regularly travel/camp at high altitude which requires steel climbing and rough mountain roads. I’ve found a bud that checks all of the boxes, but I’m not familiar with the engine it has. It has an EFC7207. I’m including a photo of the sticker on the bus. I think the transmission is recommended for where we live. I have read that a 3060 would be better but I haven’t come across one. Does anyone know what this engine is and any known problems with it/how it would do where we live?

 

[Booyah45828]

Welcome

That's likely a cat c7, as I recognize the KAL as a serial number suffix for c7's. Popping the hood and verifying would remove all doubt though. The Ad2000 would likely be an allison 2000 series 5speed with overdrive. Not a bad unit. Looking up the serial number on allison's website would help determine which unit it is exactly. As would looking at the data tag on the trans itself.

C7 is a heui engine, and requires pretty frequent oil changes if you want long life out of one. The proper and frequent maintenance by the school district will make or break this. So try and get maintenance records if you can. You can google/youtube cat c7 and find out all you'd want to know. Adeptape has pretty good videos on cat engines and the c7.

Cat repair parts are proprietary and usually only found at cat dealers. That makes repair work a little more expensive and marginally more difficult, but they're common engines so they're not impossible to fix.

I was actually looking at a couple auction buses that were freightliner/c7/md3060's for a crew hauler truck build I had in mind, but never pulled the trigger on one.

 

[Theneillsonthebus]

Thank you for this info! I looked up the transmission and it is AT 2000; it has associated component numbers for this serial number too but honestly I’m not sure what I’m looking at. This was a military base bus and then a church activity bus. It has 37k original miles. I don’t live close to it though. It’s in North Carolina so I can get the tag info from the equipment. I guess I could ask. Its already built out (simply) but would give us a good start into skoolie life. I just worry about the issue with driving on an incline that I’ve read with the CAT C7 engines.

 

[cadillackid]

I have friends running the C7s in service.. cant say they have had zero issues but generally they have been decent... all of their busses are C7s with MD3060s and the engines are at least 250 HP units so they do decent in all except the biggest mountains where they get real slow.. one C7 did have a couple injectors go bad which was procey as there arent a ton of aftermarket options for them.. another had an HPOP line leak which was a bit of a job to fix but not horrible.. for some reason they have had issues with the spring clamps on the turbo boots.. popping the turbo hoses loose at times but those are easy fixes...

 

[musigenesis]

C7 is a heui engine, and requires pretty frequent oil changes if you want long life out of one.

How frequently should I be changing the oil on my DT466e (which has a HEUI) given that I drive it very little (less than 1000 miles a year)?

 

[Booyah45828]

How frequently should I be changing the oil on my DT466e (which has a HEUI) given that I drive it very little (less than 1000 miles a year)?

That's hard to answer. As number of trips/idle time is important too.

They always say the oil is the lifeblood of the engine, and that's even more the case on a heui engine. They are truly reliant on clean oil for longevity.

Typically we advocate 12 month 5k mile max on any heui engine. It's not that I don't think oil is good at 12 months and 1 day, it's that it's good practice to do an inspection and lube service on a vehicle at least yearly regardless of miles. At that time you can send an oil sample out for testing, which would tell you if the oil is okay for another year or not. Or you can just change it and know it's good. Most typically opt to change it, but you're using nearly 7 gallons, and that's roughly $175 plus in oil and filter.

My personal bus hasn't had an oil change since 2020, so 3 years on it, but that I've also only driven it a dozen times/400 or so miles/ with minimal idle time. So the oil still looks pretty good on the stick even with it being 3 years old.

Being a heui engine, try 5w40 next oil change, as it's noticeably easier/quicker to start when near freezing and below.

 

[cadillackid]

I go with 6000 mile oil changes since my busses spend alot of time on the highway.. ill do filters at 3000.. if I havent been on the hoighway but have been ,ainly in town ill do closer to 3000 or twice a year minimum

 

[Meathead]

Tractor Supply has a sale going on right now.

[emoji3522]Dave

 

[Meathead]

Ok here it is.

 

[musigenesis]

My personal bus hasn't had an oil change since 2020, so 3 years on it, but that I've also only driven it a dozen times/400 or so miles/ with minimal idle time. So the oil still looks pretty good on the stick even with it being 3 years old.

Thanks. My current oil is about 2.5 years old with maybe 1000 to 1500 miles on it and minimal idle time, and it still looks good. I'm going to get a change soon, I just wanted some reassurance that I wasn't doing something epically stupid by going this long.

 

[cadillackid]

ive never used synthetics in any of my busses.. ive always run T4.. will T5 be thinner or is it still a good heavy oil?

 

[Booyah45828]

Can't comment, I've never used t5, only t4 for conventional or t6 5w40 full synthetic.

IMO t4 and t5 are both 15w40, so the viscosity is the same and there's no need to worry about it being thin. Some guys have issues with certain brands being burned faster over others, some have those same issues with synthetic burning vs conventional not.

Try it and see. If it were me, I'd go t6 5w40. But $60 a bucket is almost unbeatable for t5. That's buying it cheaper then what you could most conventionals.