Got to thinking later on, I think the Cat's max HP is around 1800 rpm. I'm pretty sure it was the Mercedes engine that was above 2000 rpm for max HP.

A Cat C15 makes one of those Mercedes 12 liter engine look like a toy as far as HP and Torque. The Mercedes make their HP and torque higher up in the band, designed more for Europe and flatter terrain than what we have here. We weren't even installing these until the last round of EPA regs hit, and then DC started importing them from Brasil because they had an exemption from the EPA regs. We hardly see any Cummins any more either, just in right hand drive cab overs going overseas, for the same reason.

Back in August, when I was helping my friends move to Texas, we passed a couple of new Sterlings, built in the Portland plant, going nose to tail down the road, both with the same trucking company. We passed by them slowly enough that I caught a glimpse of Cat yellow under the hood of the rear truck, and the front truck had a Mercedes engine badge on the side. 20 miles down the road we pulled into a rest area, and just as we were heading to the facilities, these same two trucks pulled in.

After taking care of more urgent business, I went over to get a look at these trucks to see what kind of goods the Portland plant turned out. I got to talk with one of the drivers for a couple of minutes before they started off again. His company had bought several of these Sterlings, some with Cat engines and some with Mercedes. He said from his experience with them, a Cat engine would pull all day long, but a Mercedes engine wouldn't pull worth crap!

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Mitchell Oates
'87 MB 300D Diamond Blue Metallic
'87 MB 300D - R.I.P. 12/08
'05 Sport CRD Stone White
Provent CCV Filter/AT2525 Muffler
Stanadyne 30 u/Cat 2 u Fuel Filters
Fumoto Drain/Fleetguard LF3487 Oil filter
V6 Airbox/Amsoil EAA Air Filter
Suncoast TC/Shift Kit/Aux Cooler
Kennedy Lift Pump/Return Fuel Cooler

I seem to remember the IHC never got past 2000 rpm's, I do remember that the truck was bad enough to make me think I was doing the right thing by joining the USN when school was out in the spring and not being a truck driver.

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91 MB 300D 2.5L Turbo. Her's

05 MB E320 CDI. Mine

All the 12.7L (Detroit) and 14.7L (CAT and Cummins) motors I drove usually had a governed speed of max RPM of 1900-2300RPM and made max power at 1700-2100 respectivly. Now of the medium duty motors like 5.9L B-series Cummins, IHC DT466 and the small Cats they can usually turn 2600RPM and run best at 2000-2200 depending on how fast you want to go . The TQ curve between the different makes is main key in how well one runs compared to the others ( the more grunt the lower the better )

The CRD is the smallest diesel I've drove and turns way more RPMs than any thing I've been in, took a bit to get used to for me. I still think it sounds like I;m driving a Thermo King every time I drive it

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'05 Bright Silver Sport CRD
245/70/16 BFG AT KOs (On the second set now.....First set was replaced at 106K miles)
some stereo stuff.........
L.O.S.T. #053490

Oldnavy,the V-8 Pete you saw was prolly a old 8V92 two cycle Detroit.My father had one.They were rated at 435hp,and made power in the upper rpm range.Most of the newer big diesels make around 1850 ft lbs at 1800 rpm,and between 400-600 hp around the same rpm.
Ford had a problem with thier 4.6 DOHC engines,they need 5w20 because the lifters have very small oiling holes in them.Thicker oil causes a lifter tap on start-up,and can cause future wear,could that be a issue with the CRD,possibly i guess.

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Future Liberty owner

1995 Mustang GT- twin turbo "fun car" almost finished
Owner stangtuning.com -Help for tuning your Mustang

What happened with the gasser 4.6 and to many other engines like the 3L V6 Toyota was a reduced oil return line size mandated by EPA and and an engine with high head temps. This EPA edic did not effect the diesels, most likely the reason for the 0w-40 was one oil for most all engines. D/C will probably slowly change all it's cars over to a single oil for all it's car & light duty trucks, big $$$ saved this way.

It is a fair oil (Mobil 1 0w-40) for diesel if you are using 6k to 12k mile oil change in a light duty engine with a ownership cycle of less 5 years and 150k miles. However they left the door open for use of the actual better oil for a diesel when the OM stated 5w-40 Mobil synthetic is aslo approved. I will use the Delvac 1/T&SUV 5w-40 oil my self at first oil change and keep the 0w-40 in my Magnum with it's chain driven DOHC engine that has high head temps.

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91 MB 300D 2.5L Turbo. Her's

05 MB E320 CDI. Mine