weight of series 50 and series 40

Adarian · February 08, 2010, 07:41:03 AM

In doing research on the two engines I found out that the series 50 is an 8.5 l engine and the series 40 is an 8.7 l engine but the series 50 engine weighs 900 lbs more than a series 40 engine. The series 50 is a 4 cylinder while the series 40 is a six cylinder both are inline engines. The length, width and height dimension are pretty close.

So where would the 900 lbs come from? Is that just in more block material?

luvrbus · February 08, 2010, 07:53:31 AM

I think you have the wrong info the 466 or series 40 weighs 635# and the series 50 DD weighs 1000# a difference of 365 lbs

good luck

TomC · February 08, 2010, 08:29:00 AM

The weight of the Series 50 is around 2,200lb. The Series 40 around 1,600lbs, a difference of 600lbs. The Series 40 is considered to be a "medium duty" engine that is a 6 cylinder. The Series 50 is considered to be a "heavy duty" engine-being a Series 60 6 cylinder (that weighs 2,650lbs) with the two middle cylinders removed. Both are excellent engines and both have idiosyncrasies that you have to be aware of. For instance, the Series 50 has two counter rotating balancing shafts that run off the oil pump drive that should be replaced every 100,000 miles because of the lightweight gears that were used-and the engine mounts need to be extra soft to counter the vibration of this unusually large 4 cylinder. The Series 40 has a single piece front engine cover that separates the coolant from the engine oil by one small gasket-that is known to blow. Good Luck, TomC

luvrbus · February 08, 2010, 08:39:22 AM

Sorry Adarian I wrote it it KG for you and posted lbs but the 466 is a smaller in cubic inches 464 to 519 for series 50

good luck

Adarian · February 08, 2010, 11:55:55 AM

They have two version of the series 40, a 466 and a 530. The 530 is a 275 hp/800 ft lbs in base form and weighs 30 lbs more than the 466 version.
http://extranet.detroitdiesel.com/public/specs/3sa540.pdf
weight is 1399 lbs
http://extranet.detroitdiesel.com/public/specs/3SA432.pdf
weight is 2230 lbs

It still is wow factor about the weight difference even though the height, length and width are similar but the series 50 being a 4 cylinder and the series 40 being a 6 cylinder engine.

900 lbs is a lot of weight.

RJ · February 08, 2010, 10:35:10 PM

Adarian -

Just a little FYI - The only HD transit buses I know of that use the 466 is the hybrids, where the diesel is used to run a generator - just like a diesel electric locomotive.

It's also used a lot in dog-nosed skoolies.

FWIW & HTH. . .

TomC · February 08, 2010, 10:56:27 PM

As far as physical size, the two are less then 2" different, but when you look at the height, the Series 50 is almost 8" taller and 16.5" wider-big difference. Good Luck, TomC

Adarian · February 08, 2010, 11:28:58 PM

8" and 16.5" that would account for 900 lbs.
I ended up bidding on the Gillig Phantom with the S-50.
Now it is just a wait and see what happens issue.
I will let you know if I win the auction. The auction is running for 14 days and they all end at the exact same time unless someone places a bid in the final five minutes then the auction would be extended for another 5 minutes. The process will continue until no bids are made during the final 5 minutes.

DaveG · February 09, 2010, 07:54:16 PM

Like Tom said, the S-40 (DT466 or 530) is a medium duty engine

fe2_o3 · February 09, 2010, 08:28:11 PM

Just a personal observation here. The transit company I worked for used a series 40 (466) in 30 ft coaches. They had an average life of 100k mi between rebuilds. Usually the heads or valves were the first to go. On the other hand, we got about 400-500k mi on series 50's in 40 and 60 foot coaches and some RTS with 692's that went about 300k mi. I won't even mention the cats. These coaches ran the same routes on freeways, rural roads, and in cities and received the same service intervals....Cable