4 Cyl Perkins

[captain ron]

I have a chance to buy a 4 cylinder perkins for $200, was running when removed, Good deal?

[DrivingMissLazy]

Perkins moved back to the UK about 25 years ago. We lost our dealership in California and all the parts. I do not know what the parts availability is now.
What is the HP and what is your intended use? 1800 RPM, Water cooled with unit mounted radiator?
Richard

I have a chance to buy a 4 cylinder perkins for $200, was running when removed, Good deal?

[bus05eagle]

Cat owns Perkins and they should have all the parts

[bobofthenorth]

There's a lot of Perkins used in Ag applications - parts should be available if you can figure out where else it was used.

[tekebird]

perkins all ofver the marine world.

[Jeremy]

I used to work for Perkins, dealing with overhauls on their V8 and V12 tank engines. I don't know anything about their small genset stuff though.

Jeremy

[WorkingOnWise]

I had a 1984 Escort diesel that had 150,000 miles when I got it. I drove it about 20,000 miles before I put 5 gallons of unleaded in it, with 4 gallons of diesel already in the tank. Ooops! I poured in 10 qts of 10w40 engine oul, and drove it home, about 80 miles. I drove cautiously, monitoring the temp gauge carefully. Got home and topped it off again with diesel. Never did drain the tank. Just ran it thru, adding more diesel every 80 miles or so. I put another 15,000 dead reliable miles on it before the head developed cracks, likely from the gasoline it endured. It was such a great car that I decided to fix it....until I couldn't find a replacement head for it anywhere. The secont best diesel powered vehicle I ever had went to the crusher! 
That engine was great, and if I find another perkins diesel for a good price, like under $500, I'll buy it even if I have no need for it! I'd make up a need for it!
Oh, yeah, I beat that poor car to death! It would do 85mph, rpm limited, and I would drive it 30 miles one way every day with my foot firmly on the floor, back and forth to work and my girlfriends house. It still got 47mpg, and if I drove it sanely, say 60mph, the darn thing got 58! Oh I wish I had it now!
In short, Great Deal!

Keith

[DrivingMissLazy]

As I indicated previously Perkins moved most of their opeerations to the UK many years ago. Currently they indicate they have about 10 parts distributors in the US.
Their main manufacturing plant is here:
Perkins Head Office - Peterborough, UK     Head Office, Engine Manufacturing Facility

They are, and always have been, a great engine and we sold lots of them into the marine industry. It bankrupted the company I was working for when they moved to the UK. I can find no information that would indicate they are owned by CAT, but it is possible.
Richard     

Perkins moved back to the UK about 25 years ago. We lost our dealership in California and all the parts. I do not know what the parts availability is now.
What is the HP and what is your intended use? 1800 RPM, Water cooled with unit mounted radiator?
Richard

I have a chance to buy a 4 cylinder perkins for $200, was running when removed, Good deal?

[Jeremy]

I had a 1984 Escort diesel that had 150,000 miles when I got it. I drove it about 20,000 miles before I put 5 gallons of unleaded in it, with 4 gallons of diesel already in the tank. Ooops! I poured in 10 qts of 10w40 engine oul, and drove it home, about 80 miles. I drove cautiously, monitoring the temp gauge carefully. Got home and topped it off again with diesel. Never did drain the tank. Just ran it thru, adding more diesel every 80 miles or so. I put another 15,000 dead reliable miles on it before the head developed cracks, likely from the gasoline it endured. It was such a great car that I decided to fix it....until I couldn't find a replacement head for it anywhere. The secont best diesel powered vehicle I ever had went to the crusher! 
That engine was great, and if I find another perkins diesel for a good price, like under $500, I'll buy it even if I have no need for it! I'd make up a need for it!
Oh, yeah, I beat that poor car to death! It would do 85mph, rpm limited, and I would drive it 30 miles one way every day with my foot firmly on the floor, back and forth to work and my girlfriends house. It still got 47mpg, and if I drove it sanely, say 60mph, the darn thing got 58! Oh I wish I had it now!
In short, Great Deal!

Keith

If you mean Ford Escort, they didn't have Perkins engines. There may be a car from another manufacturer also called an Escort which I don't know about. As far as I can immediately think, the only car manufacturer that used Perkins engines was Rover, who had them in the Maestro and Montego. They also went into LDV vans, and of course lots of trucks. Lots have also been retrofitted into Land Rovers over the years too.

Perkins has always been a British company by the way - the plant I worked at was called the Sentinel Works, after one of their very first products, the Sentinel steam tractor (pic below). When I worked there they were owned by Varity Corporation of Canada; I have just had a look at their website to see the current owners, but it is not mentioned which is slightly strange. According to Wikipedia the owners are Caterpiller, but that is slightly strange as well because Perkins are major suppliers to JCB, who are big rivals of Cat.

Jeremy

[bus05eagle]

richard type caterpillar perkins in a search and you will see where cat bought the company in 1997

[belfert]

If you mean Ford Escort, they didn't have Perkins engines. There may be a car from another manufacturer also called an Escort which I don't know about. As far as I can immediately think, the only car manufacturer that used Perkins engines was Rover, who had them in the Maestro and Montego. They also went into LDV vans, and of course lots of trucks. Lots have also been retrofitted into Land Rovers over the years too.

I don't know if Escorts ever used Perkins engines, but UK and USA models of the same car often had major differences in engines.  The versions of a car sold in Europe will almost always have a diesel available while the USA version of the same car willl almost always have only a gasoline engine available.

My Powertech generator with a Cat engine actually has a Perkins engine if you read the label on the engine.  It appears that Cat bought Perkins in 1997 per Cat's website under history.

[Jeremy]

I don't know if Escorts ever used Perkins engines, but UK and USA models of the same car often had major differences in engines.  The versions of a car sold in Europe will almost always have a diesel available while the USA version of the same car willl almost always have only a gasoline engine available.

Not only petrols / diesels - you get V8s in models we're only allowed to have four-cylinders or occasionally V6s in. No fair!

Jeremy

[DrivingMissLazy]

Thanks very much for the tip. I found it. I have been out of the engine business for several years and had not heard this.
Also learned that Caterpillar has purchased Kato Engineering in Mankato, MN. They were the largest manufacturer of alternators in the country back in the 80's and I purchased hundreds of alternators from them.
Richard

richard type caterpillar perkins in a search and you will see where cat bought the company in 1997

[WorkingOnWise]

Yeah I know, it sounded way odd to me to, but it was in fact a ford escort with a perkins engine. I remember that the ford dealerships in metro Detroit were not even sure I knew what I was talking about saying I had an escort diesel. They didn't have any listings, in 1994, for any parts at all. An old time mechanic at one dealership told me it was a perkins, and where to find the numbers. I remember them being in a plate on the block, partially blocked by the injection pump. Once I knew that, I was able to find a few sources for head, but the cheapest I could find was $1000 just for the bead. All said and done, the job would have cost $1300 in parts alone, and I just couldn't justify the expense.   
As odd as it was, it was a perkins.
If you do buy that engine, do not, ever, run gasoline in it! 

Keith

[Hartley]

A few months ago I was at a truck/machinery dealer and they had 6 crates of CAT yellow
engines with CAT I.D. Plates on the new engines. The embossed casting of the engine blocks
all said "Perkins" and the stickers all said CATerpillar on them.

All said, I good bet would be that the smaller 4 & 6 cylinder stationary CAT power plants are probably actually Perkins engines. I suspect that is due to CAT who is famous for big engines needed a smaller
engine source and Perkins was a good match up for the small engine market.

CAT has changed the castings now from what I heard and all now say CAT on them, But for a while they used the Perkins blocks and painted them yellow.

But what do I know.. I just look around a lot....