The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts Finding an original H-series Cummins...

A pretty cool article for you tan engine fans ... or for anyone who likes crawling around forgotten junkyards in the winter.

Those old "Come-along" engines put a lot of groceries on my table for a lot of years. I think the oldest one I worked on was a 220 engine in a 1955 Freightliner COE with a no-tilt cab. We put a set of head gaskets on it with over 2 million miles on the truck, and no telling how many rebuilds of the engine. Torquing those 3 heads with 18 1" diameter head bolts (6 to each head) to 600 ft/lbs. was a 4-hour job that involved walking around the cab many times. My 300 Ft/Lb deflecting beam torque wrench with the doubler on it was 5 feet long!
Jerry

Awesome Article! Thanks for sharing!!

I find that very interesting. I don't remember ever seeing an H Model Cummins. There were still some JT180 engines around when I started. I think it may have been the H block with a supercharger. I first Diesel as a 62 Internationals with a NH220 with a displacement of 743. I soon repowered with an NHC250 which was 855 cu in. 855 cu in was the flagship of the Cummins engines until they could no longer pass emissions after 2003. The H series was 672 cu in. I still run 672 cu in engines in my bulk rigs to save weight. 2003 ISM's set at 370HP and 1450 ft.lbs torque. 2003 was the last year the ISM was offered without EGR.

With all the millions of miles I have logged with Cummins engines over the past half century, I experienced my first 2 failures over the past year. I lost an N14 when a turbo exploded and the driver panicked and didn't put it into gear go kill it. It ran away like a Detroit until it spun a bearing. And I lost an ISM a couple of weeks ago. I bought a used truck from a dealer in Georgia. The speedo and the ECM matched the engine. First load, a rod went out the side of the block. We then discovered the ID tag had been super glued to the block instead of the factory rivets. This one may get interesting because I have a motorized statement from the dealer that it was his personal truck and the mileage was correct.

I was curious about the model H Cummins, because back in 1973 my Dad had me, at age 16, driving loads on the highway in his 1961 Emeryville with a 220 Cummins. I followed the lead to the article and the writer who drove out to SD to retrieve the engine. Being curious I went to the official Cummins web site and then on to Wikepedia/Cummins where was mentioned the model H. Wiki claimed the model H was in popular use as a railway "switcher" engine. Follow the model H along and we will see what Cummins decides to do with this engine. ps: as a locomotive engine? I did not expect to read that.