You missed one great race and a super time at Battle Mountain Nevada. The race is called the Pony Express Race, which is on RT... 305 from Battle Mountain to Austin a total of 83.55 miles and you can drive your vehicle at any speed above 95 mph. Roger Ward, his lovely wife Sherry and their beautiful daughter Denise, promotes the race. Roger won the Indy 500 twice back in the 60’s.

The festivities started on Friday June the 6th, with registration and a five mile flat out race to establish an average speed. Friday evening an hors d'oeuvre party and a light parade through town with all class eight trucks and one Dodge Cummins pickup.

Saturday morning was set aside for cleaning the vehicles, registration and a car and truck show was scheduled for the afternoon. Saturday evening was a racecar show through town with 145 cars entered. Sunday morning we all meet at the high school parking lot for the start of the race. Norm Murakami was on an adrenaline high even before the race started. If you recall Norm "The Flyin Hawaiian" was the first class 8 tractor to ever enter this type of racing. Norm was representing Lucas oil products and distributing Lucas fuel conditioner and oil stabilizer to all the big trucks in the race. Forest Lucas is a stock car racer and loaned his racing suit to Norm. He was high from the moment he put that suit on.

This is a time, distance and speed race. You pick the speed you want to average and you must cross the finish line on that second. The navigator works two stop watches and has a printout of the mile markers and its his job to slow down or speed up the driver.

In the truck division we had seven entries, Norm Murakami in his Cummins powered Western Star, Butch Schuman in his hand built Kenworth that is Cummins powered, Dwain Pyeatt and his lovely wife Cozette with their new Peterbilt also Cummins powered, Jim Hagemann with his Peterbilt COE Caterpillar powered. The only Cat in the race and there were more Caterpillar powered pre registered trucks than Cummins, but only one showed up. What happened to all you proud Cat owners? When it came time to race and show us die-hard Cummins people how a Caterpillar performs you don’t show up! Rumor has it that the same thing happens out on the highway when your approaching a mountain when you know there is a high performance Cummins on your back door. Jim Hageman is a fine gentleman and we enjoyed having him with his beautiful cabover. The first COE to ever do this type of race. Rex Oneto raced a "A" model Kenworth logging truck. Rick Trotter raced a Volvo with an 8V92 Detroit. This is a retired G.A.T.R. circle track L-9000 Ford with a VT-903 Cummins that was built and raced back in the 1980’s. Art Dick has an 8V92 Detroit in a 1985 Ford pick up F-250 with an F 450 front axle and a 38,000 lbs. rear axle. This pickup runs across the salt flats at 156 mph.

Last but not least we had a genuine Cummins engineer race his high performance Dodge Cummins pick up. His name is James Ray and his daughter Jeanie navigated him across the finish line to a first place in the 95 mph. class. James is the builder of the "LSR" (land speed record) Dodge that Richie Petty drove on the Bonneville Salt Flats last September.

Last to start the race was Charles Chaney and myself, Bruce Mallinson. I was the navigator for Charles in his 900+ H.P. 444 Cummins powered Peterbilt. We did not win. His truck was too fast and we crossed the finish line 66 seconds too soon. However we had a great time and even called his wife on the cellular phone at 118 mph across the desert to let her know that everything was just fine.

We have got to tell you about Butch Schuman’s hand built 79 Kenworth. The wheelbase is 310 inches long with a double high rise bunk. The top of the bunk is 13’ high. This truck is equipped with a KTTA twin turbo 1150 cu. in. Cummins engine producing around 1,200 H.P. H.V.T., which is the same as S.T.C., or step timing control with tall rubber 3:55 gear ratio and a double overdrive 13 speed transmission. This K.W. will fly. At 85 mph. Butch can break the rear tires loose pulling an empty livestock trailer. Now if you don’t believe that just ask Norm Murakami because he was riding in this truck and felt the drive wheels spin. Butch is one great Texan with a huge K.W. After all, isn’t everything big in Texas. Butch has a rear door to the bunk, which opens to the back porch that has a removable beach umbrella. The fellow car racers were so impressed with this truck they voted it the best in the show and he won second place in the 100 mph. division.

My good friend Charles Passmore from Tampa Diesel Service spent the weekend with us and he enjoyed the race and we enjoyed his company. Charles Passmore was the originator of Diesel Injection in Pittsburgh and he gave me his business so he could move to Florida in 1977. This is our twenty-second year anniversary.

It’s hard for me to believe that there are some mechanics in this country that do not believe in LPF or Lower Press Fit cylinder liners. Remember when the NTC series of engines would only run for about 300,000 miles before there was holes in the liners or the blowby was excessive and they had high oil consumption.

The lower press fit liner is the main reason that all of these problems are way behind us now. Before lower press fit, the top of the block would hold the liners from moving. The block would wear from front to back causing the round hole to become egg shaped or oblong. When the injector would fire the compression would force the liner oblong so now the perfectly round piston ring could not seal properly in an egg shaped liner. This situation caused blow by but worse than blow by was the liner cavitation or holes right through the liner. The holes are caused by piston slap against the liner creating bubbles in the cooling system. These bubbles form on the outside of the cylinder liners and implode (collapse inward) with enough force to blast the liner and create pits. The amount of pressure that is created as the bubbles implode is about 14,500 psi. Micro jet shock waves can also be generated and the speed of these waves is about 1,200 mph. This is one of the reasons holes develop in the liners and the other is using hard water and not enough DCA #4 coolant additives. Try to use soft water, pre charge Fleetguard water filters with 15 units of DCA when changing the coolant. Normally a standard 4-unit Fleetguard water filter will maintain the system when replaced at every oil change. Your local Cummins dealer or distributor can test the coolant for a proper "charge".

When your mechanic is from the old school and states that he doesn’t believe in lower press fit liners, I would suggest finding another mechanic. It’s my opinion that this is the main reason why the NTC series engines will run 700,000 to 800,000 miles between rebuilds.

By the way, ceramic and teflon coated pistons also help eliminate piston slap because the teflon on the piston skirts is soft and eliminates about .001 thousands piston to wall clearance. The engine runs quieter because of the reduced piston slap.

Lucas oil products now has a green chassis lubricant that has a better spec than the leading synthetic grease. I used this red synthetic grease for the past 19 years and it worked fine on ball joints and tie rod ends. However, on wheel bearings on snowmobile and boat trailers it would turn a milky brown in about 1500 miles. The Lucas green grease stayed green and holds its consistency after 6500 miles of towing in snow country. Compare the specs of a tube of Lucas grease with the grease you are now using and you may want to switch brands. If you know a lubrication engineer have them help define what the spec. means. I had one explain to me the difference in greases. Or if you would prefer just give Forest Lucas or Marty a call at Lucas Oil Products in Corona Ca. 800-342-2512.