7 replies to this topic

[Fat Brian]

What horsepower is the Cummins engine in the Italeri Superliner and would it be considered a big cam or a small cam motor?

Unrelated question, I bought a Cummins 475 horse twin turbo from a Revell kit off of ebay, is it a big cam or small cam motor?

Edited by Fat Brian, 30 August 2012 - 03:45 PM.

[lapazleo]

Answer 1 big cam 315,350,365 or 400
answer 2 would be considered big cam

[Fat Brian]

Good, I was hoping they would be slightly more modern than the stuff in the AMT kits. That gives me some building options to update a few trucks.

Edited by Fat Brian, 30 August 2012 - 04:18 PM.

[lapazleo]

Both are from the 80s Cummins in AMT kits are from the 70s and even 60s

[Fat Brian]

Great, thank you.

[dad vader]

The AMT kits represent a mix of small cam and big cam components,the aftercoolers,turbo chargers,and air plumbing are what you would see in a big cam.However the oil cooler arraingment is that of a later small cam.The Small cam was introduced in 1955and started off producing 230 horsepower but early engines produced 950footlbs of torque in the naturally aspirated engine,the 290 was a 230 with a turbo,and increased the torque to 1025 That was more than early Detriot Diesel V-12,at half the weight! The major differance between a "small cam" and "Big Cam" is the size if the journals of the cams.Small cam=1 3/4 inch and Big cam 2 1/2 inch. While you cant tell the size of the cam looking at a model block,the big cam has much taller cam follower plates.Those are the the raised portions on the drivers side middle of the block,all the AMT versions have the shorter cam follower plates.

Edited by dad vader, 01 September 2012 - 08:12 AM.

[Fat Brian]

Very good information, thank you.

[lapazleo]

Actually all AMT kits with Cummins power came out before the big cam even existed. The Cummins formula 290 had the highest torque rating of all 290s at 930 lbs. The 290 as most 855 Cummins weighed about 2850 lbs. The dd 12v71 at its lowest rating was 390 hp with 1078 lbs of torque and weighed 3300 lbs. The term small cam wasnt used before the big cam came out after the introduction of the big cam all previous Cummins 855s were called small cams.The design of the cam follower plates even in model form is a tell tale sign between big and small cam engines. The Amt KW kits have the NTA engine in them wich have the vertical oil coolers and some timing and fueling things that would later be used on the big cam. Cummins engines are not as simple to figure out as you might think do to endless variations produced a good example would be the 250 there was a 743 cid 250 a 855 cid 250 and the super 250 at 918 cid there was even a 743 cid 290. Research on the web will yield a wealth of info. More than you would ever need for modeling.