Another 359 On The Work Bench

[studioman3]

[attac

ment=1699:41608_189.jpg]

This is an AMT 359 Pete Construction/heavy equipment kit.

I'm building it as the little brother to my big rig, same color scheme, only this will have a tandem rear, and no sleaper.

The kit comes with a non-steerable front end, which just doesn't work for me, so I modified it to work. You should be able to see in the pics that I cut the steer axles and drilled them, then added bolts and nuts (.090 guage), this allowed the axles to turn, then I did the same with the tie rod, as it turns out, that left more work to be done when adding the steering box and rod, so I used the same technique. all in all, it works ok, but I think they must use a ball joint or something in the real ones for smoother action. I then started wiring things up a bit. You should be able to see the battery cables, I attached them to the battery and out the back of the box, up into the frame and out to the engine compartment. I really don't know what gets hooked up from here, so I will use my own discretion as to where the wires will be conected. Its hard to find detailed pics and I'm not sure which engine this is, though I painted it Old Cat yellow. I hope it looks good when its finished, although when you turn the key, don't be suprized it the horn starts blowing and the lights flash intermittently while the strter runs in reverse. What can I say, I'm not a mechanic!

Heres some pics

Tim

Edited November 6, 2008 by studioman3

[SpreadAxle]

Looks like you're off 2 a good start.

[mackinac359]

I agree, you're off to a really good start.

Tim

[Old Albion]

Tim,

Very impressive start! I like the battery details and the steering front axle. The engine is the Cummins NTC 350. The N means that it is the N Series 855 Cu In. The T means that it is Turboscharged and the C means that it is Custom Set (Never found out what this means). The horsepower is 350HP. Would normally have been painted white when installed by Peterbilt. But if you bought one direct of Cummins it would have been Cummins Beige. If the engine had been overhauled by Cummins at some time it may well have ended up Beige also. I'm not keen on the white colour for engines and tend now adays to go with the engine manufacturers colours. I used to paint engines any colour that showed the details of best. The Engine colour is not that important because some people prefer the engine their own colour maybe the same as the frame or Cat Yellow. The important thing to remember is that its your choice the engine looks good and it looks like your having a lot of fun.

Thanks for sharing the photo's and some great workmanship. Good Luck with the rest of the build!

[SpreadAxle]

Tim,

Very impressive start! I like the battery details and the steering front axle. The engine is the Cummins NTC 350. The N means that it is the N Series 855 Cu In. The T means that it is Turboscharged and the C means that it is Custom Set (Never found out what this means). The horsepower is 350HP. Would normally have been painted white when installed by Peterbilt. But if you bought one direct of Cummins it would have been Cummins Beige. If the engine had been overhauled by Cummins at some time it may well have ended up Beige also. I'm not keen on the white colour for engines and tend now adays to go with the engine manufacturers colours. I used to paint engines any colour that showed the details of best. The Engine colour is not that important because some people prefer the engine their own colour maybe the same as the frame or Cat Yellow. The important thing to remember is that its your choice the engine looks good and it looks like your having a lot of fun.

Thanks for sharing the photo's and some great workmanship. Good Luck with the rest of the build!

The N stands for 4 valve head, also.

[studioman3]

Thanks for the kind words and the information, I googled Cat and Cummins and found plenty Cat pics, but only one of a cummins, and the one of a Cummins looked like and old V8 So I just wasn't sure, but I did have some Old Cat Yellow paint, so there ya have it

[Old Albion]

Ray,

I never new that it was a four valve head. Thanks for sharing that. Is the 400 Big Cam 3 and 4 an NTC 400? Not sure myself.

Tim,

If you want to know more about old engines in trucks try the ATHS web site www.aths.org I joined the ATHS a month or so ago. The discussion board is great there are a lot of good things said about the old Cummins engines very enlightening and informative for someone like me looking in from the outside.

Edited April 17, 2008 by Old Albion

[SpreadAxle]

Dave, the NTC designation was used on all Big Cams from what I've seen. The next thing after the Big Cam IV is the N14. The N14 is basically the evolution of the Big Cam. Main difference is air-to-air instead of liquid aftercooling. And of course, more electronics. There are others, but those would be the basic differences between the N14 and Big Cam. From what my instructor in the diesel tech school explained 2 me, the Big Cam 1st appeared in the mid 1970s. The old "smallcams' had a 2 inch cam. I just can't remember if the Big Cam has a 2-1/2 or 3 inch cam.

[Semi Trailer Mechanic]

What's goin' on...

Tim

Here's some 359 refernce pics from my FlickR album. The modifications you've done to the front suspension are too cool.

http://flickr.com/photos/9495602@N02/sets/72157604108093926/

http://flickr.com/photos/9495602@N02/sets/72157603851221608/

[Semi Trailer Mechanic]

What's goin' on...

Ray

I believe the 88 Big Cam followed the Big Cam 4 then the L-10,N-14,M-11,444, and so on showed up. Before the low sulfur diesel showed up in the early 90's I could always tell weather or not a truck had a BIG CAM in it just by the smell of the exhaust at idle.

[SpreadAxle]

What's goin' on...

Ray

I believe the 88 Big Cam followed the Big Cam 4 then the L-10,N-14,M-11,444, and so on showed up. Before the low sulfur diesel showed up in the early 90's I could always tell weather or not a truck had a BIG CAM in it just by the smell of the exhaust at idle.

Thanks for the info. I thought the 88 Big Cam was the Big Cam IV.