Cummins

Incorporation

Founded in Columbus Indiana USA in 1919 as Cummins Engine Company by Clessie Lyle Cummins, as a fledgling company who was amongst the first to see the commercial potential of unproven diesel engine technology invented 20 years earlier by Rudolph Diesel. Clessie was a self-taught mechanic and inventor whose vision was shared by William Glanton Irwin who had the financial resources to back the venture and make it a reality.

After a decade of ups and downs, during which time the diesel engine failed to take hold as a commercial success, Clessie Cummins pulled off a marketing master stroke by mounting an engine in a Packard limousine in late 1929, America’s first diesel-powered automobile. Irwin was so taken by the vehicle's engine that this led to a large infusion of cash into the Company, which helped support a number of speed and endurance records in coming years – including a gruelling 13, 535 mile run at the Indianapolis Speedway in 1931, such feats established Cummins foothold as an engine supplier to the USA trucking industry.

In 1933, Cummins released the Model H, a powerful engine for transportation that was the launch-pad for the company’s most successful engine family, as a consequence in 1937 the Company recorded its first profit, and in 1940 Cummins offered an industry’s first 100,000 mile warranty.

By the 1950’s, America had embarked upon a massive interstate highway construction project, with Cummins engines powering much of the construction equipment that built the roads and the thousands of trucks that began to roll down them. The mantra from the Truckers was economy, power, reliability and durability to which Cummins responded. By the late 1950’s Cummins had sales of over $100 million and a commanding lead in the heavy duty diesel market.

V Engines

In the early 1950’s Cummins became interested in V diesels which offered a shorter, lighter and lower diesel engine compared to equivalent in-line automotive diesels used in light and medium duty trucks. In Jan 1960 Cummins began design work on a V6 (200 hp) , V8 (265 hp) and V12 code named Vim, Vine and Voom respectively. Further engines were added due to the fact that the V6 and V8 were too large and heavy so a V6( 140 hp) Val and a V6 Turbo charged Vit were introduced. However these engines suffered warranty issues so Cummins redirected efforts to focus on a new V-903 engine at 320 HP purely for the heavy duty market and retreat from the light and medium duty markets.

Going Global

Cummins began looking beyond its traditional North American borders and opened its first foreign manufacturing facility in Shotts, Scotland in 1956 and by the end of the 1960’s, Cummins had expanded its sales and service network to 2,500 dealers in 98 countries. Today has more than 5,000 facilities in 197 countries and has forged strong ties in emerging markets such as China, India and Brazil. In India and China Cummins has grown to become one of the largest engine manufacturers and for the last 3 years approx. half of the Company’s sales have been generated outside USA.

B & C Series Engine

In the late 1970’s, Cummins was primarily focused on the heavy-duty truck market in North America , but Cummins leaders realised that they needed to change that focus. As a result, and in order to maintain competitiveness, Cummins leadership focused its attention on a long-term business plan to restructure the business, the plan was to position Cummins for long-term growth in many markets on a global platform and would need substantial investment. The thrust of the plan was to launch two new engine families of small and medium diesel engines to compete in the Class 3 to Class 6 Trucks, so Cummins set about recruiting engineers some from the UK with experience of designing these engines at Perkins & Bedford and established a technical centre to act as a base for the engineering developments.

B Series

The engine started life in 1984 designed as an agricultural engine, for use in Case agricultural equipment, after 1989 the 6BT engines was used in light duty, medium duty and select heavy duty trucks and buses. The B Series is known as the popular 3.9 litre straight 4 cylinder engine and the 5.9 litre straight 6 cylinder engine with cylinder bore 102 mms and stroke of 120 mms. The engine was highly successful and was ultimately used in many segments, including pick-up trucks (Dodge Ram), buses, military vehicles, construction equipment and marine applications. The engine was first manufactured at a state of the art new facility in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, other plants were added including Darlington UK etc.

The first generation B Series consisted of 4B/6B/6BT/6BTA and was produced between 1984-1998 in three engine displacements 3.3L, 3.9L. 5.9L.

In 1998, the engine family was improved to the ISB design level with a 4 valve per cylinder design with improved emissions.

In 2007, the engine was again upgraded to the ISB 6.7 where the cylinder bore was increased to 107mms and stroke of 124mms capable of producing 350 hp.

As a measure of the B Series worldwide success by May 2014 Cummins had produced nearly 10 million B Series engines globally, over 2 million of which have found a home under the bonnet of a Dodge Ram truck since 1989.

C Series

The C8.3 litre engine was originally introduced in 1985 as the 6C8.3, followed by an electronic version in late 1996 designed for the urban bus market. In late 2003 the ISC was introduced with a high pressure common rail fuel system and variable geometry turbocharger. Applications for this engine included Bus, Motorhome, Fire Truck, Garbage Truck & Generators.

The ISC engine was uprated to the ISL specifically for larger, luxury motorhomes, rated at 370-425 hp, it has the power to accelerate at any speed it also had an engine braking system.

Engine Range

The initial Model H led to the N series engines which had a larger cylinder bore at 5.125” and 5.500”.

• N Series: N, NH 5 1/8”, NH 5 1/2”, NHBC, NHFFC, NT, NTC, NH230,NH250, NT280,NT300,NT380
• Small Cam: NTC230, NTC270-CT, 290, 350, 355, NT855-C280, C310, C360, NT310
• Big Cam III/IV: NT855, NTC 290,300,350,400, FORMULA 300,350,400,475, 88NT
• V Series: V.VT378, V.VT504, V.VT555, V.VT903, VT28-VT1710
• N14: 310, 330, 350, 370, 410
• L10/M11: LTA10-240,270,300, L10-310E, L10-330E,
• B & C Series Family: 4B, 4BT, 4BTA, 6B, 6BT, 6BTA, 6CT, 6CTA, ISB, ISBe, ISC, ISL
• ISX/QSX 15 Engine
• QSK19 Engine
• QST30 Engine

Here at Engine Fix UK we cover the vast majority of the Cummins range from early to modern day engines, we supply all the major mechanical engine parts including pistons, piston rings, liners, gaskets, crank seals, gasket sets, valve train parts, water oil and fuel pumps plus much more.