Perkins? If they made a tougher diesel, I have never heard of it. When I was working night mechanic at Weyerhaeuser in Orygun, one of the Hyster forklift gals came in at near the end of swing shift, complaining, Paul this thing smokes and stinks so bad, it smells like it's on fire. I raised the seat and looked at the Perkins, the heat resistant paint on the block was curling and smoking (600deg??). Take another forklift Sherry, this thing is fried. It was so hot I couldn't check it out, so I left a note on it and parked it outside. The note blew away, the day mechanic came in the next morning, gave it a quick look over, saw the lower radiator hose had burst, replaced it, checked the levels and sent it back to work. All the paint was gone off the head and down about 3 inches on the block. Not even a cracked head. First chance, I replaced the fried valve cover gasket, and that thing ran reliably for another couple years. I am a died in the wool Perkins fan now.
My little Case wheel loader has a Perkins in it. This is the second one of these machines I've had. My only complaint is that it weeps coolant in the winter.
