6 Best Diesel Engines of All Time 

Detroit 2 stroke is by far the most versatile diesel engine ever made period. There's still engines from the late 1930's still running around. Incredible engineering and a joy to work with. Screaming Jimmy!

I have owned a truck repair shop for 45 years and worked on everything and by far the best truck diesel engine ever built is the Detroit series 60 . good power simple to work on and by far the best fuel mileage

Cummins 6BT? Only the most popular 6 cylinder diesel ever made.

Amazing

Des monstres 👍👏🏻🤗

I can think of more than a few 2 stroke diesels that were reliable, took punishment readily and could be rebuilt over and over and over. Nevermind the complaints about noise and smoke, I would put them up against the 4 strokers.

One of the best Cummins 8.3 6 in line,ummmmm one the best in the world!!

Also the 6BG1 and DA640 from isuzu. Those were great engines. The DA640 of ours didn't require engine rebuilt since it was bought during 1985. About a million kilometers on the clock.

@5:58 very useful indeed that exaust manifold!

Diesel mechanic since the early 80's, L10 Cummins and 3208 Cats were two of the best in my opinion.

No other sound quite like a revving up Turbo Diesel truck, it's that whistle 😩👌 Subtle yet powerful, up there with the sound of "Ole Painless" from Predator.

Diesels are great for pulling plenty of torque and sounds great with a big bore love em

I love those ole Detroit's

I am no expert on diesel engines, by any means, but I do love to hear them run and to smell the diesel exhaust. For my 2 cents worth; In my small amount of experience, The 45 hp Perkins 4 cylinder, on my early 60s Massey Ferguson tractor is the best starting diesel I have used, or seen. A good battery and it will start in any weather, almost at the click of the starter switch. Very dependable and fuel efficient, also. I have no idea how many hours are on it, but it has been used, a lot, in it's 60, or so years, and has never been rebuilt. There are so many different applications that use Diesel engines that I don't think the author of this post, or any one person, could, authoritatively, say which are the actual best 6 engines. Just to name a few, you have: OTR trucks, light to medium duty trucks, heavy equipment, heavier equipment, as in mining, automobiles, big ships, small ships. lawn mowers, generators, big tractors, small tractors, locomotives. The list goes on. I think generalizing, by manufacturer, is about the best any one, highly experienced, person could do.

had one of these engines if they are regular serviced no problems at all know of one 617 has done all most 850,000 miles still going strong if a little noisy good mpg. did a conversion into a mercedes s class 126 great

Blinkered choice - Lister CS first cold start diesel - Peugeot / Citroen XUD series - the engine that brought diesel cars to the masses - I'm fond of the 1990's 2.5 lt 12 valve pre common rail PSA T9A van engine that's bulletproof with things like under piston spray jets and hydraulic tappets

And the 5.9 Cummins 12v and Detroit Diesel Serie 60?

Took a Detroit 671 to 20,000 hours. It never breathed any dirt, just clean ocean air, and only got shut down ever 250 hours for oil change. Also, being a generator, always ran at constant throttle, which was all out!

Worked for a company, hauled heavy with little Detroit Series 60's, as long as you maintained them they were bulletproof

that detroit sounded the best by far!

The 6.9 and 7.3 were probally the best diesels made... owned a few and regret ever getting rid of those trucks

Cummins 12 valve and the 7.3 powerstroke should be on the list.

That desiel engine Ford E series needed tuned, it had no oil pouring through the lifters and over the rocker arms!

That 6V92..........Oh man. I got a chubby on that one.

I am getting woozy watching the Cummins engine 🤣

My clear favorite is the Detroit, it's the real thing! The other ones are just toys :-)

Many million mile motors out there ! If I had to do it again. ... N-14 !!

Gardner, AEC, Perkins, Leyland, Rolls Royce, the Brits made some fantastic diesels as well...

The straight six is perfect for a Diesel engine.

6LXB 180C GARDNER VERY VERY RELIABLE AND WORKED WELL ON LAND AND WATER 😊!!!

I'll go along with the 7.3 being a great workhorse of a motor. If it was taken care of with proper maintenance it would sometimes outlive the body of the truck.

If this was a list of 8 engines, I'd add the 6-71 and 12V-71 Detroits. I also like the old IHI DT-466, and the "Big Cam" Cummins, but I'm nostalgic.

Obvious that none of you have been near the scania V8 I've done many miles (over 750000 without changing even a main or big end shell) and as for sound nothing sounds like a 620 with stacks.👍

Nothing beats detroit series 60

No other Cats were included because the BMW M21 at 3:37 simply *had* to be on this list y’all. 😄

Looks like Mercedes-Benz needs to bring this reliable OM617 diesel engine back for future cars. Even the BMW M21 diesel must make a comeback for all BMW midsize cars and their roadsters.. Right now Volvo must make their racing Iron Knight engines reliably possible strong lasting millions of miles.

Title should be, greatest ether babies ever made. Lol. Had a 4 cylinder Perkins in my old Massey Ferguson (60s) model which was only ran once a year for raking hay. The day I sold it a guy just dropped in and wanted a look. It was 20 degrees, the battery was dead and the third gen Cummins I intended to jump it with was reluctant to start due to the cold. That 50 year old no glow plug having Perkins fired up as soon as I hit the key. That’s a great Diesel engine….. 5.9 Cummins went into everything from school buses to log skidders to pickup trucks. That’s a great engine.

the m21 among the 6 best diesel of all times, hahaha! it is dubbed the cristal head engine, because it is so fragile! (but a nice engine to drive, when it is not broken)

I worked for a company for 30 years before retiring this past October. For nearly 30 years one of my responsibilities was maintaining the 4 Lawless-Detroit gensets we had to power our Mechanized Warehouse in the event of a power outage. 2 were 6-71s, one was an after-cooled 16V71 making 850hp, and the daddy was the 16V92 displacing 1472ci and making 960hp. I had to exercise those wonderful beasts every month. It was a pleasure to hear all 44 of those pistons purring in unison. Those 16V engines ran so smoothly you could stand a nickel on edge and the engine's vibrations wouldn't knock it over. Long live the Detroit 2-strokes.

The Cummins N14 engiines were the best. I was on a tour at the factory and they had one set up in the "test room". They were trying to blow it up. Over-revving, no oil, etc. you get the idea. I watched it run for quite sometime and was totally amazed by the performance of the engine. That was in 1994 and electronic engines were new to trucking. Everyone was scared of them. But they made me a believer!

I tore down and rebuilt caterpillar 3406 engines and after 12,000 hours of operating time they still had very little wear. One tough engine and dependable beyond belief

I'm in love. Cat 3406 and Cummins KTA19 are lovely engines! Great power and fairly easy to work on.

Drove my 3406E for 5 years in the 90's, I miss it to this day

Needs to be titled "6 diesel engines "

5.9L Cummins in my 2001 Dodge 2500 no problem at all just change the oil, filters & general maintenance and you can’t go wrong I’m at 400,000 miles and a 20’ trailer loaded down with John Deere tractors all the time

Cummins NTC/855- bulletproof motors!

Cool video, thanks!

Love that gorgeous 6v92. :D I am a Detroit 2 stroke diesel fan. Glad that motor got the respect it deserves and made the cut

I love how this is about the greateat diesels yet nearly every one took forever to crank up

Great vid!

The Caterpillar 3406E engine is good however the 3406B model was much better by far I know that very well because I drove my truck for over 10 years and I only retired that truck because of the strict air pollution control here in California which prohibits the use of those older engines without a smog filter but anyone who knows about diesel engines will agree with me on this the reliability of the 3406B cat is legendary

The briggs and stratton 2 1/2 hp damn good motor hell of a grass cutter

My B model 3406s were they best engines I ever owned!

Glad to see the ol idi on here!!!

I'll keep my Big Cam 3's Thankyou

I took to scrap a 1975 Fiat Iveco truck that had been sitting for at least 15 years because truck mechanics couldn't get it to run on 6 cylinders, I kept the Fiat Iveco CP3 6 cyl engine, I tested the pump and injectors, primed it so fuel was getting to injectors, it started at the touch of the starter motor wire to battery, it didn't blow smoke runs on 5 cylinders, should be NO.1 as most of these best motors take ages to get started.

great vid

Deutz from 912 series and MWM cousins, perfect for tractors in small farm business, and Peugeot 1,9l XUD-9, perfect for hatchback under a metric ton.

The Detroit 6V92 you're showing at the start of that section is a twin-turbocharged 6V92TTA and was built by Terry Shoebridge (aka Shoey Diesel) and went into a 1984 Silver Eagle motorhome. It's a DDEC electronic version and was mated to a Allison electronically controlled automatic transmission

Nice. Really nice.

All diesel engines sounds great!

Finally Cummins is there. Who others waiting for Cummins 🙋

Why did you leave out the 6-71 Detroit and the 855 cu. in. Cummins????????

Very nice 👍

Love the tickover on the Cummings in the kenworth.

Best engine ever built was a 671 Detroit I was a Firefighter went on the job when Engines went from gas to diesel we got a 671 ran the balls off it thousands of run on that rig never failed us most dependable thousands of pump hours

Detroit 60 series 12.7 another damn good motor

In reading all your comments on diesel engines your all basically right, every owner has there best opinion, but the number one key to engine reliability is maintenance, oil changes, all fluids. Drive belts on engines also. So keep up to date great maintenance record to hand to next owner if you sell your truck or car, it shows great care of the vehicle.

Awesome engines

When I worked at USF Holland, most of trucks had the Cat C15. What an indestructible engine . Someof the fuel island guys were very unmerciful. In the dead of winter, hard starting enginges were run to max govern . None of them ever broke

Glad to see the 6.9/7.3 IDI made it, it's my fav. But damn could you find a worse video for one? There's a lot of epic IDIs out there these days, and plenty of them on RU-vid.

I bought a new VW Golf TDI in 2001. That car is still on the road and it has 340K miles on it. It also still gets over 45 MPG.

Nothing sounds better!

Had a Buick with one of GM's 350 V-8's converted to diesel. 227,000 miles without a hitch! But then I had a master mechanic burn my user's manual and tell me how to take care of it. But to a great degree that's where it's at: fanatical maintenance!

That 2 cycle V6 Detroit sounds like music. Same with the red KTA( WHAT A BEAST).

What do you diesel guys think of the Detroit 8V-71 non turbo for a motor coach application?

1.9 TDI AFN and PD engines no?

That OM617 looks brand new!

"Three Headed CAT" For some reason painting a Cummins yellow and putting a cat sticker on it makes it more drivable for too many truck drivers.

The N14 was my favorite by far. 3406 E ,C15 second same engine other than valve adjustments , Mack 235 third , 60 series fourth, b an c series Cummins, the Detroit 2 stroke v92 was ok , m11 cummins ok, ism is an egr version ok, isx signature series came out limited in 1999 rocked 600 hp then. least favorite any international engine including powerstoke.

OM617... very good engine. I had one with more than 560 thousand original miles on it! OM606 was later successor... actually a superior engine when equipped with the older om603 IP.

My short list of best diesel engines for heavy/industrial use would be the Cat C-12, Detroit 60 series, Cummins ISX 12, Detroit 8v92, Cat 3512C, and the Cummins QSK50. I would like to throw the Detroit 4000v and the DD15 in there as well, but the 4000v's I've worked with have been temperamental and the DD15 hasn't been tested long enough.

12 valve cummins... hands down needs to be on here

The best diesel I have seen is the one Toyota they put on 1987 Land Cruiser HJ61.It only takes a complete revolution and a half to start it and fire right away! Quicker than any of my previous gas engine in comparison.In summer time it doesn't need the glow plug ,it starts right away.

agreed , power , durability , maintain it and maybe 1,000,000 miles

Wow

6-71 Detroit Diesel was the Best Diesel Engine of All time. Close second was the DT-466 International. 3406 Cat was damn, damn good, as well.

how about the old 6-71,grand daddy of them all, they were built for about 60 years. all of these others are new commers

Working at Cummins when the K series came out. As I remember, there were abiut 15 piston/liner sets running around - outside of the normal CPL listings, they were letting anyone who had an idea design parts, trying to get one that would live. KV's (12 and 16) went on to become a good engine, but the teething troubles were immense. K1150's never seemed to sell as well as hoped.

Great engines ... i love cummins .. for my own experience ..

and forgot a CAT 3408!!

No mention of the Ford-Lehman 120 HP 6 cylinder diesel that started as a British tractor engine but when marinized, it powered thousands of trawlers and sailboats in the 70's and 80's, reputed to go up to 15000 hours before overhaul.

0:33 that's absoloutly right ! this summer i was in morroco and take a photo with an 1982 gray W 123 ( mercedes ) 3.0 td with over 1100000 km ! thoses type of cars are a taxi , all diesel ( 200 / 240 td / 300td ) exepte some 280 gazoline , it work sometimes 24/24hours (just need to change driver lol) . friendly from Belgium

first again on my favorite channel?! YAY!

Also didn’t mention the Inline 6 FORD Brazilian Diesel engine back in the 80’s or 90’s 👍🏼

"Of all time" should include Detroit Diesel 6-71. (I believe the -92 you feature is basically the same engine with more displacement, and in this case more cylinders/V-configuration.) This thing powered everything from WWII landing craft to the early semis. (I can still remember following these rigs up steep hills on Route 30 in Western Pennsylvania at about 13 mph.) Disassembling and reassembling a 6-71 was part of the Navy and Coast Guard "Engineman" training in the early to mid-70s. First came out in 1938 and still made - mostly boat engines now. Newer designs, many of which you have featured, are undoubtedly better truck engines.

ALL diesel engines are great! Till they slapped emissions control crap on them!

Can't believe that the DDA 6-71 and the Cummins 855 weren't included

As soon as the cummins came to life it looked like it was trying to kill those guys

I'm surprised the 7.3 and 6.9 idi was on there instead of the International 7.3 turbo. And no 12v cummins? shame