DETROIT DIESEL 53, 72 & 92 ENGINES

Series 53, 72 and 92 Engine Specifications

The older Denning Mono and Austral Tourmaster coaches are powered by a variety of General Motors (GM) diesels, generally referred to as “Detroit” diesels. The series identifier gives an idea as to the age and size of the motor — most early-to-mid 1980’s coaches seem to be fitted with a series 71; series 92 a bit later; series 53 earlier. So to compare the specifications of Australs and Dennings we wanted to know something about the various Series 53, 71 and 92 diesels. The tables below are incomplete, and include industrial versions, but provide a good starting point.

Most Motorhome/Recreational Vehicle (RV) owners didn’t know the finer details of their engines. Typically they knew it was a “Detroit” and the number of cylinders. Info from bus/coach lines depended on the technical background of the person handling the sale.

Happily, a great deal of information about a Detroit motor can be deduced just from the engine number. An engine number that starts with or includes 6VF or 6VA is likely to be Series 92, and so on for the different series. On the Detroit engines the model number can be stamped immediately below the serial number. Sometimes the engine number recorded on the registration paperwork includes the complete or partial model number that could identify the engine type. For example, the last eight digits of 6VF08130480677840 gives the model number 8067-7840, which in Australia would be a 6V92TTA. (Because of different pollution standards many US sites will identify an 8067-7840 motor as a 6V92TA, except in California, where it would be a 6V92TTA).

The basic series naming convention is pretty logical: the initial digit is the number of cylinders, usually followed by a “V” for the cylinder configuration; the next two give the displacement in cubic-inches per cylinder (the 53, 71 and 92 series all follow this convention; later series , such as the 60 series, don’t). A “T” suffix indicates turbocharged; an“A” means aftercooled. Thus a “671” is a natually-aspirated 7 litre inline 6, while a “6V92TA” is a 9 litre turbocharged aftercooled V6. Some background on the Detroit diesels is available on Wikipedia↗ (see Series 71↗, Series 92↗, and related pages). There’s a nice article here↗ comparing the Detroits with similar-sized 4-stroke diesels for the moderately technically-inclined.

The tables below lists the SAE Rated Gross Power in kW and BHP (brake horsepower) for the various models, with links to the specification sheet for each. The rating is typically (but not always) at 2100 rpm. The same engine model can have different power ratings due to different injectors or other variations. There are some engines here that would never be fitted to a bus.

Series 53

Series 71

Series 92

Attribution: https://www.volvodemort.com/technical/detroit.html↗