Another nail has been driven into the coffin of Mercedes' long-serving heavy truck vee-engines with the arrival of the second North American product within Daimler's worldwide Heavy Duty Engine Platform (HDEP) engine range.
The new 12.8-litre six-in-line unit, called the DD13, will replace the current stateside 12-litre MBE 4000 straight-six by the end of 2009 and joins the
previously launched DD15. It will also be joined in the near future by a 16-litre DD16 model.
The new DD13 will be offered with power ratings from 350 to 450hp, and boasts peak torque output of between 1,828 and 2,234Nm. It shares the DD15's Amplified Common Rail System (ACRS), but does away with the turbo compounding featured on the DD15 because of the need for rear PTO capabilities.
All told, the 13-litre engine weighs in at around 180kg less than the 15-litre model, but is described by Detroit Diesel as being "slightly heavier" than the outgoing MBE 4000 (used in Europe as the OM457).
Whether or not this weight penalty includes the additional kilos piled on by the SCR equipment to be fitted to all DD series engines in time for the US EPA 10 emission standard in 2010 is not known, but the DD13 has seen an extension in service intervals to 50,000 miles.
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