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I destroyed an engine because of the driveshafts being out of balance.
More info about the the issues, engineering reports, and fixes here in the doc in my signature. This should be one of the first thing any new FMTV owner does, because while it is only a small percentage it happens to, it's...
I just talked to the guys over at the CO NG depot, and they said they don't make any adjustments for altitude. They kind of looked at me stumped that I would even ask the question, haha.
I'm not sure if there is anyone around that really tracks it well and knows. I hope there is, but this question comes around a couple times a year and then the thread gets filled with tons of info that is at best "wishful thinking". Somebody will chime in that they get 10MPG and plan to get...
'96 M1078 LMTV:
With stock 3.90:1 gears, 4-5MPG around town, 5-6MPG cruising. With 3.07:1 gears, it basically bumps it up about 0.5MPG... 4.5-5.5MPG around town, 6-7MPG cruising 65MPH low in 7th gear just after it shifts up from 6th. (I have thousands of miles of fuel logs to back this up...
While those may be all the possibilities, I wonder how realistic or likely they are? The Army has lots of these things driving around here, and I don't think they are adjusting them for altitude. Mine works fine, and I take it up to about 10-11k.
Ideally, you would want standoffs that sit against the rim, so they take the forces, not your bolts. You can use that coupler nut to extend the rim bolt to retain the rim protector. (Coupler nut indicated by thin orange square in this drawing.)
These are the reports you want to read about the driveline issues...
A416038 - Investigation of Driveline Incidents of M1078 LMTV - Dec1998
ADA366822 - Test and Evaluation of the LMTV Driveline - 1998
ADA416765 - Evaluation of Alternative Driveshaft Configurations for FMTV - 8Nov2002
There...
There is some more information here in the document in my signature. It talks about these issues, combined with current things people see and a few of the other Army testing documents on the same topic.
Synthetic oil isn't going to help with the situation that I think you're alluding to. The chief danger with not getting to operating temperature is that water condensed into the oil does not get a chance to boil off, and then you're recirculating that water through the engine causing corrosive...
If you're only putting 1000 miles on it a year, a good argument can be made for using conventional oil, since the premium cost of synthetic would be wasted if you're just changing what is essentially clean oil simply because of age.
Yes, and no. If you were trying to replicate them exactly, including the manufacturing method, it would require quite an expense. However, some clever design, and design for manufacturing, and you could probably make an extremely/acceptably similar product without needing a 1000-ton...
3-4 years ago these things were everywhere, and they could barely give them away. I think I bought mine back then for $20/ea, shipped! The last time I saw them around, I think they were like $100-150/ea. I haven't seen any in like a year or more.
Somebody is probably going to have to design...
That's why these engines have several fold the capacity of a similarly sized consumer engine. The added abuse is factored into the added volume.
The one thing I've never found a good study/explanation of is how long oil can survive, while mileage is low. Most of us owners are more likely to...