Hi, I live in New Zealand and back in the 1990’s I owned a trucking business in which we had both Super Liner and Ultra Liner Mack’s that were E9 V8 powered. One was 525hp / 2050ftlb and the other 575hp / 2180ftlb torque. They were undeniably reliable and having driven both nothing on the roads of NZ even came close to being able to out pull them. The Mack V8 burble is still the sweetest sound you will ever hear when hauling arse up the Napier - Taupo road which has some of the steepest long inclines in the Southern Hemisphere. The key thing to these engines is to never ever over rev them above the 1750-1800rpm recommended restrictions. The pulling range of theses 2 vehicles we had was 1150 - 1650rpm and the worst thing about these trucks was their lack of engine braking as the engines were fitted with the Mack Dynatard which was not very effective. We resolved this by fitting an after market Voight retarder which was very good if not brilliant at saving the vehicle brakes.
Regards, Geoff.
