BD Engine question

[ianoz]

Hi All, Well we're gluttons for punishment .Have found a BD ,But need to know about the engines fitted.This one has a P6 perkins fitted .Did  they  come out with a perkins in them? If it was Fitted later ,someone went to a lot of trouble as every thing looks like its original.ian.

[Bob]

I know a guy that put a 6 cyl John deere engine in an oc12 and did a good job to make look like it was supposed to be there. Don't think Perkins was around then, or at least too big.

[ianoz]

Hi Bob, Thanks for the reply.Did not think it would have come out with the perkins in it ,but you never know .Seen some where that some cat loaders came out with a continental petrol motor so i guess any thing is possible . Unfortuneatlly The owner of the BD wants more than we can afford to pay for it,so will have to give it a miss . .ian.

[Bob]

You just can't have'm all, I suppose...

[clueless]

You may've lucked out: the BD shows with a Herc diesel, and I understand parts, if available, are $$$$$$...
Perkins started in the early 30's, building one of (if not The) first high-speed diesels. The P6 was built before WWII, but I don't know when they expanded into the US, or when their engines became available here. It seems unlikely the Perkins could've been fitted for export in WWII, but  you never know; the different nut/bolt thread systems gave everyone fits during the war.
Cat lift trucks, for some reason, used mostly other engines; a 79 Fel-Pro catalog lists Cont F163 (4) and F227 (6) gas, Ford 351 V8 gas, IH UV304 V8 (later catalog shows V304) (gas?), Perkins 4.236 (4) diesel (later catalog shows A4.236) and, oh, yes, their own 3208 V8.

[John Schwiebert]

When I went to vist the son & has family in the U. K. several years ago we visted a collector who had a BD with a  Perkins in it (354 Perkins). It looked nice. Now Bud on the Cat loaders. In 1961 I got to tour one of the Cat factories in Peoria. They built one size of a small wheel loader mainly for city goverments that were not diesel minded that offered a Continental gas engine. Don't remember the model and size of the loader or the Continental engine.

[clueless]

That 79 catalog shows Three Cat lift truck lines: T-models and V-models, which were probably a  fuel etc variation as in both lines the F163 is in models 25 to 60B; at 60C to 120 they go into the Perkins 4 and the 227 6, and at 160 and up they go into the V8's.
Of course, that was too simple to continue, so there's also an AM and AH line, models 36 t0 60, with the Cat V8, presumably the most powerful.
Oops: didn't look carefully enough at a 97 Fel-Pro: that shows the Perkins (A4.236) also in the T 25 to 60B range, with the F163 and an unidentified "1404" engine (Cont 140 4cyl???...would have to be a misprint as section has separate "cyl's" column; no Cat 1404 shows, but I don't follow Cat and know next to nothing about them). Also in the V- line a Perkins 4.203 diesel has joined the A4.236