Basically the MBE 4000 came to America (As did the MBE906 and MBE 904 both small bore inline engines) by way of Daimler-Chrysler through Detroit Diesel. The Series 60 was slated to have changes made to continue on into 2020 era prior to the sale of DDC from Penske. Once the sale went through though D-C stated they had better ideas... Their electronics on the first few years of the MBE series were somewhere along the lines of our DDEC 1 system. We were frustrated but if it was not a German idea it was not considered.
As things moved forward there was "Rebranding" done so the MBE 906 was slated for medium duty Sterling trucks and MBE 4000 became DD13 for Freightliner and Western Star (All owned by D-C. Then they came up with higher horsepower and increased torque packages and added the DD15 series. They're still MBE 4000 at heart.
They did finally start listening to DDC engineers about the advancements that were made with DDEC and finally started adding some of the technology.
Personally I left Detroit Diesel in 2006 and actually had been doing more of the other product lines than the MBE 4000. Since I was the dinosaur I took care of all the two strokes and Series 60 stuff as well as all the generators, Allisons and everything else that involved chassis, fabrication, head bottle washer... You get the idea.
I currently have one vehicle where I work that has a DD13 (2015 Freightliner Vaccon sewer sucker) that looks suspiciously like an MBE 4000 to me. It has given us zero issues so I have not played with it much at all.
I know the Germans have quality engineering abilities but it always frustrated me that if it was not their idea it couldn't be any useful or good.
I was involved in a sale of mining equipment repowers in two mines in the Pacific Northwest. The customers wanted cast iron flywheel housings on the engines we were going to install. They were MBE904 designed for off highway. The factory told us they do not offer a cast iron flywheel housing and would not consider offering one as "You don't need it." We explained to the factory people it doesn't matter what we want...The customer will not purchase these engines without the cast iron flywheel housing. Answer was still "No." So to avoid loosing a sale of 65 engines as well as the complete fabrication and installation of those engines at one mine and the same thing of 75 units at a separate mine I teamed up with another DDC distributor who was fighting the same battle for about 500 engines and we had our own cast iron flywheel housings manufactured at a local foundry. We sold all the engines as well as installations (Several million dollars when the dust settled.) and DDC would not warranty any of our engine installations. Thankfully no major engine issues and the minor stuff we just ate the warranty issues.
So with that long drawn out explanation I don't think I can help a lot on the MBE issues. Sorry...
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