Engine Reliability?

Sorry, but engines being rebuilt at 475kb indicates something seriously wrong. Either this particular engine was a turkey from the git go, it was badly abused, maybe excessively idled and the miles don't reflect the true usage, or the maintenance was poor. The standard lifespan of an engine before rebuilding is in the million mile range, and there are many engines that go well beyond that. I can show you numerous 2000 models inou fleet, and they are all close to the million mile mark, and to my knowledge, not one of them has had a major overhaul or replacement engine installed. In fact, we still have some 1997's running the road that are well past the million and a half mile mark without overhaul. And we use older 92-93's on a daily basis as yard trucks, loading trailers and doing PTO work,and the miles and hours on them correspond to their age.

In days past, you often rebuilt the old engines at 350k miles or so, so the longevity of engines has steadily increased. A million miles is the accepted standard now, and with the cost of engines, parts and labor, manufacturers know that they have to provide a long lasting durable product.

If someone is telling you that his engines consistently lasted over a million miles, in the 60's and 70's, don't get into any business deals with that man. LOL!

 

the emission motor run hot. You won't see high mileages from them. I'd say if you are talking about the 60's and 70's motors them drivers were full of it. exmples would be something like the 3408 cat which needed attention about every other time you drove the darn things. there was also that inline cat with the overhead cam, I forget the model right now. good motor, way ahead of it's time but had some issues. The early cummins without the LPF liners would need liners every 500k or so.

I think the best motors would be the 80's to early 2000's as far as longevity. SOlid platforms, known technology etc. the new technology if what's messing things up

 

Maybe, but to comment on it now would be pure speculation. If that is true, then it's gonna be a really good deal to take a course in diesel mechanics and open up an engine rebuild and overhaul shop.

Some of these guys that have lost their driving gigs due to tickets, accidents, and other causes should consider this as a career!

 

It's not really a speculation. All you have to do it pay attention to truck paper faithfully and you are already seeing the trend of lower mileage trucks that have been rebuilt already..

 

Oh, I see than now and again, but it's usually a Cat engine, and I just say to myself that it's what they deserve for buying an "off brand" engine!

 

now you'r gona start a fight.

I agree though. it has been the cats. They are runing them hotter and with smaller turbo's to try and reduce lag. But a larger turbo would increase boost and clear the cylinders faster thus reducing the high exaust temps. I'm not a fan of what cat has done since the E models. To me it seems that they just want to build of road motors and don't want to invest the resources to develop the new technology so they have just been band-aiding them untill such point they can't make them meet the standards which apparently is going to be 2010.
There is also another variable that needs to be considered. WIth the high fuel prices it's possible they are letting the maintenance go knowing they will trade them off early

 

There have been rumors, unconfirmed as far as I know, saying that Cat does not want to remain in the highway engine market and wants to drop back into off highway engines only. I have never seen anything actually confirming this, but that word does seem to pop up in conversation from time to time.

 

I've seen it. I never went out of my way to check. I asume it is true just knowing the lack of development they have done