Thanks everyone! I appreciate all your advise. It would be easier for someone else to make this decision for me but of course its not that easy. I may just save up some more cash and buy better equipment. I ll bring the dyno results to the guys at my local KW service and go over what it would cost if a major breakdown occured as to what I could expect, I guess that will be the deal maker or breaker, just losing sleep now over this decision.

The wife wont let me finace, which I have to say no payment is very nice but at the same time you dont get the worry free happy feelings.

Over 1 million miles and not been rebuilt, I would run away fast from that. Metal wears out no matter how well its been taken care of.

I could send you out to my pole barn and let you have a long chat with the 1940 Caterpillar D-4 parked inside. It has yet to have it's engine rebuilt. Coming up on 68 years in a few weeks.

Doesn't metal (in an engine) last a LOT longer if it has clean, good lubrication? No bits and pieces inside to smack around? No dirty oil to wear things down? Etc.?

basically, yes. The more frequent the oil changes, and the more rigorous the maint schedule has been, the more life expectancy there can be to an engine. But, there is no hard and fast line where you can definitely say that an engine will last longer because of the care that has been taken. There are people that are lousy on maintenance who have engines that live like Methuselah, and there are people who service their engines like it is the centerpiece of a temple, and the engines still fail.

And though they are far from my favorite engines, Cats have a reputation for long life which is well deserved. Of the major brands, I would be inclined to take a chance on a Cat living long more so than the other brands. My unhappiness with Cats comes from the eventual costs associated with them when you do have to rebuild them, but I freely admit that a well cared for Cat ha a very good chance of long life.

sure wish I had a crystal ball....

We don't get a crystal ball in life. You gather as much information as you can, make a decision and live with it. If the decision turns out to be wrong, you pick yourself up, dust yourself off, try to learn from the experience, and start all over again.

There are some people who think that life owes them all the answers before hand, that they should have anything but success, no matter how unrealistic their plans are, and that they should never be held accountable for any of their failures. They are called Democrats.

Sorry, I just couldn't resist that one.

Make your best decision and live with it. If it's wrong, live and learn. life tastes best when you take big bites.

You never know who's reading, y'know. You know there's a political forum, right? Your 'ole Cat has this old Democrat's (Independent) interest though. Is it an RD? Side tank or rear tank? Hydraulics? Blade?
rx

__________________
If demons did not exist, government would find it necessary to invent them.

It;s a 2t, with an original fit of a cable operated operated loader setup. Had the entire winch and operating assembly mounted on a frame above the hood. Manually tripped bucket. Someone did some cutting torch butchery before I got it, and pulled all of that off of it, leaving some chunks of frame still there.

I picked up a decent blade and front mounted hydraulic pump for it, and will be installing them on it when I get enough time. Side mounted fuel tank.

She's an oldie but a goodie. I found he sitting in a junk yard, untouched for about 5 years because one of the steering clutches had frozen up, and the points were out of the tarting motor. Foxed the points, got it started up, and with about 5-600 foot of playing around got the clutch to break loose. Hauled it home and spent two days having a "power wash a thon" with it.

By the way, I paid 800 for it, and if I wanted to sell it, the pure scrap value by the pound would be worth more than that, much less the parts value. But it stays with me, and the executor of my will will have to figure out how to dispose of what will then be about a 110-120 year old Cat.

I drive a 100 ton CAT 777F mining dump (Tonka Truck) CAT motors are the best. it has the best power. like they say :If Its not A CAT Its A Dawg