Is there any engine out there that DOESN'T have problems?

For me if im driving a truck it will have a 3406E Cat, and it will have an 18 speed behind it. I am picky, but I know that setup works for me, and I am going to stick with it.

 

Right now there are a lot of folks who have good trucks, who have taken care of them, who are hard up because they just dont have the business sense to make it in this economy, and thus are being forced out.

Look around and see what you can find, drive what ever you buy first, also a great piece of advice is open up the dash look at the wiring, see what it looks like.

I bought a truck back in 06 that caught on fire 2 weeks after I bought it because some knuckle head had spliced a wire with a piece of masking tape behind the dash.

If the wiring harness has been hacked up at all, run, not walk, run away!

 

You've been lucky. Detroits are natorious for puking out all thier oil bit by bit, they dont make good power, and well I hate them with a screaming passion. To give you an idea I see a truck with a Detroit I just move right past it.

Cummins makes some #### good engines, I know a lot of folks swear by the N14, I am not real familair with the cummins engines in big trucks, IMO CAT is where it is at. the 3406E I had in my 2000 W900L was just a #### good engine. All I ever did to it was have the overhead run once a year and I kept the oil changed. I had over 800K on it when I sold it, and it was only using about 1 gallon of oil once every 10,000 miles. It was very very rare that id have to add any between oil changes.

Here in lies the rub, I belive that it was 2000 was the last year for the 3406E after that they went to the C-15, the 3406 was the last non emissions motor, thus they have less things on them to break and mess up. But the problem is, they stopped making that motor 10 years ago.

Thus finding a truck that doesnt need an overhaul is going to be hard. On the upside if you plan for this and get a truck and overhaul it right away, you can get the truck cheaper, and you can have a lot of faith in what is under the hood, just make sure you do the overhaul at a reputable shop.

I dont know if they still are, but I know back in the day CAT in Spokanne (the one down the street from Kenworth Sales Co) was a pretty good shop. Had a couple of friends get motors overhauled there, they did a mighty fine job, and they did a few things to my truck for me, never had an issue.

What kind of truck are you looking at?

 

Id strongly sugjest that you check out the Kenworth T600, it is a well built truck, it has a set back front axle so it will turn well making it easier to get in and out of some of the tight places you will enoucnter out there, and it is pretty aerodynamic.

If that is all the country you are running and you arent pulling heavy, a 10 or 13 speed should get the job done just fine.

What kind of trailer you going to be pulling?

 

Here are a couple trucks I found after doing a quick search.

http://www.truckpaper.com/listingsdetail/detail.aspx?OHID=2384492

http://www.truckpaper.com/listingsdetail/detail.aspx?OHID=2358609

http://www.truckpaper.com/listingsdetail/detail.aspx?OHID=2400496

not too many of them out there with flat tops, but all 3 of these are.

Any reason you are opposed to a aerocab?

 

I have and like a T600. Not my first T600 either. It has it's pros and cons like any other truck, but it's not without it's flaws and it breaks down, rattles, etc, etc, just like every other truck does. Sure the fit and finish is a little nicer and the resale value is gonna be a little better then a freightliner, but when buying a used truck, it really comes down to how a truck is cared for, and will it do what you need it to do, not what brand it is, or how big the motor is or how many gears it has, or how many guages it has, etc, etc.

The things I like about it.

Less wind noise.
Sit closer to the passengers so you can carry a conversation easier.
Set back motor, yet can still access the engine easily.
Set closer to the middle so you can judge the distance to the right edge of the road (important on skinny back roads)


Things not so good about them,
Sleeper get in the way when your backing up and wanna look out the window
You wouldn't think with the mirrors mounted on the cowling that the mirrors would shake, yet I've never driven a T-600 that didn't have it's mirrors shake loose every six months.
02 or newer? dash paint peels off.
I'm only 5' 9" and I have to lean way forward to look out the side of the windows when pulling out of a drive or side road. No side visability.


As far as motors go, I've driven several Detroits. My Detroit was still tight as new at 800,000 miles. Only used 1/2 gallon of oil every 12,000 miles. No leaks, no burning, or anything like that. That wasn't my only Detroit either. The only problems I've run into with Detriots is bull gear going out, return fuel line cracking at the back of the head, and air line going into fan likes to break off. I can actually think of more problems I've had with cummins or cats and I've driven them less. Again they are all good motors, each have there little quirks, but most of it, like the truck, depends on how it was taken care of.

 

I think all engines have some type of problems sooner or later and most of the time it's sooner. I just bought a 2004 Freightliner Columbia in March of this year and it has the 14.0 Liter Detroit (EGR) set at 500HP. It started using a lot of oil and I mean alot (in the shop now). What turned out to be a failure of cylinder #2&3 has turned out to be poor maintainance on the previous owners fault. I started out with a $10,695 inframe bill including tax out the door to them calling me yesterday (Detroit Diesel) and telling me that they have to bore the block and sleeve it too for an additional $1800 because the block is badly worn. They have been very informative with me and showing me exactly what they are doing and why. Seems that I have the last DDECIV engine that was made and they can't find parts (complete kit). My engine was the last one produced before they made the switch to DDECV (go figure), so my point is that the differance between alot of the reliability issues is maintenance on the previous owners part. My Detroit has 820,000 miles and the head boss told me today that they have inframed tons and tons of engines with up to a million miles and over but this is the first engine that he has seen that was WORN out like mine is.

I also have a 2000 KW T2000 with a C-12 Cat engine (1,396,000 miles) and it has a serious internal problem, which I believe is a cracked ring or piston. I have taken care of that truck to the T but it's time for it to be inframed as well. Thing is that I bought the Freightliner to replace the KW because I didnt want to put any money into the engine and look what happened........ so hindsite tells me that I could have just inframed the CAT and kept a trucking but now I have two trucks with broken down engines! One Detroit that's gone before it's time and one CAT that's a miracle that it made it this far.