Beware the cat dealers + high prices

I have been a trucker for many years and have always been a CAT man but after my recent experiences have changed my mind. I did a CAT inframe on my 3406E at near 3 million km about 3 yrs ago. At that time my engine had started useng some oil and was not pulling as well. On the inframe everything looked pretty good, there was about 9 thou of side clearance on the piston rings. After only 3 yrs I recently developed a head gasket problem and when I approached the CAT dealer was quoted a price of around $30,000.00 to overhaul the engine. I went elsewhere and had the complete inframe done for $12,000.00, the truck was never right after the first inframe but since this inframe using all new parts from IPD performs as well as when it was new. The real kicker was whe doing the last inframe I found that the side clearance on the rings was over 11 thou and the only way that could be after only 900,000 km was if the pistons in the cyl packs were used. I have since learned that it is very common for CAT to reuse pistons in the cyl pack on their reman kits. NEVER AGAIN WILL I BE RIPPED OFF BY CATERPILLAR

 

And they will not acknowledge that they use used parts I have since returned a set of pistons and liners from their set after pulling 2 pistons ftom the cyl to check side clearance they were at 10 thou at least double that of the new replacements, you would not believe the hard time "I got when reyurning them. tom