Pete 379 Drivetrains

$1890 for cylinder packs
$1350 for head
$450 for head gasket kit with liner O rings
$3700 for a inframe kit on my old mans 3406E
Passing a cummins with his hood up and blown head gasket= priceless!!! lol im only kidding driver!

A 379 Pete needs a big block so forget the detroit, when you hit nasty head wind in new mexico or wyoming you will come back here and curse at the motor. Cummins is a ok motor, im not a fan, had real bad experience with their supposedly best N14, every N14 has the same problems at around 600k miles head gaskets, i was putting 3 gallons of oil in the thing every run to the west. The pre emission 2003 and older CAT C15, C16 and 3406E motors are kings in my book. Most low end grunt and alot of top end power. Not know for fuel economy but then again what is in a 379? Someone said you needed to do rods and mains on old B models, well thats a old wives tale, i had a 3406B 425 with over a million and it has never been touched. If its 07 and older nothing beats a Caterpillar. Then again i am a bit biased as CAT has never let me down, i wish i could say the same for cummins, other than that i got screwed in the #$$.

 

And that 600 ISX is cheap? haha yeah ok, see post above.

 

Only problem I have had out of a Cat is when one thing goes wrong, it seems to tie in a bunch of other stuff. May be just my luck, but I had a turbo start to go and then a few injectors, the air compressor, and governer all at the same time. Had a overhead done and new cam installed all at the same time, just cause. Had the money and it was already getting torn into to check some other stuff out.

 

the 14000 was a total on mine...their are several things i didnt deduct out of it....like it started out as a cracked head...so the mag testing company said...so i changed the head myself...wasnt the problem..but you can nock out 200 for the magnaflux guys...can take out the 500 that international shop charged me to run over head...ya can take out one upper head gasket kit...and also one plain head gasket cause i crimped my first one...live an learn i recon...and the mechanic that redid the motor charged me 3grand plus parts

 

I'm still running my 3406c had an inframe at 934000 lower liner seals went. 9500.00 3406e gets a little better fuel economy and isn't that pricey to work on. After a big cam 3 the n-14 is a really durable engine that's reasonably priced to work on. I wouldn't have any of the newer cat engines. If I had to pick new would probably look at cummins. One other thing nobody has mentioned is the type of repair shop in your vicinity. Here in spokane we have all three close by. I have a good relationship with the folks at cat and cummins. Don't know anything about detroits so probably wouldn't get one of those. Just my 2 cents worth

 

The February issue of Heavy Duty Trucking has a 2 page ad from Cat stating" Your in it for the long haul, So is Caterpillar" Based on what I read and not on what I hear, I'd say that's a pretty forward sounding statement wouldn't you?

 

I love my C-15 CAT. But its not just the engine/ tranny comb you need to look at. You need to consider the read diff ratios. It depends on what kind of work you plan on doing. Construction, consider a Higher ratio for low speeds, OTR driving a lower ratio for higher speeds. Look into gearing, it will help with the Miles per gallon, could save you some money. Just some helpful thoughts. There is a lot to look at when buying a truck.