6NZ or Series 60

The argument you need deep pockets for a CAT doesn't hold much water IMO. Except for an inframe I've spent next to nothing on mine in the past almost 7 years now. I spent about $300 one time when one of the pacbrake springs broke. The spring its self was about $12 most of that was labor. If it was breaking parts all the time I could see that but rarely, for me anyway, does anything ever break. Edited - Had to replace a turbo twice. The first one was an upgrade to a better turbo. The second one was when that turbo blew up. Yep it was expensive.

 

he mentions 12 grand more for the cat. thats a deep pocket for me.

 

If he's going to sweat over $12,000 sure. I could make that up in relative short order. Over the life of the unit it's nothing. I'd take the CAT based on relationship with my shop but that's just me.

 

CAT parts do cost more but if you don't have to buy them then CAT motors are cheap. My CAT has 873k on it now and over 23k hours and the only thing that has been opened up on that motor is the valve covers. Oil is changed every 12k and we are hard on them, if we are at 80k or less we are empty. Oh and it's an all original 2007 motor and truck, no delete has been done on it and it is still using the 2 turbo setup.

 

N 14 is 10k more at Fitzgerald's 3 year 300000 cummins warranty. They also do Thomson cats but don't know the price

 

How much do you gross on a daily basis?

If heavy regularly I'd go for the CAT. I believe they handle the heavy better than the Detroit.

This is provided we're talking about 3406 not the later engines with head problems.

 

They only had problems if you did not watch your temps. I have driven them from 94-07 and never had issues. Others driving the same trucks have because they did not keep the temps down. If I am loaded and starting up a hill, I switch the fan on at the bottom and the temp stays around 190° and pyro does not get over 900. It's all about taking care of the truck.