engine life?

It depends on a whole lot of things. My old Cat has 1.6 million on it. I run it five nights a week and it has never been on the side of the road. Now I've probably just jinxed the whole darn thing! I have a buddy with an engine like mine who takes just as good of care of his and it had a catastrophic failure and seized at 675,000 miles and took the transmission out with it.

My Dad has an N-14 Cummins that didn't make it to 700,000. He has another N-14 that is about 1.3 million and will probably need an overhaul soon. He has another Cummins that has to have 2 million on it and it runs, but he says you can tell it doesn't have the guts his other trucks have.


My truck has VERY low idle time. I run out and back and hardly ever let it idle. I usually shut it down if I get out of it. I also keep up on the maintenance. I am the third owner of the truck and we all were the only ones to drive the truck. I think that made a huge difference, too. No company driver hammering on it all the time.

Any engine could go over a million, I think, if it was kept up with, driven right, and doesn't idle 12 hours a day. And I think any engine could fail at any given time, due to a number of little tiny fluke things that can go wrong. It's a crap shoot, but you can tell a little about the chances of the engine lasting longer from an oil analysis, a coolant analysis, and the ECM report. High idle time, numerous engine overspeeds, lifetime fuel consumption averages, etc. are all things to look for on the ECM report.

I guess it's a crap shoot and I'd rather buy one that I knew the true history of, if at all possible.

 

Hey Paddletrucker. How much does an oil and coolant analysis cost? Ballpark figure?

 

Around 20 bucks a pop. I get mine done at Cat, but am looking at another lab that has a program where they send you so many kits and you send it in to them. It's supposed to cost a lot less and I have a guy who's raving about how good they are.

 

Sorry but I wouldn't trust Speedco's Oil Analysis or the $6.00 an hour clerk doing it.

 

I have a friend that has an 03' Pete 379 with a 6NZ 550 Cat and almost 1,400,000 on the miles and has been well maintained and still going strong. I think these newer engines won't be seeing that.

 

Not to sound dumb and I am being serious check the engine man date and see if it was a friday or a monday.

If the truck has an APU and has had an APU since the truck was new then the motor probably has next to nothing for idle time.

I know changing the oil every 10K for conventional oil is a must. I would not take it over 12K. I know synthetic can go for 40K but I prefer conventional. Anyways look at all the maintenance records and the mileage to go with it. I would look at the MPG for the trucks life for sure. That is a huge thing right there.

 

My personal opinion is the 6NZ is the best motor built period. I do know the N-14 is right there with it when it comes to lasting. I know of multiple N-14s with 1million plus and still going strong. My buddy that works at a cummins shop says he sees them come in for PMs and basic services all the time with well over a million and no major problems.

 

The CAT dealer in central IL will sell you all the pre paid sample bottles you want to mail off to their lab in Iowa. $11 for oil & $33 for coolant analyses. Was thinking Blackstone Labs were around $25 for oil samples.