What are some engines to avoid not matter what.

2004 trucks are when the engines started getting EGR's. EGR's, while a pain, can be dealt with, if needed. It's the 2008 trucks with DPF that should be avoided as much as possible.
(Disclaimer: you will occasionally see a 2003 truck with EGR or 2007 truck with DPF, but it is very rare. There are even rare 2008 trucks that didn't come with DPF. These in general are rare oddities.)

 

there are 14 L w/o EGR and VNT. but as I know they are Euro-III certified and made for out of US market.

 

There are a few pre-EGR 14l engines out there, but they are rare! I saw one in a Volvo 770 once with 550hp on the valve cover tag.

 

in Australuna Euro-3 was continued to 2009 and 14L engines were sold there w/o emission stuff.

as I know there were Euro-4 12.7 with EGR. Rare engine too. I'm not sure, may be it is conversion for US trucks used in Europe, but I saw 12.7 with EGR in Germany. There are enthusiasts of conventional design in old good Europe and they import trucks to EU and upgrade them to EU laws.

really there are more series 60 versions we use to see on road.

 

I saw a W900 with one advertised on truckpaper recently. Forgot the year though but it was a 14L Detroit, regular turbo etc., shiny valve cover and 575hp maybe? Not sure on the specifics but I thought it was pretty rare.

 

I have a 2007 Freightliner classic glider kit truck with Detroit 14L series 60 non egr tag says remand to 1994 specs with ddc4 ECM 594k miles 13 spd for sale

 

My last truck was Volvo 770,2001 model. Detroit D60, without any EGR, average i used to get 6.8 Mpg. Now i have a Volvo 780 ,2008 Volvo D13,already over 1mil miles original motor ,turbo ,i 'm working for same company,same routes,same average weight and with DPF,EGR my D13 gets around 8.2 mpg. From my experience, I would not trade the D13 for D60.

 

you don't like Mack's, but I put 978K on that 2000 E-7 355 hp motor and it was still in excellent shape when we traded it off. Original turbo went at 175K, cam was replaced at 200K, second turbo at 250K, other than overheads at 500K the only engine work was oil changes. Think we replaced the water pump at 600K. The Mack motors were definetly better than the rebranded Volvo motors.

Avoid the Mercedes MBE4000 engines, continual problems, worthless Jakes, might pull good, but junk otherwise.