What engine?

tknight

Veteran Expediter
If you had a chance to do it again, what engine would you choose do a st8 truck ?
Dt466
Cummins
Cat c7
Or the ever dreaded mbe900


And most important why???
 

greasytshirt

Moderator
Staff member
Mechanic
You can scratch the C7 from the list. It's parent bore block guarantees a nightmare when one of its brittle piston rings decides to break.

For me, it's a toss up between one of the first two, for familiarity's sake.
 

LDB

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
The ABC's of engines. Anything But Cat. They don't honor their warranties. They use a Huey (misspelled I know) pump which is junk. They're junk.
 
  • Like
Reactions: greasytshirt

greasytshirt

Moderator
Staff member
Mechanic
The ABC's of engines. Anything But Cat. They don't honor their warranties. They use a Huey (misspelled I know) pump which is junk. They're junk.
There's a Freightliner M2 in my yard that totally agrees with you.
 

TruckingSurv

Seasoned Expediter
I am partial to Cummins, BUT I think Detroits are pretty good too (lots of high mileage S60's and the current DD13/15/16 series seem to have good fuel economy and I think less emissions issues than others currently being produced), There are a lot of CAT fans, BUT I have never heard anything but they are expensive to work on, doesn't matter anymore unless you are going used since they aren't made any more.
 

paulnstef39

Veteran Expediter
Fleet Owner
l sold my broken cat to some south american dudes, who didn't even want the title but we did do a bill of sale. They paid cash money. 3 weeks later I got a call from FL DOT. "hey one of your trucks is lying on it's side on the FL turnpike." Luckily we had a bill of sale to prove it wasn't ours anymore. So whenever someone says CAT, this nightmare runs through my head. I had already rebuilt 1 cat top to bottom, so CATS suck.
 

sewmun

Seasoned Expediter
My Cummins ISC 2001 FL70 just keeps runnin w/o any problems,gets almost 11 mpg,I'm happy.
 

mugurpe

Seasoned Expediter
I think it depends upon the year and the individual dealerships you might end up with. I like the dt466 (210HP) I've got, the truck that goes with it is mediocre however. The 3126's (pretty similar to a c7, have a 190HP and used to have a 250HP in a tractor) I've had decent experiences with but I've never had to rebuild one. The cummins i've driven in rentals have been totally gutless but that's all a function of what HP it's ECM is set at. They seemed with the butt dyno to behave pretty much like the vt365 internationals which I can't stand. It's hard to apples-to-apples it for that reason and the setup of the rest of the truck matters so much. However, my mechanic told me to only buy trucks with cummins in them in the future so that's what I'll do (he Ok'd hino's as well actually). He said not to do any orphaned engines (cat, mbe) or brands (sterling) ever.
 
Top