Cummins producing V8 5.0L Diesel engine.

kstruckcountry · November 8, 2013

I tore into a 12er this summer at ~280k, there is no way that motor was making it to 300 without valve work. This was after the oil leak nightmare at ~250. This is a motor that has been worked, on and off road. It runs great now, maybe a little sooty but not bad. No matter what engine, I'd plan for an overhaul or swap after 200k, because chances are it'll need one.

LaserBlueZ71 · November 10, 2013

In the class 8 truck market, if you want a factory Paccar product (Peterbilt, Kenworth) you have the choice of either Cummins or the in house Paccar MX motor. The latter is new to the US market & there are a lot of Cummins powered trucks with 2-3 hundred thousand miles on them that have already been opened up for new cylinder packs/rings/valves etc. This is mostly due to issues with ever increasing EPA regs in addition to raising cost to purchase.

While the pick up & class 8 market are different applications, I would wait YEARS to see what the track record before being on the hook to fix one.

I remember the days.

My dad has been a long hauler for 33 years, heavy hauler, oversize and super loads. I drove myself for quite a few years, I owned my own truck as well. I had a 2004 Kenworth W900L with a 550HP C15 CAT. I miss that truck. Only reason I came off the road was because I met my fiance. We plan to start a family soon and I don't want to miss all the things my dad missed if I can help it.

It's a shame. You could buy a brand new class 8 truck up until 2003, and you stood a really good chance of working it 1,000,000 miles without any major repairs. Now, the new engines spend more time on the hook than on the road. With CAT out of the game, that only leaves Paccar and Cummins engines for Pete and KW trucks. From everything I have seen, read, and even after running a Paccar MX for a while, I can say it is almost no better than the Cummins. It is a gutless engine with poor reliability and power. Actually, if I had to choose right now, I would spec a Cummins ISX15 over a Paccar MX engine. It's been 10 years already since Detroit pulled the plugged on Detroit engines in Paccar trucks. It's a shame really. If Detroit engines were still an option in Paccar trucks, they would sell like hot cakes.

As far as pickup trucks go, if I was going to buy a diesel, it would be a GM first, and Ford second. I wouldn't buy a Dodge anything, ever, for any reason. If I couldn't have a Duramax, I would be sporting a F-250.