I have owned a lot of Cat engines over the years and if they put one in a pickup I wouldn't even look at anything else. I have never owned a C-7 but Cat has the best shops and dealer network in the US. Take it to Cat and have them hook it up to their computer and check it out. I have some C-15 Cats that ran a million miles, where rebuilt by Cat in 3 days and are now almost at 2 million miles with very,very little ever going bad on them. If it's a Caterpillar engine I like it. Tried and true if you maintain them right !!