Cat Diesel Engines

Swamp Man wrote:
Been looking at the used MDT market and see a ton of trucks with CAT 3126, C-7, etc engines for sale. During my research it seems these engines allegedly have a lot of problems. I say allegedly as with any research on the net, you have to be careful. Any have one of these engines and how does/did it work out for you? I am aware that there are engines with failures that occur due to manufacturing defects in every brand. Some of the trucks listed have a good price but the old saying about if it sounds too good to be truth, it is.

Going by our experience where I work, I would not own a C7. We had four...three failed, one catastrophically (threw a rod). My truck (2007 Freightliner, 250HP) was our last C7...it has ~170,000 miles, and before Ryder sells it off, the service manager at the facility said will have to put a motor in it! It has excessive blowby, flat wont start below 25 degrees (though every C7 I have seen was a bad cold starter), and holds about 30psi of oil pressure at 2200RPM.

It's also less than a year removed from an almost-$5000 HPOP and injector job. According to the manager, that's typical for a C7 at ~150K.

I'd much rather have a Cummins!