I am considering buying a 12V CTD. If I do I will likely drive it till it dies. Hopefully this would be well in excess of 300K miles.

I have read things about injectors costing $800 and rebuilt injection pumps costing $1600.

My question is how far have you driven yours and with what engine repairs have you had to do? How far will most of them go before the engine will die or have to be rebuilt?

 

Do they ever die ???? na mine should see 1 million miles before I trade for a newer truck ;D

 

With a little bit of reasonable care they will out last the sheet metal. If you had a stainless steel body, then you need to worry about the life of the Cummins.

 

The rest of the truck will literally fall apart and the motor will still be strong. I know a guy that has a 98 with a million miles on it. Of course, he really knows how to take care of his trucks.

Injectors cost nowhere near $800 (sure you can buy injectors that cost $1600.....but stockers are cheap). An injector pump can run you some serious money though. The good news is that the P7100 injector pump is known as the million mile pump and there is very little chance of having any problems with it.

IMO, You CANNOT go wrong with a 12 valve Cummins.

 

Do not worry about the mileage. I have a 98 that is used as a delivery vehicle in a commercial nursery business, and it has way over a million miles. The injection pump is stock, with the exception of things I have done to the thing to increase power, and the injectors have been in there since early 2000, when I swapped in a set of reworked 370's.

The only thing that ever really broke is the exhaust manifold, and I replaced that for $400 with an ATS three piece version that has been on there for years and never given a lick of trouble.

Watch that you do not run it hot, or run the exhaust temperatures too high when pulling. That will crack the exhaust valve seats at about 300,000 or so miles, and then it is time for a new head. I replaced the head at 310,000 miles and have never touched it since, other than to adjust the valves.

I only wish my newer and new trucks were as good!

 

I know a guy in oregon that has approx. 500,000 miles on his 12V. He pulls trailers around the country delivering them, so he has worked the engine a lot.

He has done a few things to keep it in good repair. As I recall, a head gasket was one of the things, but nothing major.

 

Agree with all of the above posts - proper maintenance is a must. First thing to do, however is to kill the KDP - it is easy to do but can cost a lot if not done. Do a search for the threads on it. Good luck with your truck!

 

jeffmet:

My 96' has 225,000 miles on it and it is pretty heavily
modified. At about 200,000 miles I had the P7100
fuel pump governor unit rebuilt as idle became a little
erratic. I have also had to replace the overflow valve
on the pump three times and the headgasket once.
The headgasket failure was totally my fault though,
too much boost and EGTS way too high!!

As everyone said above, the 12 valve engines are
tough!!

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John_P