EClancy

ya know, as much as i hate to say it, as i love my cummins in my dodge, i would go CAT first chance i got. In working as a truck mechanic in a stone/sand/gravel operation, we had a fleet of trucks powered by either macks, cummins or cats, and a fleet of equipment powered almost exclusivly by cats, though two loaders had big cummins in them.
Compared to the Cats, the mack motors were junk:leak all over, headgasket problems, turbo problems, head problems, etc; mack engine rebuild about every month.

Compared to the Cummins truck motors, the Cats were still more reliable. We had continous problems with the water pumps on the 8.3l and the 10.x liter cummins that were in triaxle ford dumpers.

The cats are certainly not high-revving, and they are not fast-revvinmg motors like the 8.3s and such. They just kinda grunt it out and ger it done. I ordered tons of parts for all motors, and the Cat parts were generally less expensive than mack parts, and certainly not any more outrageous than parts for anything else these days.

When i look at how everything operated as a whole comapred to everything else, i have to say that the Cats are the most reliable motor i have ever seen. They never, ever break down, though they do get good routine maintenance. we had one rock truck that came from a salt mine that has over 100,000 hours on the origional block, head, and turbos. All the cat equipment has over 30000 hours on them, whereas the cummins are remanned around 20000.

So over all, i am certainly not saying that the cummins is a bad motor. It is a great motor, and the best ever in a pick-up, or i would not have bought one. I'm, just saying that i think Cat makes a better motor, and i would buy one in a heartbeat, $ allowing. Just my own $.02, to each their own.

singleturnout

i heard in 2007 dodge is putting a CAT under the hood

Luke S

Enough allready, Dodge is not going to use a Cat. That makes NO sense at all. They allready have Cummins which is great, but even if they were going to change, which their not, it would be an MB or a Detroit since they are in house.

grantx5

Look, I got two cats at home and neither one of them earn their keep. My Cummins, now that's a different story.

singleturnout

it makes sense when ford owns part of cummins the agreement between the to is that dodge cant make a 4 door fullsize and they can keep the cummins why do you think they made the MEGA CAB instead of a full size and to the average joe dosent know what a detroit engine is but i bet they know what a CAT is

EClancy

Are you for real?????

singleturnout

yes iam for real i didnt believe it either until i heard it from a friends father who works for ford and his word is creditable

Luke S

How many times do we have to go over this? If somebody who works at Ford really told you that they need their head examined.

singleturnout

why hasnt dodge come out with a fullsize 4 door yet its going to be 2006 here in a little bit and no fullsize somethings up

twinturbos

i have worked on many cat diesels. 3406 and 3126. all a pain and very expensive to play with. personaly i wouldnt want it in a newer pickup. way to rich for my blood. ordering parts is a pain too. way way overpriced. but i do like the power.

oestreich84

Does Megacab ring a bell? The Megacab has the most interior room out of any light truck. I can't believe that some people actually believe that Ford owns Cummins

displacedtexan

I'm sure he is credible and all... But this is what Cummins has to say about the subject.
http://www.cummins.com/cmi/content.j...=4&index=0#Q27

Shovelhead

He should have read the fine print........

singleturnout

cummins also says theres nothing wrong with the 53 block

Shovelhead

There are thousands of "53" blocks out there happily running up and down the road.
It seems that the 53 blocks are fine as long as the engine is not pushed beyond the stock parameters.
It's the folks towing heavy, or building power levels beyond the stock threshhold that seems to cause the early demise of some engines.