[GMAN]

Originally Posted by YerDaddy

Hey Gman you really ought to change your hood from blue to yellow!

I'm a die hard CAT man too. The 3406 mechanical fuel injected is the best on highway engine in history. Then the government got involved and ruined the state of the art.
Blowing your exhaust into your intake makes absolutely no sense. Try sticking a hose up your azz and the other end down your throat and see how well you perform!

You guys pay too much for CAT parts. I get mine from my KW dealer if I can. It's cheaper than the CAT house. The CAT engine tools are expensive too. $1500 sounds about right for a turbo from CAT. Get the exact same one from Borg Warner (Schwitzer) for half that.

Why shop at Macy's when you can go to Walmart?!

Anyway all I can say is my 3406C never left me on the side of the road in 15 years. I have passed countless new trucks pulling steep grades as they drop by the wayside. The fact that a 15-20 year old engine will outperform a new one says volumes. CAT is still king.

They still make 3406Bs for export generator use. Just change some fuel pump parts and you have a top notch truck motor.

The only thing I am worried about is the government outlawing my engine. Not sure I want to invest $25K in a new zero emission engine that's bound to give more trouble than it's worth.

I will need to think about changing my hood to yellow for a while. Blue has grown on me.

Piping the exhaust back into the engine never made any sense to me either.

I rarely buy parts from CAT. I purchased the turbo from Truckpro. They gave me the best price. CAT just had a big price increase right before I had to buy this part. Lucky me. I can usually get a better price on CAT parts from a local dealer. I would have thought that I would have been able to get the part direct from CAT for less. I checked with everyone that I could think of at the time and they were all higher. The last turbo that I purchased was about half of what I paid for this one.

[bobburns]

Do not know if anyone will read this as this is an old thread - but the ANSWER to CAT out of the on ROAD engine business is here => Strategic Positioning in the North American Truck Manufacturing Market

LONG story short - when Mercedes-Benz (Benz) (Diamler is Mercedes Benz) - bought Chrysler they gallivanted and bought Freightliner and CAT lost 40% of their engine business because the Germans - (Benz) declared an end to the contract engine purchasing and that all engines in future Freightliners - Western Stars - Thomas Built buses, and Sterlings - were soon to be Benz Diesels ONLY. They also declared death to Detroit Diesel to relegate it to parts company only - which they also owned in the Ioccoca build of Chyrsler to fatten it to sell to them

For Caterpillar - basically a heavy industrial diesel engine manufacturer rooted in end to end Bulldozers and heavy equipment manufacturing who never really had to deal with emissions issues in their engines - after loosing 40 percent of your business - it was a no-brainer it was never going to be profitable anymore as Benz is a 800 pound gorilla who had just bought effectively 80 percent of the non-consumer transportation sector. The Germans - Benz - know Diesels and let us not forget who and where Robert Bosch and Rudolph Diesel were and where they ended up "working"

So to salvage their "brand name" they were really out in the "cold" as an on road engine manufacturer - because Navistar is much bigger - HUGE - in fact and if you read the article also partially in bed with the Germans in its ownership too - you know they make the Power Stroke for FORD (DT 466's are everywhere else too) The truth is CAT just did not have the right diesel engine design and fueling engineers - as a few of the guys have said here with how they thought they could make an ON Road engine emission compliant. their simple mistake with ECM's trying to do direct injection HEUI and the like that had dependability problems made bad mistakes in the market place and pissed off consumers (truckers)

Post number 67 of this thread had most of it right.

CAT cut a page from the Ioccoca book - make the whole product - as a specialty product - and farm implement equipment and other places International harvester is - is nowhere CAT has ever been. It made since to jump into the agricultural engine business with them.

They still have brand name and it has value the name "CAT" just like heavy equipment by the name "CAT"

And that is why the CAT is not longer in the on the road engine business.

I am a fueling systems engineer.

[GMAN]

You could not pay me enough to buy a truck with a Mercedes engine. They have had their problems and I would not buy a brand specific engine from any of them. CAT has still given me better service and reliability than any that I have owned. I hope that CAT will one day be able to jump back into the class 8 otr business.

[Mackman]

Originally Posted by GMAN

You could not pay me enough to buy a truck with a Mercedes engine. They have had their problems and I would not buy a brand specific engine from any of them. CAT has still given me better service and reliability than any that I have owned. I hope that CAT will one day be able to jump back into the class 8 otr business.

looks like the only motor left for you in a new truck is cummins. and some new trucks thats not even a option

[GMAN]

Originally Posted by Mackman

looks like the only motor left for you in a new truck is cummins. and some new trucks thats not even a option

I have no desire to buy a new truck. I will probably keep what I have and just rebuild as needed. I can do a lot of rebuilds for what a new truck costs. I could live with a Cummins. But, I don't think that reliability would be as good as I have had with CAT. I have owned several Detroit engines and had decent service from them. But, so far, CAT has done a better job for me. I keep hoping that common sense will find it's way back to our bureaucrats and CAT will reenter this end of the business. I know it is a stretch, but I can dream?????

[ironeagle_2006]

Well CAT got Screwed over again by the EPA this year. See 2 years ago they bought EMD via Progress Rail one of their Subsidiary companies they own. Well EMD makes locomotives for the USA and other Markets. The EPA was mandating Massive Emission Reductions also in the Locomotive industry. However EMD thought they were in Compliance for the NEXT set aka Tier 4 that goes into effect in Jan of 2015. However it came out the EPA Moved the Goalpost so to speak back further now EMD is not in Compliance and it is going to take them 2 years to get there. So for 2 years 5000 Employees of EMD are sitting on their Hands with NOTHING to do since the EPA will not let them build anything that does not meet their NEW REQUIREMENTS.