Have this question for all you great truckers.My kw t200 has over a million miles and pretty soon i'm looking at rebuilding the engine:cummins n14.I figured instead of having another huge payment for a truck i would much rather stick with this one for another while.Up until now the truck didn't give me any issues whatsoever(engine wise)and i hope it never will.A friend of mine told me about going to the cummins factory and trading my old engine for a new one plus a difference.Anyone knows something like this?Also what do you guys think?How much should i look at a rebuilt cost? any good shops for such a job? TY

$10,000 or so for an in frame is a lot cheaper than 30,000 for a half way decent truck...besides your new one may be worse than what you have, right?

The shop where I work can build your engine if your close to NC...shoot me a pm and I'll send you the number

My pete has over 2 million miles and I rebuilt the engine myself. (a couple of times) If you shop around and or ask for a good deal before your engine goes down you can find a reasonable rate. Just make sure you go with a reputable shop or dealer. If you wait until something goes, then you are at thier mercy. What's a good deal? As you shop you will find out. If the truck has a lot of life and you can keep up on minor issues yourself go for the rebuild. Cummins rebuilds when done right hold up well and are much cheaper then replacing with a new one or even a cummins re-con. You are smart to be looking into this now. If you break down, drop a valve, get towed etc. you will pay thru the nose. Take a week off and get the job done at your convienience.

All of the following is PURE opinion on my part. Take it or leave it:

This is going to sound crazy but we always had VERY good service at Cummins in Avondate, Arizona (Phoenix). They charge top dollar- I think their labor rate is somewhere around $110/hour. We got to the point where we wouldn't take our truck anywhere else unless we had to- there are plenty of mediocre and bad shops out there so we've come to appreciate a good one.

Every time we had something done there, they stood behind it 100%. We only had an issue with workmanship once- and that was on our generator, and the situation was one that really wasn't workmanship, it was a parts failure of a part they hadn't replaced and we had made the call not to replace it when they had the generator torn apart. They felt responsible for not having required us to replace it and gave us the part at cost (probably still made a profit on that) and put it in for free (it was a full-day job to get the generator out and torn apart to replace it). Any engine work we had done there was always top notch.

I can tell you some Cummins dealers to stay away from, too, though...

If you're going to pay top dollar for a rebuild, don't go to the KW dealer- go direct to a Cummins distributor (not a Cummins authorized shop- an actual Cummins-owned distributor). The Cummins guys work on Cummins, train on Cummins, they know Cummins. If you go to KW, you're liable to have the a/c guy doing your inframe.

There is definitely something to be said for a mom & pop shop that does good work and doesn't take your wallet with them when you leave... For an inframe, though, unless you KNOW the mechanic is qualified/good, I wouldn't risk it personally.

There are quite a few states that don't charge sales tax if you have an ICC number (leased to a carrier counts)- Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania... not a bad idea to save some $ on sales tax on parts by going to a shop in one of those states.

Tweety,

Most definitely i would like that shop's number.I'm from Phoenix area too,Suprise, and maybe i could stop by to them and ask them more.That my dilema: i would rather pay once and have a top notch service ,instead of having to go back because of poor service.It costs you money,time,lost business and lots of stress.I know a few shops in the phoenix area and worked mostly with one of them.The truth is that most of them don't know too much and don't do a very good job at it.It infuriates me when they start guessing and learning about your truck right there.Recently i was in the shop twice for my a front main seal leak and it still leaks oil. Anyways, PM me any details and let me know.