How long will an engine last?

[Damon]

Hello everyone. Im here once again looking for more info on heavy trucks. Im in the market to buy a good old dump truck. Im looking at a 2001 Mack CH600 with a Mack E7 electronic 450hp engine. It has 550 000 km and the engine has 17000 hours. Its all origional and never rebuilt. My question is how long will this stuff last UNDER AVERAGE CONDITIONS? I talked to a mechanic who said an engine like that will go about 20000 hours then you need to rebuild. Does this sound about right? Is this engine almost at the end of its life? How many km should the rest of the truck go? How long will the average truck go under average conditions before it becomes a money pit? Also how much would it cost to rebuild an engine like this? Cat? Cummins? Detroit? Mack? How much can you buy an engine for? How much to swap an engine? How much do you think this truck is worth? Any info would be greatly appreciated! P.S. Please put prices in CAD. Thanks

 

[Steve Frazier]

Serviced and operated properly, heavy truck engines can go a million miles without overhaul. That being said, most heavy truck engines are designed to be overhauled with replacement cylinder sleeves, pistons and bearings. Most are designed to be done "in frame" meaning the engine doesn't have to be pulled from the truck. I just did a quick search and it looks like an E7 overhaul kit is about $2500US, not sure what the labor cost would be. www.adelmans.com is a good source for pricing replacement parts.

 

[Longhood]

Judging engine life by an electronic hour meter is pretty sketchy because the meter shows all key on time, which includes idling. It is really hard to put a number on life expectancy other than to use an average like Steve gave you.
A truck that has been cold started in winter is going to show a lot more wear than one that is kept in a warm shop or simply not used in the winter.
An inframe rebuild less head and injector work is about $10000.00, the whole thing can cost as much as the described truck would sell for, (around $25000 I would think).
Often an engines life can be stretched but doing a bearing roll (replacing the rod and main bearing) if it doesn't have a lot of blowby or use too much oil.
a local gravel truck can get by with a lot less perfect engine than a long haul or heavy haul truck.

 

[oldnotslow]

Consider a Dyno test and oil sample to determine the health of the engine. That will give you power numbers, blowby pressure and wear metals amounts and contamination from fuel, coolant. Can also do fluid analysis for trans and rear ends.