Posted by Marty on Monday, May 07, 2007 at 04:11:55 :
In Reply to: Buy a core and rebuild posted by David on Monday, May 07, 2007 at 02:51:20 :
Well that's an option & some want new but I have yet to ever see a Cummins 4BT or a 6BT worn out unless it's been abused. These engines look like new inside at 300K miles if the oil has been changed even remotely regularly & the Injection pumps haven't been tampered with. So far all the fleet trucks on Dovebid that I've seen have been maintained better than most of us maintain our own trucks.
9 times out of 10, when a Cummins won't run or is running poorly it's injector problems from bad fuel, injector pump problems from bad fuel, tampering or fuel starvation. When the fuel pumps go on these motors it often ruins the injection pump so a pressure guage is money in the bank.
Consider this...there are still tons of vans on Dovebid selling for around $2000.
They usually have hydroboost brakes that can be adapted & once you've finished robbing all the goodies...the transmissions & adapter plates, especially on the TH400 vans, are worth lots of money on Ebay. Then, when you're finished selling anything saleable, there's over $2000 in scrap aluminum in the body of a Grumman van.
When the smoke clears you will invest a few days work but you'll get the 4BT for free & actually make a few bucks.
I'm not saying there isn't a bad one out there that's on its last leg...I've just never seen it yet. I'm in PDR regularly watching these engines taken apart to be modified & even the trucks that get grossly abused...never seen one reach it's wear limits yet.
That's my $.02!
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