1999 N14 Cummins Reviews

[Rockcliff]

Currently looking to get into a tandem truck. Found a 1999 Paystar with a N14 Cummins. Truck currently has 875,000 KM on it. Motor has not been rebuilt. What should I expect to be wrong/go wrong with the motor if we do decide to get the truck?
Thanks in advance.
P.S I know more about the cats then I do other motors but am not ignorant enough to say cummins make a bad motor. All motors have their problems whether they are yellow, black etc.

 

[Truck Shop]

At 544,000 miles, A few things to expect. Air compressor, water pump, possible issues with
injector harness crossovers and harness located at rocker boxes. Possible injector replace-
ment and if has jakes--needing kits. Turbo is a roll of dice. But it would be a good idea to
drop pan and roll a set of bearings in it at that mileage, plus you can look up and check
camshaft lobes at same time. N14 is a good engine and those miles are not high so with
a good servicing and run overheads it should rumble down the road just fine.

 

[Rockcliff]

At 544,000 miles, A few things to expect. Air compressor, water pump, possible issues with
injector harness crossovers and harness located at rocker boxes. Possible injector replace-
ment and if has jakes--needing kits. Turbo is a roll of dice. But it would be a good idea to
drop pan and roll a set of bearings in it at that mileage, plus you can look up and check
camshaft lobes at same time. N14 is a good engine and those miles are not high so with
a good servicing and run overheads it should rumble down the road just fi

Any tell tale signs of the above stated issues. Will be going to look at the truck i the coming days.

 

[Truck Shop]

Slow compressor psi build time, harness not really, it either runs smooth or it doesn't.

 

[Rockcliff]

Slow compressor psi build time, harness not really, it either runs smooth or it doesn't.

Ok, thank you. Going to look at the truck tomorrow. Will keep an eye out for what I can.

 

[Coaldust]

Currently looking to get into a tandem truck. Found a 1999 Paystar with a N14 Cummins. Truck currently has 875,000 KM on it. Motor has not been rebuilt. What should I expect to be wrong/go wrong with the motor if we do decide to get the truck?
Thanks in advance.
P.S I know more about the cats then I do other motors but am not ignorant enough to say cummins make a bad motor. All motors have their problems whether they are yellow, black etc.

Just one thing about a N- fourteen.
They run like a scalded dog before the top end goes.

So, if it was up to me,…….
I would turn that Cummins into a big-cam- three.

Tear it down, plumb to the block.
Keep spending money until nothing left is stock.

High nickel heads and a twelve button in the pump.
Even with a Paystar, you can make the front wheels jump.

 

[Truck Shop]

The N14 was the best of any, better crank & rods, better heads, better water manifold,
better turbo, best jakes. CPL 2592 525 hp 1850 torque.

 

[cfherrman]

N14 celect plus best engine around, if be more worried about the international

 

[Rockcliff]

N14 celect plus best engine around, if be more worried about the international

What don’t you like about the International. Obviously not a KW, but still a tough truck no?

 

[Coaldust]

In 99, to be fair, the Prostar is aight. It’s an ugly, utilitarian workhorse.

I mean, the cab is a shoe box with a bucket for a seat and a steering wheel. No cab insulation or sound deadening. 90’s plastic formula is rotting and all of the dash parts and instrumentation is cracked. Lots of road noise.

Lots a sheet metal and it all rattles. Parts are getting iffy to source, but you can keep them going in a creative, Pakistani truck repair shop, kind of way.

 

[Truck Shop]

IH got riddled and undersold by upper management. Those old 4300's from years ago
were good trucks for the money and is what people remember.

 

[cfherrman]

International is like Chrysler, terrible wiring, good marketing

 

[Coaldust]

Good point. Their electrical connections are horrible and the plastic they used is now crumbling. Lots of plain white wires with no color coding. Inked numbers faded away.

 

[Truck Shop]

Good point. Their electrical connections are horrible and the plastic they used is now crumbling. Lots of plain white wires with no color coding. Inked numbers faded away.

Old Stars were all white, Old IH's in 60's were all green. Newer Freightliner is Yellow/White.

 

[Coaldust]

Obligatory, International picture, still delivering the goods, way out the chain.

That’s a really neat building. The Army built it as a warehouse immediately after our Japanese friends bombed us.

Most beautiful old-growth Douglas fir framing. The board siding is now covered in metal. Part of the roof has been replaced from those wicked Aleutian storms.

The Army gave all that infrastructure to the Ounalashka. They lease it out. They pretty much own everything on the Isle.

 

[Coaldust]

Ok, here is why old Internationals suck.
Or, maybe they all suck. It’s all subjective.

The frame crossmembers and braces and gussets were trashed. Rusted, rotten and cracked. The frame is fine. None of the parts were available. If I could have purchased parts and slapped them in? Easy Peazy. But, nothin’ is easy in Dutch.

No, I flew samples and sent drawings to ANC. Had new ones built, ACE Air cargo that stuff back to Dutch, three guys x three rooms at the Grand Aleutian at $350 a night, weather delays, x $100 x3 per day food, plus liquor, pain killers, heartache, heartburn.

Over-time, double time, Thanksgiving dinner eating gas station turkey sandwiches in a F-150. Furnace in the warehouse stopped working. Blasting a frost fighter with Jet A trying to keep the ambient above freezing.

All the other stuff that we found or broke. Tens of thousands of dollars. Like tossing bags of Benjamin’s into the Bering Sea.

Then, waiting a week for it to lay down enough to catch a ride home.

 

[Truck Shop]

Ok, here is why old Internationals suck.
Or, maybe they all suck. It’s all subjective.

What years.

 

[cfherrman]

Really the only thing keeping them in business is the government buying the cheapest truck.

There parts you can't get out because a bolt hits the frame they designed the engine and the frame.

Every gauge cluster from the 2000's on doesn't work.

I drove a 08 that had every light on

Just stay away lol

 

[Coaldust]

What years.

Have to pull up the spread sheet and look.
Three of these Paystar rigs are late 90’s.
But, to be fair, they were worn out and depreciated decades ago. Nobody to blame but a greedy leadership group embracing a deferred maintenance philosophy.

But, when the parking brakes didn’t hold and She rolled backwards into the entrance of Westward Seafood corporate headquarters building, the new president changed the MX policy to “100% compliance, 100% of the time”.

So, Coaldust got to spend the holidays in Dutch with his best buds. I didn’t leave them behind. They got to share the adventure with me.

But, the 4300 Series trucks were a reliable money maker. Then, International took a turn for the worst at the turn of the century and filled low- bidding fleets with their Maxfarce disaster and just never recovered.

 

[Coaldust]

I got out the day before PenAir Flight 3296.
My crew got left behind for 6 weeks. No flights out. No charter flights out, nobody in the right mind takes a cezzzna 180 out that way.