TRUCK ENGINES MOST COMMONLY USED IN NORTH AMERICA
Updated: Jan 6, 2022
In today's industry it does not matter what truck you have got it seems that every manufacturer has got their own motor or they are using a variant. We are just going quicky touch on.. the major four motors....So you have decided you are going to buy a truck weather you are a fleet owner or you are an owner operator. So What do you need? you are going to pick the truck you want but every truck has a motor so what motor are you getting. in today's industry there is basically the major four manufactures. VOLVO D13, DETROIT DD15/DD13 so 15 liter 13 liter...CUMMINS x15/x13 and PACCAR.

We just going to give you a rundown on the four motors. Let's start with #1 PACCAR MOTOR. This is the newest motor on the block when they decided to start making their own motors and of course they had their hiccups back in the early days, the old PACCAR motors are plagued with egr def and sensor issues it seems to be the norm at just everything but those motor took a real kick in those years. what i know is that the 18s and 19s got a little bit better after driving the next gen and inspecting that motor and with what Kenworth now of course you don't always take the manufacturer's word for it but what they are saying is that all the bugs that they pretty much had from beginning up until 2021 year for the 2022 with the next gen motor they have got most of that hammered out, now these motors going to get nine miles per gallon, reliability they pull well they drive well when they are healthy.
Next one we are going to talk about probably a motor that i really like when it works but it just about run me into the ground and that was the VOLVO d13 and this does not make a D16 unfortunately they discontinued it in north America you can not get it here anymore, they are still making it and they are still using overseas in Europe and it is a popular motor and they seem to have things over there that are much more advanced than ours and they have gotten them working over there, we just could not seem to get them figured out here with the emissions and getting parts for them and the expense to fix them, they are expensive as hell to fix so we are not doing the D16 motor. There is a D12 and there is D11 as far as we know nobody is running them. I do understand though from back in the day or from years ago the D12 and D11 motors were bulletproof, you could not kill them, they would run like hell and they were great motors but for now we are going to talk about the D13. it performed really well, you can get 8.4 miles per gallon out that truck and these motor are particular quiet. it is a good motor but i do understand that VOLVO is still having problems with electrical. they have pretty much all the emissions worked out but they are still having electrical ecm and these are chip items. but anyway those are moneymaker.
Now we are going to talk about CUMMIS X-15. This is the most popular choice for drivers, everybody's taking them, this is a completely revamped repackaged deal on the old isx. The old isx motor was garbage it was when they brought the emissions out and they started running the isx motor.
The CUMMINS motor is very well built from what i understand these are responsive and they are torquey as hell you put your foot in this thing and it wants to go, you literally throw a chain around a house and you are going to rip it off the foundations, this type of motor it wants to go it wants to work. It is a great puller, so the x-15 is the Cummins i almost wish that we could go back to the n14 CUMMINS the pre-emission and we could make those work with today's trucks because then all timers would be happy and the new guys would be happy getting the mileage but unfortunately we can't and we are stuck with the x-15 the CUMMINS but the platform seems good, CUMMINS is obviously a huge company. they seem to know what they are doing they are spending the money on research they are listening to the drivers and it seems for now they have delivered what they said they were going to do . They have giving us a new motor it has been out a few years so most of the bugs in the first year and a half or two years have been worked out of it, it has been performing and it is doing well so your CUMMINS motor if you are looking at taking one, I would say yes go with the automatics stay away from the manuals.
And the last one on the agenda here is the other big boy on the block and that is DETROIT DD15. It has been around a long time i think between them and Cummins, they have been making motors for probably about 50 years. so they should have it figured out. i can speak personally it runs well i had no issues and i like how the truck performed and how the engine performed where it set its rpms and how the engine pulled going up hills.
There you go there is the four, there is actually a fifth motor and that is the Navistar that is out of the international but we are not going to talk about that because it is nothing but a boat anchor from what i understand for the 2022 year you cant even get them. They are going to stop making them and they all going to come with the Cummins x15 in them anyway so there you go there is the four motors.