Cummins N14 review

There were injector injector issues early on.
Fuel mileage average to not great.
Longevity was good IME but there have been stories of main bearing cap fretting to the point where Cummins issued an inpsection procedure.

 

Hands down the best engine in terms of field repairs. Like you mentioned, 3 heads make it for snappy repairs and parts are everywhere. Our 370/430 HP was a good engine. Slow, but excellent fuel economy. 6.5 - 7mpg

Our 475-525 would tussle with the big boys. It was fair fuel economy. 6mpg average. It had some mean jakes that felt like gods hand was pulling your DOT bar to slow you down.

It does need injectors like mentioned. Not a biggie, any shop can do it fairly quick. We get reman from Volvo at $250 each. Core extra. No trim codes to reprogram, just set the overhead.

N14 do like to leak out of the camshaft rocker boxes. Never seen one that didn't.

You don't see many for sale, because they sell fairly quick. N14 and 12.7 detroits are pretty sought after here in Atlanta. I see them in Craigslist and they don't last long.

 

The n14 celect + in my truck gets on avg 8.5mpg in summer months. 1.3 million miles and she out pulls basic modded cat motors. I use a gal of synthetic every 9k miles. An aftermarket manifold won't last more than a few months before it starts to leak. Easy to work on and relatively cheap to maintain. I love it compared to a 12.7 Detroit, and if you have the money to mod it, you'll have more power than you'll ever need. I have my ecm maxed at 525/1850 but want to get on a dyno with her and push the limits. I also love Cummins motors so maybe that is why I'm partial to it, but the n14 is probably the best motor they've had? If not close to the best. Hope this helps some!

 

We had the first group they had a lot of injector problems Cummins fixed that.
They did have a fretting problem on the main caps. We found after a bearing roll in and torqued properly that was not a problem.
Oil leaks, they do leak, but if you take wrench and tighten the cam follower covers, they are not a problem.
One in 10 had a cam problem.
They need a valve set done every 200,000 miles.
Set as a less than 500HP they will last a long long time, We had a fleet of them they were bought as 460's to get the best cam for the Jake's, and then reset to 430HP. We found they would blow the head gaskets and or leak oil at about 500,000 miles we would adjust the liners to .006 change the coolant to Dex-cool, and they would sell them at 1.4 million. they went to a hay hauler, the last time I saw them they had over 2 million. That was with oil changes every 12,000 miles.
An N14 is one of the best engines ever made, that and a S60 430 HP, lasted for ever.
Just a thought!

 

N14s love blowing head gaskets and injectors best cummins was the kta and the big cam 3 400s.i like cummins but as an owner id rather have a detriot 12.7

 

They did blow head gaskets, the liners on many came out at ,003, later units when they came in with less than .003 we were told to add a shim to the top of the liner. it was Cummins cheap fix that did not work, after the ISX came out and they were losing money. Most of our customers would pay to get it fixed correctly, they had head bolts that would stretch and break. Most of the problems were with the 500 and above, and units that were run at high RPM on power they will Jake a huge numbers.
Just a thought!

 

More power than a Detroit and better fuel mileage than a CAT. Seems like 475 hp is the one to have. Whenever I drive one I don't like the throttle response but I've driven a CAT for so long I'm biased.

 

460-500 @ 1650 tq will last forever and get decent fuel mileage, 525 @ 1850 tq will pull with a 550 CAT all day