| Author | Message | ||
     Leo Becton |
How reliable and strong are the 354 Perkins motors? Will they work hard? Thanks in advance. | ||
| Chris Losey |
In my opinion, the 354 Perkins is a very stout motor. Of all the ones that came through our dealership during my time, I never saw one that blew up, or threw a rod or something to that effect. They would just work until they got tired, and then they will start blowing oil out the exhaust when they are ready for an overhaul. The downside to them is the CAV injection pump just doesn't last as long as other makes of injection pumps. They can be rebuilt, but they are usually bad enough that you might as well spend the extra money to get a new injection pump. The injectors seem to wear out quicker too, but they aren't too bad to get rebuilt. A good rule of thumb is if it won't start when cool, the injectors are probably bad and if it won't start when it's hot, the injection pump is bad. They aren't the best cold starting diesel out there, but this isn't too bad if you can plug it in, or if it has a good pre-heater or thermo-start. As always, I do not recommend ether for any diesel engine, except in the extreme cases where you have to pull the wife out of a snow drift in the drive way so she can make it to the store before the sale ends, or something to that effect. Other than that, the 354 is a very reliable engine, and any of the negatives I mentioned above are more than offset by the plusses of having one. |
