Caterpillar 
Good lad “Muckaway” take some heat from me,phew!! IMO the CAT engine was/is a great plant engine and I believe that when Foden’s fitted it their 8 wheelers it went down great with Plant operators as their fitting staff were fully conversant with all things CAT.However IIRC the CAT engine in the heavy long distance end of the industry didn’t fare so well! Although I never got involved with CAT engines I knew one or two hauliers that did and the motors were a failure!!! Cheers Dennis.
Bloomin hopeless! We had one in a Foden, took it out and put a ■■■■■■■ in (as did several other local operator’s). What perform’s well in a loading shovel suddenly becomes a right dog when fitted in a truck, ugh. Oh, in case I didn’t say, no I didn’t like 'em. 
Pete.
More often than not, people will say that “Cats are thirsty”. They might’ve been in the early days (I know Smiths regularly changed from Cat to ■■■■■■■■■ but the ones we’ve got now fare well against the Dafs and Maggie Deutz (Volvo FEs). One criticism is the heavy road tax £650 for mine compared with £270 for Daf and £280 for Volvo. Now, I know these are “Adblues” but the W reg I’ve driven today and got tomorrow is £275 tax and that’s got the ■■■■■■■ Celect; downside is, it’s thirsty (Block changing etc I can, at best, get 7 mpg)
Without a doubt ■■■■■■■■ that 14ltr lump still performs magic,well ahead of its time and it sounds fantastic.No doubt the gardner boys will be sticking their oar in but whatever happened to Gardner?? PS. ■■■■■■■ are still around.
The early ones were not good on fuel, granted, but it was the reliability side that let them down. Head gasket’s going regularly as well as other crank bearing problem’s, there were a few that siezed the crankshaft for no apparent reason at fairly low mileages.
Pete.
windrush:
Bloomin hopeless! We had one in a Foden, took it out and put a ■■■■■■■ in (as did several other local operator’s). What perform’s well in a loading shovel suddenly becomes a right dog when fitted in a truck, ugh. Oh, in case I didn’t say, no I didn’t like 'em.Pete.
My Dads’ old one that you drove (■■■■■■■ 220,uprated to 250) was a great engine; The ones we had on E plates werent so highly thought of although these were the 250s. Smiths did have at least one ■■■■■■■ engined F plate, but the rest were Cat powered; 2 of which done 14 years service without major problem. I have found though they are noisier than many other makes…
Talking of Cat plant, modern stuff doesn’t seem to have the toughness of the old; My old shovel was N reg and only went about 2 years ago before a major overhaul was necessary. We’ve got a 7 year old Cat shovel that’s currently at Cannock having a £100k rebuild 
kevmac47:
Without a doubt ■■■■■■■■ that 14ltr lump still performs magic,well ahead of its time and it sounds fantastic.No doubt the gardner boys will be sticking their oar in but whatever happened to Gardner?? PS. ■■■■■■■ are still around.
A good engine the 14 litre, just far too heavy for an eight legger tipper! Pity really, but ours were 5 cwt down on payload with the big ■■■■■■■ fitted. The L10 performed well in six wheeler’s though, and it was light.
Pete.
kevmac47:
Without a doubt ■■■■■■■■ that 14ltr lump still performs magic,well ahead of its time and it sounds fantastic.No doubt the gardner boys will be sticking their oar in but whatever happened to Gardner?? PS. ■■■■■■■ are still around.
Can anyone tell me what was so special/different about the ■■■■■■■ Celect? Apart from the crappy computer-immobiliser that you have to re-enter everytime you switch the ignition back on, was it any different to the other models of the late '90s early 2000s? I always found that ■■■■■■■ idle fast and with a non-syn 'box, gear grinding occurs when engaging gear while stationary…
Didn’t that sowing machine factory in Peterbro get taken over by Cat?
This might suprise a few but we had a Scania 420 on a 54 plate which we put 800000 k/ms on (it had 200,000) when we got it and the engine never missed a beat it was double shifted for 4 years.I dont think Scania truck rental were too happy when they got it back
windrush:
kevmac47:
Without a doubt ■■■■■■■■ that 14ltr lump still performs magic,well ahead of its time and it sounds fantastic.No doubt the gardner boys will be sticking their oar in but whatever happened to Gardner?? PS. ■■■■■■■ are still around.A good engine the 14 litre, just far too heavy for an eight legger tipper! Pity really, but ours were 5 cwt down on payload with the big ■■■■■■■ fitted. The L10 performed well in six wheeler’s though, and it was light.
Pete.
The L10s sounded nice when working hard…pity the exhause brake was quieter than a ■■■■ in church 
A lot of operators around here have had Cat engines in Fodens and they have done well.I think it depends on who is driving, and how many different drivers have been on a vehicle depending on whatever engine is fitted.
kevmac47:
Didn’t that sowing machine factory in Peterbro get taken over by Cat?
It did indeed, which also got them the last vestiges of Rolls-Royce Diesel (Shrewsbury) - now CAT Reman & Defence, Perkins Stafford (formally Dorman Diesels ) & incidentally some of the last Gardner parts stock which had been bought by Perkins.
Andrew
Can you still buy a new lorry engine from Cat? Might improve our Dafs 
ramone:
This might suprise a few but we had a Scania 420 on a 54 plate which we put 800000 k/ms on (it had 200,000) when we got it and the engine never missed a beat it was double shifted for 4 years.I dont think Scania truck rental were too happy when they got it back
If thats a red dot engine I may be wrong but I think its based on a ■■■■■■■ idea, (recirculating hot fuel).Licenced by ■■■■■■■■
kevmac47:
ramone:
This might suprise a few but we had a Scania 420 on a 54 plate which we put 800000 k/ms on (it had 200,000) when we got it and the engine never missed a beat it was double shifted for 4 years.I dont think Scania truck rental were too happy when they got it backIf thats a red dot engine I may be wrong but I think its based on a ■■■■■■■ idea, (recirculating hot fuel).Licenced by ■■■■■■■■
i think all the Scanias do that when you fill em up the tanks warm
Muckaway:
windrush:
kevmac47:
Without a doubt ■■■■■■■■ that 14ltr lump still performs magic,well ahead of its time and it sounds fantastic.No doubt the gardner boys will be sticking their oar in but whatever happened to Gardner?? PS. ■■■■■■■ are still around.A good engine the 14 litre, just far too heavy for an eight legger tipper! Pity really, but ours were 5 cwt down on payload with the big ■■■■■■■ fitted. The L10 performed well in six wheeler’s though, and it was light.
Pete.
The L10s sounded nice when working hard…pity the exhause brake was quieter than a ■■■■ in church
When our Foden’s came new ■■■■■■■ stated that they wouldn’t warranty the engine due to the exhaust brake being a Foden fitment so we blanked them off! 
Pete.
The Roll Royce 265 Li in my Avatar Foden did 10 years without ever being touched, no injectors etc, though towards the end of it’s life it was using a good gallon of oil each day. Can’t praise it enough, it never ever let me down.
Pete.
kevmac47:
ramone:
This might suprise a few but we had a Scania 420 on a 54 plate which we put 800000 k/ms on (it had 200,000) when we got it and the engine never missed a beat it was double shifted for 4 years.I dont think Scania truck rental were too happy when they got it backIf thats a red dot engine I may be wrong but I think its based on a ■■■■■■■ idea, (recirculating hot fuel).Licenced by ■■■■■■■■
The ■■■■■■■ injection system was called “the P.T.” short for Pressure/Time and once you got a ■■■■■■■ started in cold weather(we fitted our ■■■■■■■ with their easy start canister) and they were better starters than Gardners IMO,the fuel pump drew a lot more derv than the engine required and returned the excess to the tank,so in PDQ time the whole tank warmed up and you never had any waxing up in extremely cold conditions.The ■■■■■■■ pump could ■■■■ a gallon can dry in a few seconds!In wet weather you could also see by the line on the fuel tank(top wet bottom dry) how much derv you had in the tanks on your motor.Bewick.P.S. We have had the odd occaision where some of our Gardners had their fuel freeze up while running on the motorway.