Simple poll - which engine do you prefer: Volvo or Cummins ISX?

 

Personally, i prefer CAT, but given the choice, vote for ISX...

 

I voted ISX
solo threatened me to influence my vote.

 

I've never driven a truck with a Volvo engine but the past 2 years I've driven a truck since new with a 485 ISX in it. I've also driven CAT and Detroit engines. The ISX has been an excellent motor. It's been ran hard doing mostly local hauling and a lot of 102,000 lb gross loads, also many loads in the 120,000 lb to 125,000 lb gross range. With almost 100,000 miles of hard driving on it the only problem has been the turbo. There was some sort of gate/valve sticking and it was a known problem. They replaced the entire turbo assmembly under warranty and has never been a problem since. This happened when it was about a year old. While the driving is not much highway the fuel mileage seems decent. About 5.25 driving around local with light van trailers and about 4.1 with the loads over 100,000 lbs. We also have another truck identical to mine that doesn't haul eavy and that hasn't had any problems. If I were to buy a truck I would look for one with a ISX.

 

I would choose Cummins due to the cost of repairs and availability of parts. Most any shop can work on a Cummins engine. If you have a Volvo engine you will most likely need to find a dealer. They may or may not have the parts you need in stock. I don't want any engine that is proprietary to a specific brand. I don't see a need to pay upwards of $100+/hour for a dealer to work on my engine when I can find a smaller shop that is just as good and more honest that will charge me $50-65/hour. Parts for a Cummins will also likely be less than on a Volvo engine.

 

It really depends on the year of the engine. The Volvo engine has gone under more changes than the ISX. The pre-egr Volvo motors are great. I have one. As far as finding parts for it, I've never had to. One engine rebuild and that's it.

As far as comparing new trucks however, I may lean towards the new Volvo engine. No regenerations plus you can mate it to the Volvo I-shift which is a great transmission. Don't get me wrong I think the ISX is a fantastic motor. I hope they both got it right in 2010.

 

I've been a company driver for the past 10 years. I've driven a couple trucks with Cats (425hp, pre-emission), Detroit (noisy, leaky beasts) and ISX. Probably 80% of my driving has been in a truck with an ISX, and I've never had anything major happen with them. The only one that gave me any issues was a 2007 Volvo 670. The turbo kept coming loose from the exhaust manifold (the bolts were literally falling out). It was eventually found that all 3 of the mounting holes on the manifold were cracked. Of course, it took quite awhile for them to find that. Other than that, the ISX has been a great engine to me (again, as a company driver). I've always liked the pulling power of the ISX and the fuel economy seems pretty decent.

I've started looking to get an idea of what type of truck I want. I'm leaning towards a Volvo 780, 2004-2006, with an autoshift. After checking on Arrow Truck Sales, the Cincinnati location has one of these, a 2004, with the ISX. The rest are 2006's with the 12-liter Volvo engine. Both engines are rated the same, at 465hp. I'm guessing that they're old USXpress trucks, but could be wrong. I know that the 465hp, autoshift, are pretty standard for their fleet's Volvo's.

The weird thing is that the Volvo engine really isn't talked about. I haven't heard anything about them period - good or bad. That's what really makes me wonder about them. I do know that I'm going to be keeping my eyes open for USX trucks with the L in front of the number, in a Volvo and with the Volvo engine. Hopefully I can run across one that'll take a bit of time to let me know what they think of the setups.

 

VOLVO, without a doubt. I bought my '01 Volvo 660 w/ 538,000 miles on it in 05/05, I had put 536,000 trouble free (engine) miles on it for a total of 1,066,000 miles, and it still was running strong & still used little oil. I traded it in on a wonderful '06 Volvo 780 recently. They are bulletproof!

Also, they are highly fuel efficient!

Here's the bottom line: People who don't LOVE Volvo, simply DON'T KNOW Volvo!!! (and are simply in NO position to judge Volvo).

 

Your right i dont know volvo and dont want to know them. I will stick with my macks. Even tho volvo bought them out in 2002. Im still pissed off over that. Volvo is doing nothing good for the Mack name. Just my 2cents. But i did vote ISX on the poll.

 

It didn't stop you from judging a CAT engine, did it?