On average how many miles would you expect on an L10 before rebuild? When looking at used trucks I have always stayed away from trucks with 400k miles on them because I always figured it would be 100k or less till time for rebuild. Does that sound about right?
I see alot of the small motors pushing max hp(sometime above) rating C9,L10,8.5l so on,they don't last.One guy I worked for bought a used IH 4axle dump with 230k on the clock the GUTLESS IH 8.5L 530 putting out 330hp it was on its 2nd moter,1st moter was replaced at 210k,3weeks 600mi later he sold it,it was a fuel hog & no power in the pit.No time with the L10 but I would guess the motor is close to its life.M11 N14 ISM ISX, SER60, 3406 will run forever & power to spair in a 3axle.
The company I drove for had about 25 trucks with the L10 rated at 300hp. It was when that engine was first introduced. Nearly all of them had to go in for head gaskets within 50,000 miles and the radiators had to be replaced as well. They were White tractors. Once this work was done, these trucks were reliable. Our previous trucks had the NTC300, the L10 could keep up with them without trouble. The plus side was the L10 got about 50% better fuel mileage than the NTC300s did. When the company closed shop, these trucks had about 350,000 miles on them. I can't really help with your longevity question, but once the bugs were worked out of the ones in our fleet, they were a good engine.
We had an L10 in an 85 Ford tandem, 250hp I think. We bought the truck around 95 or 6, don't remember how many miles were on it then, but we ran it untill 2010, the odmiter quit somewhere north of 450,000. The only reason the engine wore out was because the air cleaner rubbed a hole in it and we did not catch it soon enough and the engine sucked too much dirt. It still ran when we scrapped it, just poorly and smoked a lot. We replaced that truck with an 87 International that has an L10 at 300 hp, it was a single axel winch truck with only 50,000 miles on it so we put a tandem rear ends on it and the dump box from the old Ford and it has made a very good little tandem dump so far. I like the L10 because it is so much lighter that the 855 engines, and with the aluminum box, I think if that truck had floaters on the front axel it would haul over water. And the 300hp is nice power for a tandem. So as far as the L10 goes, I have had good luck with them, I would get another one in a second.
the L10s really weren't great engines in my opinion. We had one in an International dump truck at one time and it was pretty gutless. We got rid of it at around 450,000 miles and by that time it was using/leaking almost a gallon of oil a day, and we are very meticulous with maintenance