Cat has been increasing the size/hp of their engines for years without the needed engineering. They’re doing it on the cheap, adding hp/pressure but not the steel or quality control necessary. Back when they were heavy SOBs with a high weight to hp ratio they outlasted everything out there for small diesels; but now? I don’t trust them. Another good name down the tubes.
Dear friend:
Good morning.
We are just start working with Cat 3516B High Displacement engine. We would like to ask if anyone could send me the CAT 3516B bridge and valve lash adjustment procedure, task by task, including the valve lash and bridge adjustment settings. Thank you in advance, regards,
Dear dirwood:
Good morning.
After knowing you have been carring out many CAT 3516B valve lash adjustment recently I would like to ask you to send me the CAT 3516B bridge and valve lash adjustment procedure, task by task, including the valve lash and bridge adjustment settings. My e-mail is: probbr@yahoo.com.br. I have just start working with this engine and the technical documentation is not complete yet. Thank you in advance, regards,
p43Paul.
I have worked on 3516’s for 6 years now. I dropped one valve 5 years ago and never really found a reason why. We adjust them every 4000 hours like thebook says. We also used caterpillar filters not aftermarket. Also 40 weight lube as the book says for our area of operations (ambient temps). Right off the bat I would look hard at the warm up. Cat Engines without prelubes have to be 135 degrees before a load is put on the engines. Now understand d I’m only working with fairly new engines all less than 20000 hours. Another note I have not personally donethe adjustments. We call in Alban out of Baltimore and get the warranty of repair by Certified techs. First cats I ever worked with and I love them. They were not originally designed for marine ops so they didn’t hold up to vibration well. Over the last few years cat has redesigned and we upgraded the sensors and electronics with more rugged components. That was the only headaches I’ve had with these things and they are pretty much all gone now. Biggest thing is get the book and follow the PMS rigorously. Engines are very close tolerances with very little wriggle room.
Maybe the after coolers are condensing water into the intake air and the valves are eroding from the water & sulfur (sulfuric acid). Many ships I’ve worked on had “rain” in the scavenge drain line windows. We closed in on the cooling water until the air was above the dew point. Install a small drain valve after the air cooler if you don’t have one and crack it to look for water. The more humid the air where you are the worse it is.
less to no sulphur in the fuel is a change we have all lived with, sulphur is a lubricant
There have been polluting compunds removed from the lube oil over the last few years as well
[QUOTE=powerabout;86812] sulphur is a lubricant
[/QUOTE]
Only when washed down with large quantities of cod liver oil.
sure coz if you did it with water you would make sulphuric acid
Lets see about low sulfur. 35,000gals X 7lbs/gal X .005 (low sulfur fuel .5%) equals 1225 lbs of sulfur.
i have a c32 marine engine with 5000hrs up,
& we had to replace the thermostat housing last week.
has anyone experinced this,
& what s next to go,the circulating pump?,shes keel cooled…
[QUOTE=Too bad steam is gone;86975]Lets see about low sulfur. 35,000gals X 7lbs/gal X .005 (low sulfur fuel .5%) equals 1225 lbs of sulfur.[/QUOTE]
that’s a whole lot less than when they designed the engine not to mention the zinc (ZDDP) and phosphor that the engine oil once had
In over 210,000 hours of operation (divided between 12 engines), I have seen one injector failure on low sulfur diesel though it was a spectacular failure. The tip blew off the end of the injector which caused the cylinder to fill with fuel while the engine was shut down. During the next fire-up the cylinder went hydraulic and it fired the injector through the valve cover and across the engine room. There was no other damage to the engine. Blowing a tip off an injector is usually a water related problem and not a lubrication issue.
So we really don’t have a lot of injector issues, then again we replace the injectors at 15k hours like the manufacturer says. We also replace the heads and connecting rod bearings at 15,000 hours. We have never had a failure on Cat 3500. Our engines are young, though. One pair have 45k hours on them. The rest are 15k and under. Cats are awesome engines for ship docking tugs which spend minimal time at full power and see around 3000 hours a year. Working deep sea where an engine may see 10k hours a year, I can see where the frequent maintenance on Cats could become a bit irritating and become a financial burden. But that is what medium speed engines are for, they cost twice as much for the same horsepower but require fewer overhauls.
i’d call 3500 high speed diesels you need to be 1000 rpm or under to call one medium speed
I meant to say that medium speed engines cost twice as much as a Cat 3500 for the same horsepower. Cat 3500s are certainly not medium speeds.
[QUOTE=power230;27800]The problem is they say CAT on the engine. We have had nothing but problems with our CAT’s in all our new vessel. We have CAT 3608 C280 in my boat and I’m currently on my third engine on the port side. You have read correct engine #3 on the port side. The first on failed with just 109 hrs on the clock during sea trials. The second one failed last week @ 6248 hrs slinging a rod out the block on cyclinder #2. Tore the wrist pin out from the piston, rod bolts broke, and one exhuast valve dropped. these engines are used in CPP system @ 1000 rom. L/O is change every 1000 hrs and filter are changed every 500 hrs. We also clean the lube oil centrifuges every 250 hrs. Never ever had this problem with EMD engines.
We have car Accert C32 for generators. Basically 3412 engine driving 900 KW generators. That is the biggest POS on the market. Get ready to change a thermostat housing or water pump every 500 hrs with you 500 hr L/O and filter service. Why the hell would you ever put an aluminum housing on a engine? CAT still warranties the generators because it’s a nation wide problem with these engine eating up thermostat housings and water pumps.
As far as the 3516/3512 engines. I’ve worked with old and new and haf nothing but problems with them. Main cause is dropping valves, to bad injectors during start up and blowing right out the valve cover, and spinning bearings. Personally the best cat engine I worked with is the old school 398/399 engines. These small engines they are getting all this horsepower just wont last. Reminds me of the old 149TI DD, the put out alot of hp and never lasted long. Basically a throw away engine.
When it comes to raw torque your not going to beat a EMD, GE, or Alco. People can say the 3600 series is up there with those three, but I take it off the list for the reliability issues. That’s just my opion. For what it’s worth. I got in a nice talk with the CAT guy about these engines. And was told comparing CAT to these engine is basically apples to bannas. He said CAT is the best engine on the market. when I asked about the reliability issues, he told me CAT like to push the engines, that’s why there’s problems. Makes alot of sense to me to have a high hp engine that can’t take you to far without breaking.
I attached some pictures of the recent failure with the 3608 C260.[/QUOTE]
IAM Writing 2 u to get more information on the c32.
we fitted a new c32 this time last year.
thers 5000hrs up on the main engine which is keel cooled.
last month the thermostat housing failed,when the cover of the thermostat we wer able to see that the aluminuim housing was completely pitted & corrided away.
as of yet we have had no water pump failures so far.
the warranty runs out in a months time.
…pat 1
sir, we r facing problem cat 3516B running load 500 kw when we start stenter machine load 120kw 90% inverters at machine, at genset kw graph very quick up down 600 kw to 700 kw and also pf up down 0.75 to 0.87
in power house three gensets one jen 1Mw(running power mode 850 kw) , 2nd cat 356C 1.5 Mw (running 1200 kw fix load)
3rd 3516b (running 500 kw plant load which one we increase come at 3516b) when we put 120 kw capacitive load gen set pf very and kw also very b/w 500 kw to 650 kw & gen set stop
plz replay what problem power house person told me problem at stenter machine site but machine running normal.
Thanks & Regard
irfan (rajby textiles Karachi Pakistan)
We are experiencing drop in speed rapidly for CAT 3516B Engine used for Marine Generation purpose. If any one know the probable reason please let me know.
[QUOTE=Too bad steam is gone;86700]Maybe the after coolers are condensing water into the intake air and the valves are eroding from the water & sulfur (sulfuric acid). Many ships I’ve worked on had “rain” in the scavenge drain line windows. We closed in on the cooling water until the air was above the dew point. Install a small drain valve after the air cooler if you don’t have one and crack it to look for water. The more humid the air where you are the worse it is.[/QUOTE]
This is a very interesting point, I work for a company called Vestas aircoil and design and manufacture diesel engine charge air coolers. we have had this issue in the past where the air supply is contaminated with sulphur. When the air cools down, condensation forms into sulphuric acid and eats away…
You will always have problems if the main air source is not fresh, this will be compressed by the turbo and passed through the charge air cooler.
On the sulphuric acid subject, I would just like to raise this point. I work for Vestas aircoil who design and manufacture charge air coolers for diesel engines, there has been cases whereby the air from the turbo has amounts of sulphur in it. When this air passes the cooler condensation forms, this condensation is sulphuric acid which likes to eat away some of the components of the charge air cooler.
Guys as you all know CAT is very stingy with their service manuals. We have C32 generators for power standby now out of warranty. Will be performing the annual service and need the specifics of performing the valve lash, injector height adjustment and alternator winding insolation test. Will appreciate if someone can guide me. Thanks.