1996 3116 Caterpillars

[Carpe Mundun]

Fwebster - I believe you might be the best person to ask -
I am looking at a 1996 400 DB with 3116s. There is approximately 582 hours on the engines and 800+ on the genset. A sea trial showed no issues with a very clean engine room / bilge area. Are there any issues you have with yours? I will have separate hull / engine surveys performed.

I currently run a 280DA with twin 5.0s....what a difference in power and performance between the two power plants! I have closely followed all of the gas vs. diesel threads, but after the sea trial, I never want to operate a gas boat again.

Any feedback would be appreciated.

 

[fwebster]

Absolutely none..........the only one that might have been an issue on a '96 were the TRW soft valves, and that would have surfaced and been repaired long ago. The 3116 is not subject to the FAPS soft block problem you might read about on other sites.

The 3116's that seem to be problem prone are mostly owned by people who don't understand engine loading and proper temperatures and either run their 3116's over loaded or hot.

Get an engine survey by a servicing Caterpillar dealer and if you want to be doubly sure, request a blow-by test which is a proprietary test for Cat engines that gives you a measure of potential engine cylinder wear much like a copmpression test would, only for a fraction of the cost.

Also, there have been at least 2 400DB's that failed hull surveys last year in t he NE due to wet and damaged coring in the hull. Be sure to request moisture readings on your hull survey and try to verify if some repairs have been done to the hull in the area of the engine room vents on the sides of the hull. I happen to have the yachtworld.com listing on one of those boats, but I'm not going to publish it on an open forum for liability reasons. If you can send me the listing info or location of the one you are looking at via PM and include an email address, I'll get back to you.

350hp 3116's in a 400DB are a great and efficient combination as long as you don't need to run with your buddies in later DA's. Expect to cruise at about 20 kts; not 27-29 as some later boat do. The pay off is at the fuel pump.......you won't burn more than 22 gph and if you pull the throttlesback to about 2250 rpm your get more like 18 gph. Bubba's pontoon burns more fuel than that.

If your deal on the 400 falls thru, there are 2 identical and very clean ones for sale in our area.

 

[Carpe Mundun]

Frank - thank you for the info - I'll PM you shortly.

 

[osd9]

You've just made your first right decision in you diesel purchasing journey. Continue to follow Frank's advise and you will combine your buying experience with an excellent learning experience.

You're in good hands!!!!

 

[JC3]

Skip got it right, just listen to FrankW and you will be fine!!!!!!!!! JC

 

[mrsrobinson]

I spoke with a cat tech in FLA when we were looking at a 400DA. He's been servicing/inspecting them since 1996. As he put it, do not overload them, do not let them run hot and keep the fuel clean and you are good to go. Change the raw water impellers annually too.

As he also kept putting it "they are made by man" so things will break.

 

[Robert Mead]

I just bought a used 390DA with Cummins 380's, When I had her survayed I had oil samples taken from both engines, trans and Gen set. This is the best way to find out what is going on with your boats power plants and a cheap investment. The cost is about $50.00 per sample and the results take about 2 weeks. The CAT dealer can pull these for you as wellas the surveyors or you can do it yourself. Good luck and enjoy
Bob

 

[osd9]

Oil samples are a great tool and every owner should take samples annually. And although having oil samples taken at a survey is the right thing to do, I would hesitate to bet the farm on a clean sample. After all, if I were selling my boat I'd make sure the oil was clean!

IMHO, best would be to see if you can get the oil sample historys from the previous owner. And make sure he changed the oil in the in altenator stators!!!!

 

[fwebster]

Oil sampling works best if you establish a base line on the first oil change on the engine when new, then compare regular samples to the base line so you can spot out of tolerance variances. That isn't to say that you shouldn't do an oil sample, but unless you know the history of the oil in the engine, the results may get you more questions than answers.

Here are 2 examples:

A CSR member negotiated for and agreed to purchase a 4 year old boat with almost no time on the engines. The engine oil samples came back with some real screwy results....high moisture, high corrosives and high non-ferrous metals. Turns out the 4 year old boat had never had an oil change and they were sampling the original oil put in the engines at the factory more than 4 years previously.

In another case, a larger boat with really tired Detroit 6V92's had so much blow by and mist out of the crankcase vents that you could have fogged for mosquitos if you ran with the engine room door open. Knowing that the new purchaser would do an oil sample, the owner changed the oil the morning of the survey and idled the engines for 30 minutes before delivering the boat to the yard doing the survey........oil sample came back normal and the sale was completed.