3116 Heat Exchanger End Cap Removal

EKM

Active Member
Feb 4, 2007
673
Beach Haven, NJ
Boat Info
2000 420AC
Engines
Cummins 6CTA
I lost a pencil zinc in my heat exchanger (port side) so I thought I would pull the end cap. I'm planning to change antifreeze anyway, so inspection of exchanger is planned. All of the bolts are off the end cap but it does not come off (but antifreeze is leaking out).

Does this just pull out? Don't want to damage anything, so I thought I would ask. As I have not seen the insides yet, any gaskets to replace? Does the starboard side pull straight out?

Thanks for the help....back to the engine room
Ed
 
The end cap has several large o-rings sealing it. If you remove it, be sure you use all new o-rings and put the end cap back on correctly and do not pinch an o-ring. The cap must seal not only the sea water side, but the engine coolant side, so while you may see no leaks externally, it may leak internally.

Caterpillar significantly over specifies their cooling systems, so a single annode inside one end probably isn't going to affect cooling a noticable amount.
 
The port side ended up with a "o" ring seal so if you remove the cap, your changing antifreeze. It was stuck on and lots of turning pulled it out.

The tube bundle would not clear the hot water heater so needed to pull it the mounting bolts to tilt it up. Not a tough job. Probably about 20% of the tubes were blocked. also removed t stat which looks good....its a 180F unit.

Should I silicone the "O" rings?

Planning to take the tube sheet to be boiled.

Thanks for the advice....
Ed
 
I did this job last fall and when I was replacing the zinc in the inboard cap port engine - I accidentally cracked the thread insert by overtightening the replacement zinc. Beware Ed - the cap is made of some kind of composite material and the threads in the cap seem to be made of brass - if you overtorque the bolts as you re-install the cap that thread insert will crack without a lot of effort. Grease the anode threads to ease replacement. The original cap was painted white and sure looked like metal to me. I had to buy a new end cap. Not a big deal in $ - less than $100 as I recall - but a nuisance.
Good luck!
Warren
 
Its appears to be a polycarbonate shell with metal inserts to ground out the zincs. Anyway, parts are here and Cat changes from "o" ring seals to gaskets on the ends of the exchanger. So only one "o" ring remains (on the loose end). The new gasket does seal the area on the end cap which separates the inlet to outlet raw water. I ended up using Rydlyme to clean the tube sheet since you can't find too many radiator shops any more. Turned out clean.

Planning to re-install this weekend.
Regards,
Ed
 
Does anyone have the part numbers for the "O" rings and the gaskets needed? I also am about to clean mine and would like to order the parts thanks in advance!
 
The port side ended up with a "o" ring seal so if you remove the cap, your changing antifreeze. It was stuck on and lots of turning pulled it out.

The tube bundle would not clear the hot water heater so needed to pull it the mounting bolts to tilt it up. Not a tough job. Probably about 20% of the tubes were blocked. also removed t stat which looks good....its a 180F unit.

Should I silicone the "O" rings?

Planning to take the tube sheet to be boiled.

Thanks for the advice....
Ed
Having a heck of a time removing my core bundle from my heat exchanger on my Port engine. I have the Port engine outboard side cap off and the other end cap bolts out and loose but cannot get the core to free up and come out. it will rotate in there but making very little progress on removal. I guess the question would be is there something else I'm not aware of holding it in there and if no, how much tugging on the flange end is too much?
 

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