Cat 3116 engine failure

Frank

this is very useful information. Just curious how you get this information.

Sounds like I would need to do an extensive amount of testing on parts to determine my various issues. I have no idea of the cost involved with this as well.
I may however consider it.
 
How many hours on the engines.

Even though I have a '97 my boat is truly in mint condition, especially inside.

I'm actually going to an big in water boat show later this week to look around.
 
This lab testing is a whole new twist on my issue. However it might be something I would need to consider.
I have no idea of the cost involved and as you can guess, I am certainly trying to keep my "damages" to a minimum at this point.
If you could offer some assistance on this issue if it is warranted, I would be extremely grateful.

I am still working on finalizing some pricing of the repair as well as waiting to hear back from CAT corp on what position they will be taking.

I will be in touch
 
I'm trying to follow what's going on here. We seem to be reading one half of a thread. I guess that FrankW is giving advice via PM but that Peter is replying on the public forum. I would suggest that you either take this conversation totally private, or totally public. Personally I would opt for private, since there may be points to hash over that you would not want CAT or your mechanic to read. (like telling the low bidder that he could have doubled his estimate and still been lowest). Post publicly facts about your progress to keep those of us in the peanut gallery in the loop.
 
Sea Gull said:
I'm trying to follow what's going on here. We seem to be reading one half of a thread. I guess that FrankW is giving advice via PM but that Peter is replying on the public forum. I would suggest that you either take this conversation totally private, or totally public. Personally I would opt for private, since there may be points to hash over that you would not want CAT or your mechanic to read. (like telling the low bidder that he could have doubled his estimate and still been lowest). Post publicly facts about your progress to keep those of us in the peanut gallery in the loop.
Click to expand...

He's replying to various posts on this thread without quoting them like I have above. Therefore it's somewhat tough to follow.

HIRSCHHORN53 - When you're replying to a specific question that someone has asked, hit the 'quote' button under their post and then respond appropriately.

Hope this helps.

Doug
 
Sea Gull said:
Personally I would opt for private, since there may be points to hash over that you would not want CAT or your mechanic to read. (like telling the low bidder that he could have doubled his estimate and still been lowest). Post publicly facts about your progress to keep those of us in the peanut gallery in the loop.
Click to expand...

Really good point on the posting of bidders bids. The world can google your posts and with your complete name in the signature it just makes it that much easier to find it. You don't want your bidders to stumble onto this and get some inside information. Just my paranoid opinion!!!! But please do keep the thread updated and I feel terrible for ya going through all this. Don't let it get you down, no matter what the outcome... Take Care!
 
Last edited:
Whoa..........

Wrong. Frank is not doing PM's. I take it that Peter is kinda talking to himself.

And, Peter, I understand that Caterpillar did failure analysis on the valve problem when it first occurred in the 90's and they found the problem and corrected it. They also found that the TRW valves failed after only 125-150 hours. Cat fixed any engine with bad valves up to 1/06 which was 10 years after the problem started and about 2X their normal warranty for major components, and the valves were not a major component.
There is little value in doing a metallurgical analysis on the failed valve in your engine if Caterpillar isn't going to warranty it anyway, unless you plan to seek other recourse against Catepillar.

As far as this being a weak engine that caused Caterpillar a lot of heartache, I'd say it caused their valve supplier the heartache and Cat must feel pretty good about the engine design since it is the same basic engine that is the C-7 today.
 
Sea Gull said:
I'm trying to follow what's going on here. We seem to be reading one half of a thread. I guess that FrankW is giving advice via PM but that Peter is replying on the public forum. I would suggest that you either take this conversation totally private, or totally public. Personally I would opt for private, since there may be points to hash over that you would not want CAT or your mechanic to read. (like telling the low bidder that he could have doubled his estimate and still been lowest). Post publicly facts about your progress to keep those of us in the peanut gallery in the loop.
Click to expand...


Thank you for you advice on this point. I'm still pretty new to this forum so getting used to how everything works. Several of you made excellent points that I appreciate. It's all a learning process. Only wish I knew of this site years ago. There appears to be a great wealth of knowledge and experience out there.

I will let everyone know where I end up once I conclude the best course of action for my issue.

I hit the Quote tab so hopefully you can now see where I'm replying.

Peter
 
That's progress! Good luck on your repairs.
 
I,m not a cat expert but i would like to pass on some information i heard about a gentleman who owns a 60 sunseeker with cats and while cruising one of the motors thru a piston thru the hull, this person lives in rockport, ontario and the boats name is herway. not sure if the person who told me have first hand info or not my 2$
 
Doesn't Sunseeker use European engines......either MAN or MTU's?

If the boat in question had Cat engines, they would be an option above 900 hp which would mean they are a completely different engine family than the subject of this thread.
 
twomad said:
I,m not a cat expert but i would like to pass on some information i heard about a gentleman who owns a 60 sunseeker with cats and while cruising one of the motors thru a piston thru the hull, this person lives in rockport, ontario and the boats name is herway. not sure if the person who told me have first hand info or not my 2$
Click to expand...
I would think it would be rare for a piston to exit the bottom of the motor and go through the hull...especially on a diesel engine...
 
mistercomputerman said:
Update?
Click to expand...

Nothing new to report just yet. Have been talking with CAT USA corp about this issue.
Once I have a resolution, I can then move the boat to a yard where a CAT distributor will remove the engine and do the rebuild.
The question now, who is paying what??

"to be continued"
 
i got a cat 3116t engine with my excavator, i think we have the same problem but my hrs is 3t plus already, this time it just stock up, we done general overhaul last year and it cost me US $5000.

any recommendation for a better cat engine than 3116?
 
:grin:
Hope I am posting this correctly so that all who had been following my issue can see this.
I have finally had the engine repaired. It took me quite awhile to get what I thought was the most reasonable of prices. The quotes came in from a high of about $33k to $12K. I eventually had the boat towed up to Rhode Island where I was able to find the best of the deals.
We ended up pulling the engine, replacing the head, new turbo, oil pump, 1 piston pack, replaced rod bearings,new gaskets, replaced 3 piston crowns. They also had to re-bore one cylinder with sleeve. After taking the engine block down, they found most of the parts were still OK. Thankfully no cracked block.
We had the engine put back in and the boat was sea trialed. They did some further adjustments and everything seems to be running. Come the spring, we will run the boat for about 10 hours to make sure everything is in order before I run back to my home port.
My total cost including the rebuild, removal and installation by the yard of the engine and the 10 hr tow was about $12K.
Over the winter I will consider replacing the head on my other engine as a preventative measure of a valve failure.
I had an excellent team of techs working on this project from the Brewer Yard Cowesett in RI to Milton CAT in Mass. They worked together to complete this project in a very timely manner.
The key for me was do the research, getting some good advice from various members at this website as well as Boatdiesel.com and of course finding great service people to do the work such as I had.
Now lets hope that the 2010 season has no more surprises in store.
Wishing everyone a good winter.

Happy holiday to everyone.

Peter
 
Congrats on getting it up and running again!
 
It could have been a lot worse. Good job with damage control.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Forum statistics

Threads
113,164
Messages
1,427,659
Members
61,076
Latest member
DevSpell
Back
Top