Cat 3116 engine failure

Congrats. Sounds like this site really provided some significant value! It's great to have this resource.
 
It's been awhile but thought I would update the saga of my blown engine. The short version is that I had the engine pulled and rebuilt by Milton CAT up in Mass. Along with the assistance of the team at Brewer Yacht Yard at Cowessett in R. I. who pulled and replaced the engine, this was an excellent team of professionals. Everyone was extremely professional from start to finish. They spent the time after the re-install to help check out the engine on various sea trials to make sure everything was running as it should.

This was not an inexpensive proposition but having taken the time to fully research my options, I had the boat brought to R.I. where all the work was done. The savings was huge, well worth the added expenses of having the brought towed the distance as well as having to make several trips up to R.I. from NY.

I just started the new boating season here in NY and so far, everything seems to be running well. All engines fired up immediately upon the recommissioning two weeks ago.

If anyone has the unfortunate experience of blowing an engine, I strongly suggest taking a few deep breaths, spend time researching your options and taking advantage of the wealth of knowledge that is available on this site. It got me through a very frustrating experience. Over time, we will all experience one of those rather costly episodes that comes along with the joys of boat ownership.

Enjoy it all while we can.
 
I have a 1998 Sea Ray 420 AC that just experienced a valve failure in the port engine. It sounds like the same problem described in this thread. The boat has less than 280 hours on it.

Did anyone recently contact Caterpillar to see if they will provide support?
 
Cat engines had a 5 year declining coverage warranty, but they did offer warranty coverage on soft TRW valves, if that is the cause of the engine failure, until about 1/2005 (or maybe it was 2006). I doubt that you would have any luck getting help on engines installed 13 years ago.
 
The Cat distributor tech has diagnosed the problem as a valve failure probably a “bad valve”. It is understood the boat 13 years old, what is driving me nuts is the engines were properly maintained, had 280 hours on them and were just checked the end of last season. If I had run them hard and long and the valve failed earlier then Cat would cover them?
Does anyone know how to even file a claim with Cat? Calling and emailing them has been less then fruitful.
 
The situation I described where Caterpillar extended the original factory warranty to cover some valve problems was caused by their receiving and installing a batch of soft valves from TRW in engines in the late 90's. The soft TRW valves were in some engines above serial number 6600 and the failure occurred at about 125 hours. Cat stopped warrantying those valve failures on or about 1/1/05 based on the logical assumption that all the valves that were going to fail would have by then. Since your engines have about 2X the hours on them where the TRW valve would have occurred, it is not likely that your valve failure was from this cause. That means that you just have a normal parts failure and your engines are well past the regular Cat warranty period. If this were a covered expense, your warranty claim would have to be filed for you by a Cat dealer....or at least that is where you would need to start.

There is one point worth asking about, however. Your boat has unusually low time engines for its age. Are you the original owner? If not, have you either verified or had the required valve service done at 250 hours. This is an important service since it adjusts the valves after the initial run-in period. The valves wear into the cylinder heads slightly so the adjustment is needed to prevent valves from hitting pistons because the wear-in causes the valved to get tighter and thus open sooner, further and stay open longer which can cause.

Unfortunately, that isn't going to help you with your situation, but it might help you understand the history.
 
Frank, if I start counting 3116 valve failures that I saw or heard about near the 300-hour mark, I'll run out of fingers and toes before I run out of failures. 13 years is unusual, but in my experience, (and docking near countless other 400DA's, 450DA's, 420AC's, I've seen a lot of failures) 280 hours is right on-par for a TWR valve drop.

As a matter of fact, I don't think I know anyone, at least in the Great Lakes area, who has replaced a 3116 much younger than 200 hours...
 
We bought the boat ‘new’ in Sept 1999 it was a demo with about 50 hours on it. We have owned it ever since. Last summer we had problems with the injector seals on both engines. The initial fix was to pull the injectors and reseat them with new O rings. This lasted about 10 hours the seals appeared to burn thru and the engines were sucking air in. This was tried twice with failure each time. The next fix was placing metal seals in with the injectors. This worked on the starboard engine and not the port engine. On the port engine they replaced the cup holding the injectors on two cylinders including the one in which the valve has now dropped. This seemed to work until now again about 10 hours later. With all of this going on my understanding is the valves were set/serviced after the injectors were reseated.
The engines are T-3116TA serial #s are both in the 6600 range.
The engine hours are low although living in the Chicago area it is not that unusual, especially with the price of fuel the last few years.
 
Frank, if I start counting 3116 valve failures that I saw or heard about near the 300-hour mark, I'll run out of fingers and toes before I run out of failures. 13 years is unusual, but in my experience, (and docking near countless other 400DA's, 450DA's, 420AC's, I've seen a lot of failures) 280 hours is right on-par for a TWR valve drop.

As a matter of fact, I don't think I know anyone, at least in the Great Lakes area, who has replaced a 3116 much younger than 200 hours...


I'm not going to debate the hours, etc. I was just letting the original poster know what I learned by talking to the Caterpillar distributor that sold the engines to Sea Ray in Florida. They were also the Cat distributor/dealer who had to make good on all the valve failures, so perhaps their sample size was somewhat greater than the sample you see docking near other Sea Ray owners.

So again, Ring Cat says that nearly all they replaced for the TRW valve problem occurred at 125-150 hours, but I suppose there could be exceptions. And, if Boater42 has serial numbers below 6600, then he does not have the soft TRW valves..........but either way, short of some protection from his dealer on the failed repair work they performed, his valve problem seems to be well past his regular warranty and the TRW valve warranty extension.
 
"Mark, I only have the engines, 3126s , one has 600 hours and the other has 800, thanks Charlie 732-322-1306 , i also have a pair of 3208 375 hp $28000, nice clean engines, others also available and some gears thanks again" equipmentgeneral@gmail.com

 

Hate being the one to ask; but what was the final price tagon the engine rebuild?
 

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