Underestimating maintenece

[fowler]

Never underestimate the important of maintenece and the importance of getting the correct engine specs


This engine is a cat 3512 a 51lt C12 making around 4000 lb ft of torque

This engine was sent back from site as as a non running unit with piston 11 and 5 being suspect

After pulling heads 11 and five we found
Head 11 had dropped 2 valves and bent 1 and 5 was full of metal with 1 bent valve


Both have destroyed pistons liners and heads
This destruction caused a huge coolant leak that filled every piston and the after cooler

Bits of valve went though the turbo and took out a few fins that's written off

The reason for this

A valve set that went wrong
Before we pull down any engine we check all specs

The valve specs are 20 thou intake and 40 thou on the exhaust
The Injectors are allowed to be 10 thou out

All specs were 30 to 40 thou out
This caused excessive play in the push rods that snapped the cam follower clips
The follower twisted and ate out the shaft


This caused a severe slap in the valve train that punched the valves out

We had alot of damage but couldn't find the last piece of valve
It was in piston number 1


The engine is stripped right down now



The cost
Around 5 for the cam shaft
Each liner, piston set 3 grand
Turbo, got a spare
Heads, got spares
And another few grand in gaskets and other parts

All because someone stuffed a simple valve set

 

[landuse]

That is one huge engine. Look at the size of that valve!!

 

[Doc Sprocket]

Yessir. And they wonder why I sound like a broken record. "Get a manual, and use the proper tools... Get a manual, and use the proper tools. Get a manual..." you get the picture.

 

[Cjhoward78]

I'm so jealous would love to build those engines.

 

[fowler]

The only differance between these and a 3 cyl Hyundai is on this u bust your back every time u lift something off

Everything's still super tight to get to

This bloke had all the tools to set the valves 3 differant ways
Along with a SIS computer system and service manual

But must have either not read them or mis understood the info

 

[OzFab]

The only differance between these and a 3 cyl Hyundai is on this u bust your back every time u lift something off

I can think of another difference: The 3 cyl Hyundai would come close it fitting inside that beasts cylinders!!!

 

[Nodroz]

Wow! I've never seen this before! That engine is huge btw! Holy sheez!
Would love to work in the future on this type of engines aswell. Seems very interesting to me.

Good work!
Btw, a few grand for gaskets? :O

 

[fowler]

I can think of another difference: The 3 cyl Hyundai would come close it fitting inside that beasts cylinders!!!

Ha it's not that big

 

[DeathStarr89]

Ouch!

we have a few similar CAT engines onboard that run our generators, one needs a rebuild but the other 2 run great. We also have 2 other smaller ones that run the Z drives. (Riverboat on the Mississippi). Ours are 15-20 yrs old, block heaters are always running and they literally start up in a split second.

One pic is my size 11 1/2 shoe VS the intake side of the turbo, other is just a top shot.

There is nothing like standing next to one of these things when it's running.

 

[fowler]

remember this old girl
it started costing too much and was shelved for a while

but its all finished
its been to the dyno
made around 1500hp and 4800ft/lb of torque

thats the bare minimum spec
it failed once due to a few bad injectors

now its back in the truck

i wish i could get some pics as it went in
but iv never had the opotuninty to just watch one go in
iv always been the one underneath with a crowbar

 

[machinist@large]

.......now its back in the truck

i wish i could get some pics as it went in
but iv never had the opotuninty to just watch one go in
iv always been the one underneath with a crowbar

AHHHH, the joy's of being an apprentice; On a good day, I can block out the worst of the horrors.....

So how close are you to this big Iron mining boom I keep hearing about? Is that where most of your customers are? The local Cat dealer doesn't see anything that big; other than pulling a blade or long reach stick they may need to slap an overweight/ wide load sign on it (we've got a lot of construction [and demo] work around here, but no mines; thats the west end of the UP).

 

[Rustydog2010]

Is that a 'B'? I thought you guys would be scraping those old girls .

Or at least sending them down here for us, then we can get another 40,000hrs out of them .

 

[fowler]

ha yep shes an old B

shes the last one that we have granted life
we have one sitting out back
but its spread amougst 30 odd pallets and the frme is almost cut up (i got to do it with a thermal lance)

this one is being sold
do u want it rusty?

the mining boom is in the north of Western Australia and in the east in areas called the Kimberlys and the Pilbra and the Goldfeilds but the nearest city with population and serious infrastructure is Perth which is the capital of the state
so most companys are based in perth then have small branches in each region

Perth is 1500km (932miles) from Karratha and 592km from Kalgoorlie which is the two mayjor citys in the mining regions

all the machines get transported on trucks to each area under very strict laws and curfews
usually they have 4 pilot vehicals and 2 police escorts


this truck is almost the smallest we deal with
we have a few 777F's and 2 775C service trucks

the ones we deal in mostly are 789s and the big ones are the 793s

heres some pics of a demob we did a few weeks ago
they are 793s and the little one is a 775 service truck

there's no mining boom at the moment
because the iron ore price drop back last year all the big boys went into recovery mode
the knock on effect has see us loss alot of contract and seen a few competitors go under

 

[Rustydog2010]

ha yep shes an old B

shes the last one that we have granted life
we have one sitting out back
but its spread amougst 30 odd pallets and the frme is almost cut up (i got to do it with a thermal lance)

this one is being sold
do u want it rusty?

Well, its funny you say that. Walk into work this morning, have our toolbox meeting. Then find out that 2x 789's (Engine and Torque convertor), 2x777's (Engine and wheel end) and the PC4000(err!) are down.

Someone forgot to put the service arm up on the PC4000. Operator slewed around and ripped it off. Dropped all the coolant, engine oil and 3000l of hydraulic oil on the ground. Seized the engine solid. Only rebuild less than 2 years ago! Looks like someone has bypassed a few safety switches, the operator must have been ignorant as all hell also.

Should be busy for a while I guess.

 

[fowler]

best thing that could have happened to the Komatsu

push it off the bench and leave it there

we have rebuildable 3512 for sale if u want that as well

do u guys do rebuilds on site or core returns?

 

[machinist@large]

Well, its funny you say that. Walk into work this morning, have our toolbox meeting. Then find out that 2x 789's (Engine and Torque convertor), 2x777's (Engine and wheel end) and the PC4000(err!) are down.

Someone forgot to put the service arm up on the PC4000. Operator slewed around and ripped it off. Dropped all the coolant, engine oil and 3000l of hydraulic oil on the ground. Seized the engine solid. Only rebuild less than 2 years ago! Looks like someone has bypassed a few safety switches, the operator must have been ignorant as all hell also.

Should be busy for a while I guess.

best thing that could have happened to the Komatsu

push it off the bench and leave it there

we have rebuildable 3512 for sale if u want that as well

do u guys do rebuilds on site or core returns?

I feel for you, guys; The irony of it (for me, at least) is that when I talk shop, no one around me seems to have a clue what I'm talking about. Reading these posts, I've got a rough idea where y'all are coming from, but it's still foreign territory for me.

I can tell that it means someone is going to have a bad day somewhere......

Good luck. Pat

 

[Rustydog2010]

best thing that could have happened to the Komatsu

push it off the bench and leave it there

we have rebuildable 3512 for sale if u want that as well

do u guys do rebuilds on site or core returns?

Our workshop has a full spec shop with dyno. So we only do core returns. Our workshop staff take it out, spec shop rebuilds it and dynos it, then fit it again. Looks like both PC4000 engines are coming in. Hopefully I can get in the spec shop!

3512? Yuck. We don't have any big Cat excavators. Haven't heard much good about them. Hitachi, Liebreher and Komatsu/Demags are what we have.

 

[Rustydog2010]

I feel for you, guys; The irony of it (for me, at least) is that when I talk shop, no one around me seems to have a clue what I'm talking about. Reading these posts, I've got a rough idea where y'all are coming from, but it's still foreign territory for me.

I can tell that it means someone is going to have a bad day somewhere......

Good luck. Pat

I never have a bad day, unless I muck up! That just means, lots more work for us! Luckily Fowler is in the same industry. I could talk about this stuff all day. There is just something about big tonka toys.

 

[fowler]

yea we are in the same industry and as it is im properly working with more kiwis than rusty

although the kwis are from the 9 state of Australia
or is it we are the west island
depends who u ask

yea we dont have any big cats either
apart from the odd 992

Hitachi Liebreher and Komatsu as well
the komatsus seen to enjoy being on fire though

we even have a small fleet of old 785-5 trucks
if u ever want to see a lineup of junk just come check out these old girls

 

[jandj]

I spent the last 25 years of my wrenching career @ VDOT (Va. Dept. of Trans.) Best mechanic job I ever had. Worked on everything from weedwhackers to big heavy equipment. And yeah, lack of the normal daily maintainance the operators were responsible for provided a lot of the work....and I agree about Komatsu's and fire.