I’m an old Cat man. I left Hastings Deering ((NT) Australia in 1979 after 15 years in the industry. My love for Cat has never diminished and I really enjoy your videos. I was around when the 3208, 3204 and 3406 were released. I was in awe when Woodward electronic governers were released and amazed at the technology. Of course today’s electronics are way ahead
Hiya Bud Im a Pommie who worked at William Adams Port Melbourne early 1990's bit due to them closing shop I came back to POM Rock. Went off again on my overseas Jaunts as I did previously before going to Aussie. Worked all over the world on Cats & Love em. 3208, 3306, 3406, 3408 , then in Libya ( Sahara Desert) again 3406, D343, D342 etc 3512, 3516 , but my favourites are the D379, D398 & the D399 Engines, loved working on them. Ended up for the last few years working on V20 Ruston 270's 280's Marine engines.
So many mechanics would have just put a new injector in after the first cut out test. A mechanic going the extra mile is very rare nowadays, and you potentially saved this customer thousands
@@Failure_Is_An_Option How do you disagree with that? There absolutely are a lot of technicians that would just replace injectors without caring for the extra cost if it turns out to not be injectors. Whether customer requests it without t/s or not is irrelevant and if it's a good technician he would try to convince the customer to let the proper t/s be done before performing a repair. That's the technician's reputation on the line and the customer isn't going to be reasonable most of the time and is going to talk bad about the shop/technician regardless of whether it's actually their fault or not. Gotta live the world like it is not like what it should be. Edit: I would even go as far as to say that I wouldn't do the repair without t/s if they customer seemed like someone who didn't understand exactly what they are getting into.
I won’t hesitate to slap a new injector in for trouble shooting purposes but if that’s not it it’s coming right back out and back on the shelf. Cause a lot of the newer engines it’s not that easy to swap injectors especially on common rail fuel systems.
@@Failure_Is_An_Option in your shop, maybe. I own a damned fleet, and if I had a dollar for every time some tech did the first thing that popped up on codes….. Happens all the freaking time
I’am a mobile diesel mechanic, I love all of your videos, they are really helpful and interesting to watch how u diagnose them! Have a great day Adept Ape!
Thanks for watching the video. Hopefully we get authorization on this engine soon to continue. You should really watch Groundhog Day if you haven't seen it, Amazon Affiliate Link to it and some recommended tools: Groundhog Day Movie: amzn.to/3WL1jU2 Fuel Pressure Gauge, Compucheck 0-300 psi: amzn.to/3YeBldu Airlift Cooling System Vacuum Filling System: amzn.to/3D9AlPu Radiator Pressure Tester Kit: amzn.to/3QGBumn Milwaukee 3/8" Right Angle Impact Wrench: amzn.to/3D2CvAk 2 Pack M12 Style Batteries for Milwaukee: amzn.to/3D2mdHE Adjustable Height Parts Tray 100 lbs: amzn.to/3CBusZB Engine Oil and Fuel Dye UV: amzn.to/3z34zkv UV Professional Grade Light: amzn.to/3gzxPc0 Oil Pressure Priming Tank: amzn.to/3YuBrNr
That's the wastegate hose. Pretty much every truck in Idaho has a bolt in the wastegate hose or zip tied. People just trying to get more boost out of the turbocharger.
@@AdeptApe who doesn’t want more boost? Can’t say my wastegate is functional lol I had asked a cat mechanic near me, he told me the wastegate is not important so long as you stick with factory fuel files, he said if I was going to modify the fueling then either leave the wastegate alone or get a turbo designed for the higher boost.
Best one I’ve had was a bent rod. Still had compression everyone was pulling there hair out trying to figure it out until found out it had water damage previous
Had something similar with a Cummins ISL engine on cyl #6. Head gasket had a very small leak, and if the truck sat for long enough, it would get just enough coolant in that one cylinder to slightly hydrolock it. And that bent the rod just ever so slightly. But he let it go too long, and because that cylinder wasn't combusting properly, it messed up that injector and ended up melting a hole in the piston. When I first got to it, it had all kinds of codes in the ECM like 2 pages worth, I did manual cylinder cutout and it was missing bad on #6 whether the injector was powered or not. Before I did any other troubleshooting, I took the oil fill cap off, and the blowby was enormous, just about blew the cap off. It ended up being about $30,000 to have it rebuilt. EGR cooler was replaced as well. Turns out that might have been the start of the problem, if the coolant flow thru the EGR cooler on those engines gets impeded by lime/scale buildup, then the back two cylinders 5+6 don't get enough coolant flow, and they're the farthest away from the airflow, so they run hotter which might have started the head gasket leak. There was also traces of coolant in the oil (hole in the piston). The head gasket leak was very small, when the head was pulled, there was only a few green drops on top of the piston.
Oilfield Mechanic. We have 3600 Catapiller engines. Run on natural gas. Engine holds 200 gallons of oil. Has 2 air filters. Each cost 500 dollars. We have huge pumps hook to them to push natural gas. They get all new filters, oil change and valve lash with spark plugs then washed. Every 30 days. They idle at 1,200 rpms 24/7 365 days a year. Retired now.
@@Failure_Is_An_Option as Animal Mother said, Parts cannon. MANY shops just fire the parts cannon instead of doing proper diagnosis. It's not their bill and some shops either don't have access to Cat ET or simply don't have the trained tech's to do the diagnosis.
Mine was smoking bad on startup, the odor of fuel burned the eyes and nose. Next came horrific blowby, then boom. The oil jet sprayers were bent on the #6 cylinder. A brand new Cat reman, barely 100k miles, broke the rings, split the piston, ruined the liner, just disappointed with Cat and their reman quality. Apparently QC is not what it used to be, looked at a lot of forums and there's a lot of guys complaining about remanufactured Cats. Should have stuck with the mean green Detroit machine, 12.7 for life 😂
@@TheRoadhammer379 it is sad what is happening with cat especially in ontario canada. I have found that IPD parts are better quality than cat oem. Cat up here are getting that elitist attitude that they never make mistakes. Bad on them
My Mentor Adept Ape Thank you very much for sharing what you know with us great video Take care and have a great evening with all your family around you PROFICIENT Adept Ape From Nick Ayivor from London England UK 🇬🇧⏰️ 19:46pm
You are amazing !!! I am not a mechanic !!! I drive !!! But your videos help me out !!! I can do a bush fix !!! Limp the truck home !!! Type deal !!! Thank you !!! I got my ass home from the bush !!? With your videos !!!! I drive a C-15 Cat !!!
Awesome job diagnosing! I like approach using torque wrench and making sure it’s correct instead of good enough. Quality is something current society doesn’t produce anymore as it use to.
Quality is something current society is told not to produce anymore because it takes too long and there's too much short-term profit for the C-Suite being lost.
was not fast. takes alot of time. your consideration for a rebuild is silly. stick to pushing pencils and shining your ass with a office seat. true definition of youtube mechanic comment right here
At 800000 on a triaxle I am sure this is not the first time that this engine has been worked on I am sure it has had headgasket problems at one time or another
Honestly, if it was my rig, and it still ran acceptably well once it warmed up, I'd probably just let it buck for now. And it seems to run okay once warmed up, soo...
I have been an auto technician for about 20 years. And last may I decided to change careers and now work for cat. Your video's are very well done and have helped me quite. Bit. Thanks for another great video.
Growing up I'd always hear of stories and still do till this day of truckers mixing a little gasoline with the diesel in the tanks for specific reasons. The dosage is small enough to remain harmless. Could you do a video on this if you know what I am talking about? Keep up the great content. Hands down my favorite diesel RU-vid channel.
@@harriettedaisy2233 I'm a retired mechanic turned truck owner/driver. We used to add kerosene to reduce the gel point of the fuel. Most truckstops cut the fuel in the wintertime. But adding kerosene reduces power and fuel mileage.
I heard a story years ago of Greyhound bus drivers from the 60s adding a gallon of gas (not kerosene) to the 160 gallon fuel tanks on the buses. Also had an 86 Ford with 6.9 Navistar and a local Navistar mechanic told me every couple of fuel filter changes to either fill the filter back up with kerosene or mineral spirits, even had one guy say dry cleaning fluid could be used. And farmers for years with older JD tractors have added a quart of auto transmission fluid to 40-60 gallons of diesel as an injector cleaner. I cannot speak to the success or failure of these treatments, only that they were done.
@@donmunro144 Yep. Kerosene is the base fuel for aircrafts, and aircrafts commonly experience -50C temperatures. So adding a little kerosene to diesel can depress the pour point (gelling temp). Old diesel engines may be able to handle a bit of gasoline in diesel, but adding gasoline to newer common rail system can be catastrophic. Those injectors operate at such extreme conditions, if you lose the lubrication from diesel they will self destruct.
I recall in the 1970s the Airforce in Australia ran Cat auxiliaries on Aviation turbines fuel. Worked ok but wore out mechanical fuel pumps as that fuel did not lubricate.
I been watching your videos for a long time and just realized you must be near cda Idaho cause that red and white dump truck comes to my gravel pit. Great work Mr.
I'm guessing that the customer is going to run the engine like it is. Just a guess but it isn't smoking all of the time and it's dump truck. We'll see. Keep the good stuff coming.
Really enjoy your videos! I’ve learned a lot watching you. I’ve got a mechanical 3116 that’s giving me a lot of trouble. It runs fine for 30 minutes and then starts starving for fuel and dies. I’ve had the tank out no leaks I’m at a loss.
I had this happen several years ago on a b series cummins. One of the crush washers around an injector was bad and was allowing a large amount of heated fuel to return to the tank. Once the engine was warm and the fuel in the tank was hot, it caused cavitation in the fuel pumps, which caused the engine to become starved of fuel.
Check your fuel lines for leaks. Not dripping fuel leaks but air getting sucked in on the pull side of the system. A leak such as a loose fitting or a hole in a line that is laying on something it can slightly seal with will cause this
Make sure tank is venting properly, check simple stuff, also tee in a pressure gauge at a certain point and see if it’s supply issue and try ruling out possible problems.
Hey Josh, i was looking forward to seeing the outcome of this! If you were to hazard a guess as to what was actually causing it to smoke what would you say? Thanks Dave 🇬🇧
They ended up taking the truck so we never got to work on it further. I'm going to guess the head gasket failed on that cylinder and was causing it to smoke. Never was able to verify though.
A relative compression test with a scope would've told you immediately that it's a compression issue. Disabling the injection and cranking it even without measuring the starter's current might give a good audio clue that compression is uneven. Then it's a matter of making sure valve adjustment is correct.
Agreed! There are too few guys willing to put the time into a Mechanical compression test. In my apprenticeship long ago we were taught to do them dry then wet. No one does it anymore.
Relative compression takes about 5 minutes. You just have to disable injection, put a current clamp on a starter cable and capture cranking current with an oscilloscope. Waveform obtained immediately shows if there's a low compression cylinder
You should have seen our pumper/ tanker at our fire department. It had a 3208t and that thing would smoke the station so bad had to leave the doors open for hours for the smoke to clear out.
I have exactly the same issue with my 6nz at the moment same cylinder aswell.. and that's after new injectors so will be pulling the head off soon and see what the liner looks like
Blown/seeping head gasket, most of the time. For some reason that cylinder (four) fails the head gasket usually first. The older Cat engines (6TS and back) the coolant entered the cylinder block around number four. Then they changed it (1LW and up) now enter's at the rear. Do not know if that is the reason, but it is odd that cylinder, four use to get the cold coolant first and head gasket now fails on four first. Pull the head bolts between four and five and most likely you will find carbon.
eh man how are you y have C15 in the video you show the tipe rap on turbo hose i laugh 😂 because I did the seme to reduce the fuels consumption it really works thanks a lot for all your up dates God bless you
I have to say I do this kind of t/s all the time and when I saw the smoke go away I would have just replaced the injector. Such good troubleshooting to swap them like that and make sure if it's the cylinder or not. Great video I recommend you to all the techs I work with.
Great video as always been watching from the start , just curious as why you didn’t bore scope the cylinder as you had the injector out already or run a manual compression test ?
Pretty handy to be able to cutout injectors at command. Are these new type engines built with sleeved cylinders? That number 4 definitely needs a new piston and sleeve I figure, would that be true?
@@lkx360 He uses it in other videos. Run the coolant overflow hose into a bottle with water and see if it bubbles. If there are bubbles then compression/pressure is getting into the cooling system from a bad/blown head gasket or cracked head.
When ever I have the injector out I will shoot some compressed air in the cylinder just out of curiosity, quick health check if there is a rough run complaint.
If the cylinder was dead I would have, but since it seems to be firing, but a little weak I figured just swap them and really test it. It is a good idea though.
@@AdeptApe Hey I was wondering if cat has cylinder leak down test gauge, I got a cylinder leak tester from mac tools and got the glow plug fittings to work for the power stroke diesel engines (that's all I work on) for doing leak down test and shows a percentage of the cylinders and how much there leaking. now for heavy duty application is there such a tool, or just apply shop air like you show in your past videos thanks for the videos
Cat doesn't make or recommend a compression or leak down test for these engines. There are aftermarket versions, but usually you can work around using them. Doing a compression test is a pain on these, because you have to take the overhead off every time you swap cylinders.
@@AdeptApecompression test is also a pain in the ass on series 60 engine as well. But sometimes I’ll take the time to do it. Or leak down test. But the way you did it works just fine. And probably quicker
We had "hot rod" truck come in like this. But it was normal it smoked and had cold fuel knock until warmed up. They had fuel cranked up it melted bottom of cyl head. Had 6 spots that match 6 ports on injectors.
I have to admit, I questioned doing the swap after seeing the cutout test. I was convinced it was a bad injector. Good call, I was wrong. Now what? Low compression?
I think you missed a very valuable step and that would have been looking at the blowby tube. Another one would be checking exhaust manifold temperature especially after you figured the smoke was coming from #4 cylinder I very rarely swap injectors normally you can figure out if you have a mechanical problem in the cylinder or not
I was guessing it was warn rings. They swell up with heat and will then compress. Just like an old Detroit . Fills the whole town with white smoke until its warmed up.
2:15 You mentioned "Not sure why everyone seems to do it, I just leave it alone" That being a vacuum line running to the waste gate, most who do this are intending to keep the waste gate closed expecting the turbo to make more power. Consider it a poor mans waste gate delete. I can see this helping with more power in the higher RPM's however when it comes time to switch gears there will be a longer float in the RPM's before they drop low enough and you can get into next gear without nicking or grinding the gear. Because the exhaust pressure cannot dump out from the waste gate so it keeps pumping the turbo. I could be entirely wrong, but that is my theory on it.
Would like to hear your comments on the use of starting fluid or ether. Some of the good old boys seem to say completely stay away from it while others say, Aw, that isn’t going to hurt anything. Have you seen any stuck rings or scored cylinders lately?
Nice diag skills. I am having the same problem on my c12. Pulled the head replaced cam looked over cylinders really close. Saw no other damage and still having a problem with miss. Wondering if I have a broken compression ring or something.
would love to meet you in person i work just up the road from you in NI and had our gmc insulation truck there i’ve noticed the water tower that just recently got somewhat finished “ish” my boss and a few coworkers are fans!
Unfortunately many parts are cheaper then the labor to have a good diagnostician figure it out. The common fuel issues it certainly applies to, filters and pressure regulation spring can all be replaced for less then 1 hour labor.
Rather than suck the.fuel out after pulling injectors, I pull fuel lines at front and rear of head and use compressed air to blow fuel out completely. This way I don't let it in to start with.
@@AdeptApe Yeah, I'm talking about old cat motors of the sort you have never worked on or seen I guess. Old tech, which is why I thought it might be interesting to see what causes such problems now with the new tech.
I want to say piston rings on Cyl 4, but think that it would still smoke a little when Injector 4 is cut out due to still having a fuel source. Interested to learn what the root cause is.
Just found your channel. Great information. I just acquired an RV with a CAT 3126B. I'm wondering about running Bio diesel. What percentage is to much?
Maybe they should invest money in a Webasto system that preheats the engine. You can adjust the preheating system when you need the truck. The engine is then preheated for starting. Your "cat" would be happy.
Is it fuel smoke or antifreeze smoke ? Is the coolant system pressuring up when the engine is cold but OK when it is hot ? Are you going to pressurize the #4 combustion chamber and test for leak down ? I can't wait to see how this goes.
When is a good time to overhaul a 1999 3406E caterpillar engine? My oil analysis is showing 2 ppm chrome and I was told that’s the rings which is very very minimal; copper 1 ppm, iron 4 ppm, lead 3 ppm. There is a little bit of blow by on the valve cover blow by tube and the oil fill tube. Should I wait? The engine has around 14,000 engine hours on it with 785,000 miles. Rod and main bearings, turbo was replaced 250,000 miles ago. Thanks!
Personally I'd run a leak down to validate low compression and then measure piston at TDC (tig rod with tape is handy) with a companion hole to ensure rod is straight. Either way, off with its head!
I have a truck that spits and farts backfires when put under load when it’s cold out side and the water temp is between 130-175 degrees. Colder that 130 it runs great warmer than 175 runs perfect. What’s your thoughts
