Cat diesel power!!!!

Thanks for the support

Do you idle alot? Idling alot before the engine breaks in can carbon up the ring lands. You may want to load the engine on the dyno and check the blow-by. I have had Cat reman cylinder packs cause problems before. If it's pinpointed to a pack, cat will replace it parts and labour.

Also, you said the head was rebuilt, do you know if it was done properly. I always use Cat reman heads, have not had a problem yet, and if I did, the head has a 1 year parts and labour warranty. The machine shops that rebuild the head around my area may give you another head if it fails, say a dropped valve. But get them to buy you a piston pack , turbo and cover the labour of a dropped valve, good luck, see you in court!

The only way do properly diagnose oil consumption at idle is to removed the exhaust manifold and plug the turbo supply ( very important, seen it happen oil shoots about 30 feet in the air). Run the engine and see what port gets wet.

 

Also, a lot of those 475s had different rating numbers,maybe your torque can be changed from 1650 to 1750

 

man glad to see ya back dds

 

Yes Idle quite a bit when getting loaded about 20-30 mins. No dyno for miles. The head was not a cat reman but was done at a place that rebuilds for cat. They told me they didn't change the guides because they were good. All they did was acid dip, pressure test, plain,grind, new guide seals, cam bushings one new valve, some springs, I think that was it. The place has a good rep but there is always that chance that they screwed up. That why I'm not rushing back to the shop that rebuilt the engine and crying warranty because it might be that head. And if it is the head I can just bet the place that rebuilt the head won't want anything to do with the labour bill to re&re it. There is some frost plugs in the top of the head above the intake journal front and back I wounder if one of those could be leaking oil down into the journal? I know that they changed all them frost plugs.

 

Dittos DDS!

Before Cat inframed my '96 3406E, I did not have this problem. After inframe, if I idled my truck overnight, it took about two city blocks worth of travel to clear out. First time I looked in my mirrors and saw all that blue-white smoke, I FREAKED!! Called Cat, and shop foreman called it "turbo slobber" not covered by warranty, and I just needed to bump cruise to fast idle, about 1100-1400 rpm. I also spoke to an ex Cat wrench, now owns his own shop, he basically said the same, plus what you were told about possibly a cylinder kit; Mine was a mix of fuel, and oil; as you stated, you could smell the oil, and see the blue smoke, also the drain tube for the turbo would leak a little onto the block under the turbo. If you rubbed some of that stuff between your thumb and forefinger, it was gritty, not smooth like oil. Acorrding to independent mechanic, this was fuel loading up, and washing the soot loose. remove the exhaust manifold, and look for the wet port to find which cylinder. He didn't appear to concerned about it, stated that some do it, others don't, and also recomended higher rpm idling.

20 minutes seems awful fast to load up like that though, IMO.

 

Thanks


Hey Droy, when did you have it overhauled, I don't remember exact date but Cat had problems with cylinder packs. mid to late 90s?? Ended up it was the improper storage of the cylinder pack. They were shipping and storiing some of them on there side. This resulted in the liners going out of round. Had a few 3406b's sieze pistons on the dyno during break in.

 

April of 2004, other than that ugly smoking, the only other problem was a bearing failure in the turbo 67k miles after inframe, warranty was out time ways, but not mileage. The hot impeller had got into the housing, buggering it pretty good, and they didn't want to accept any of the turbo as a core; had to start the lawyer involvement talk to change their minds. The "new" turbo also smoked, but not as bad. Sold the truck about a year later I think.

 

The longer I idle the bigger the cloud but it cleans up instantly. Same thing all the mechanic's I've talked to say not to be to concerned about it. But I sure would like to figure it out. checked turbo out both sides clean and dry. I forgot to mention that I idle at 1100 rpm.

 

hello everybody,
ok, i own 98' 379 pete with 3406e in it, it has about 600,000 miles on it, had 350,000 when i bought the truck.
18 speed,
3.55 rears,
24.5 low pro,
53' reefer.
my complain is that my mpg i get is not as good as it could be i think.
the only way to get better milege is to drive 60 or below with turbo 8psi or less. even going 60 mph with turbo 10 psi or over it is going to below 5mpg. any ideas? thank you. engine serial #6ts02940.