Truck engine problems WCV

[stehansen]

Truck engine problems West Coast Version. As you guys know I also have a truck with a Detroit 8.2L engine that is blowing exhaust gases into the cooling system. It also got water in the oil and leaked water onto the ground from inbetween the head and the block. Putting a block sealing stuff into the water temporarily solves the last two problems. This is a replacement motor for which I paid $4500 for about a year ago. It made it about 60 days past the warranty. It has been limping along for many months now and I finally made up my mind to convert it to a Caterpillar motor. Yesterday I picked up a 3208 motor that has 120 hours on it. It was an emergency fire pump motor for a local cannery. I now need a donor motor for the exhaust manifolds and various other parts to convert it from an industrial application to a vehicle motor. I put my request on Craigslist and am going to look at a motor on Sunday for 500 dollars which was in an F-7000. A friend of mine gave me another 8.2L motor but it has injector problems and it seems to have a lot of blow by. Here is a picture of the 3208 when I picked it up yesterday.

[stehansen]

Here is the picture.

[Al Smith]

Good find on that engine,just about enough hours to be broken in.It should be a good replacement for you.

[stehansen]

Good find on that engine,just about enough hours to be broken in.It should be a good replacement for you.

That's what I'm hoping Al. If I am correct it will be the first time.

[Skwerl]

Good luck with it Steve. I also discussed swapping over to a Cat diesel when I got my replacement motor last year, but was told that it would have been $2-3K more expensive than sticking with the Detroit. Although at this point it's looking like it would have been a better choice in the long run.

[lumberjack]

Ha Steve.

You'll also need the brackets and such for the alternator(s) and such, the fly wheel might be different as well.


Good luck!

[Jonseredbred]

It might be cheaper to buy a newer used Cab & Chassis and swap the Aerial lift over to that.

Just a thought

[stehansen]

Ha Steve.

You'll also need the brackets and such for the alternator(s) and such, the fly wheel might be different as well.


Good luck!

Yes LJ. The powersteering pump and the fan assembly, and whatever else I haven't thought of. The 3208 has the water pump mounted real low so Cat puts a separate fan about 6 inches above the water pump with dedicated belts and a belt pulley on the crank with a couple more grooves. That's why I want to get a donor motor that has all the stuff so I won't have to hunt these things down indivually. That's the plan anyway. The bellhousing has the same mounts as the Detroit and the front mount is the same so I won't have to do any motor mount engineering. I will most likely have to do something to get the fan to line up with the radiator and shroud. If it gets too difficult there I might put electric fans in it. The donor motor that I am going to look at tomorrow in Tracy has an allison auto on it so if I get that I may use the automatic trans that my buddy gave me. As I wil have the flexplate and the right stuff to bolt the torque converter to. Do any of you guys know if when you run a PTO off an automatic transmission if the power goes through the torque converter. If so, would that mean that the PTO would/might stall at low rpm?

[Skwerl]

I'm thinking the PTO runs off the torque converter. In order to engage the PTO, you set the brake and put the vehicle in gear to stop the torque converter. Then you engage the PTO and then you put the truck back into neutral.

When the PTO is engaged, you can stop it by putting the truck in gear again. This tells me it's running off the torque converter.

[Jonseredbred]

Yup

[sotc]

an exhaust stack straight up through the hood? :/:

[Frans]

an exhaust stack straight up through the hood? :/:

Why not? Then he can put a big ass clapper on the top of the (gotta be chrome) stack.
Chix will dig it ;)

[Skwerl]

Steve, I wish like heck there was an easy way to get my truck out there to you. If I go through with the purchase, I may end up sitting on this old truck for months on end with no buyer in sight. It would be a great donor vehicle for you and I wouldn't have to worry about somebody killing themselves by abusing or overloading the bucket.

[stehansen]

That would be great but, alas there is too much distance between us. Your truck sounds interesting. I haven't seen any like that around here being used in trees only the power company linemen rig. Their truck is like yours only bigger, on a 3 axle chassis.

[Jonseredbred]

Steve you already own one of the best brand of lifts in the industry. Nothing has the speed and nimbleness of an Aerial Lift:thumbup:

Like i said before, rear mount it and you will reap tons of benefits in height and set up options.

[brendonv]

Like i said before, rear mount it and you will reap tons of benefits in height and set up options.

I never understood. How does just mounting the lift in the rear gain height?

[Frans]

Steve you already own one of the best brand of lifts in the industry. Nothing has the speed and nimbleness of an Aerial Lift:thumbup:


Have you ever heard of the matt3 bucket truck?
It has an extendable boom which allows you to penetrate into the canopy

[sotc]

it gets you closer to the tree. with a behind the cab mount your always 10 feet further away than nosing in.

[brendonv]

Gotchya, thanks.

[Jonseredbred]

A true rear mount, (mounted behind the rear axle) will gain you 5 or 6' in height by not having to tip forward over the cab to reach optimum height.
Yes, tou could park sideways under the tree and accomplish the same thing, but then you are working over your whole truck.

Having it rearmounted gains you valuable work space behind the truck that is free from having to work overtop the truck.

[Frans]

The MATT3 that Greg Good has is a rear mount

[Jonseredbred]

The Mat3 is a hulking brute. The lower boom does not go over center and I don't think the upper boom goes over center. Its the old washed up Hi Ranger unit with a telescoping boom. Obviously when Altec bought Hi Ranger they stopped producing the Hi Ranger as it was and let the patents expire allowing Mat 3 to modify the design.

The Aerial Lift has been around since the 50's it is time proven.

[Jonseredbred]

Frans, the MAt 3 is technically a center mount.

This is a true rearmount,

[MasterBlaster]

Gawd, that thing is purty!!!

[sotc]

the basket looks huge

[MasterBlaster]

That's just an illusion from the shroud that covers the controls.

[Thor's Hammer]

Gawd, that thing is purty!!!


I was thinking the same. Whats the chassis?

[Jonseredbred]

Its a Ford F series.

[lumberjack]

The MAT 3's are sweeeet IMO. It doesn't over center and yet it still gets similar or better side reach compared to an over center unit while giving you another degree of freedom. The bottom boom will go to 100 or 110* I believe, not a big deal.

I do wish my Genie was a 75' machine, that would be awesome.

[MasterBlaster]

Trade it in and upgrade!

[Jonseredbred]

Here is hieght plus side reach.

[lumberjack]

Trade it in and upgrade!

They don't make one bigger :(.

[Thor's Hammer]

Its a Ford F series.


what model?

[Skwerl]

Ed, it could be an F-650, F-750 or F-850. They all look identical from the outside, the differences will be in the frame, suspension and brakes. If you can count the leaf springs and see if it has air brakes, we might be able to guess the exact model number. ;)

That setup isn't all that heavy so I'm guessing that it would ride just fine on an F-650 chassis.


Hey Steve, sorry about derailing your thread.

[stehansen]

I consider it an honor.

I just returned from purchasing a donor motor. It's the one I found on Craigslist. It has an air compressor so I might see if I can keep it and have compressed air on my truck for cleaning saws and airing up tires. I have a date with my cousin to go pull it out a week from tomorrow.

[stehansen]

We test ran the "new" engine today.

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[Skwerl]

Sounds smooooooooooooth! :thumbup:

[stehansen]

Pretty responsive too. I'm getting excited. My cousin and I couldn't get it to start because the solenoid for the fuel pump is different than normal. We assumed that it needed to be energized to turn on but it is always on and you only energize it to shut the motor off. So he called his other Cat mechanic buddy who has more experience with these motors and is the other guy in the video. Another curve we had this afternoon was the starter and alternator are 24 volt. I'm hoping we can get all this stuff off of the donor motor which is 12 volt.

[stehansen]

We went and pulled out the donor motor today. This motor is in a truck that was flipped on it's side and the motor wasn't shut off right away so it ran out of oil.

[MasterBlaster]

Sweet.

[sotc]

theres your manifold:)

[stehansen]

Yeah, and most of that stuff on the front. And the flywheel.

[sotc]

did you get the pipes while you were there?

[stehansen]

did you get the pipes while you were there?

Yup, I think I can use most of that also.

[Skwerl]

Any progress on the truck this week, Steve? I'm looking forward to seeing your truck back in production again.

[stehansen]

I spent all day switching stuff from the donor motor onto the new motor. Got the exhaust manifolds on, the pulleys for the fan and power steering pump, cleaned the transmission yesterday, I have to go to the donor motor guy and get the plate for the torque converter to match up with the plate that I have on the flywheel. I also am taking the starter in to be rebuilt as it looks to have significant wear on the bendix. The starter on the new motor is 24 volt so we will use the one on the donor motor. Ordered a bunch more gaskets and locks and crap like that from the caterpillar dealer. My camera is in San Francisco with my daugher or I would have some pictures. Is this TMI?

[sotc]

nope just the right amount;)

[squisher]

Sounds like alot of messing around. I sure hope it all works out and gives ya years of trouble free running when you're done.

[Skwerl]

Sounds good, Steve. Looking forward to seeing pictures of that bad boy in position under the hood. :)

[stehansen]

Squisher, you are right. Trying to save a few thousand has made for a lot of messing around for sure(I'm not being a smart ass). I worked on it Sat afternoon and all day monday and a few hours today and I can't see where I have made all that much progress. I hope it all works out and I have made my decision and will have to see it through, but I'm getting impatient.

[stehansen]

Here is a picture of the motor when I bought and then a couple of pictures from on Friday. It is just about ready to go in. The fan of the Caterpillar motor is going to be at least 3 inches higher than the detroit fan so I am thinking about putting an electric fan on it. Does anyone have experience with electric fans on trucks?

[Jonseredbred]

I am thinking an electric fan will not pull enough air to keep that engine cool.

[sotc]

wow can you close the hood with that compressor up high like that?

[stehansen]

I measured it Willie. The engine sits way down in the truck. The top of the frame is about even with the exhaust manifold bolts. I don't have air brakes but the compresser came with the donor motor so I thought I would rig it up to have compressed air to blow off a saw or air up a tire.

Thanks Jonsared. I'm worried about that.

[Jonseredbred]

Steve is it a non turbo??

[Cobleskill]

Can you adapt the fan shroud so it will work or maybe use a different shroud?

[Jonseredbred]

Good idea. Even if the fan is not centered in the rad, a good shroud will keep it effective.

[sawinredneck]

The electric fan is iffy Steve. Deisels like heat, but too much and it's toast! Unless you can figure out the optimum temp to run it at, then set up a thermostate control on it, so it kicks on and off at the right temps.
You will also need a LOT of fan to cool that beast!!!
I would suggest you try and make what you have work first.

[sotc]

Steve is it a non turbo??

looks like it, see the intake on top?

[Burnham]

These are some of the best on the market, but I am also doubtful about your application. Might consider contacting the company direct to talk to a technical person on your application, Steve.

http://www.flex-a-lite.com/auto/html/electric-fans.html

[stehansen]

Yeah, it's a non turbo. I'm going to make every effort to get a belt driven fan on it. The shroud will be the hard part. I might see about adapting the shroud that was on the donor motor. Both shrouds are made of plastic so it's kind of hard to work with. You only really need a fan when you are stationary, but in a tree truck that is quite a bit. So I think it would be too much work for an electric fan. I got the transmission bolted to the engine today. Had a hell of a time getting the torque converter put on the transmission. There are 2 sets of splines and another shoulder that all have to line up.

[sotc]

nice shop! concrete floors and all!

[stehansen]

You can see the floor? The place is so full of stuff that you can't really work on much in there.

[Cobleskill]

Does the rad go all the way up to the hood ? If not it might be easier to raise rad and shroud and remount the whole deal.

[sotc]

ohhh good idea

[stehansen]

I have a scheme on the shroud I think I can put it upside down and be close. I removed the motor this afternoon.

[stehansen]

Today I did some pretty boring stuff with the truck. My cousin and I switched the fuel injector pump from the donor motor to the new motor as it was recommended to us that the governor on the industrial motor would be way too sensitive to use in a truck. We resealed the governor while we had it apart, I had to drive to Stockton to get the seal and O-rings at the Caterpillar dealer. My cousin made a little plate and we put the fuel injector pump in his motor stand to hold it to work on it. That way we could tip it up and all the springs wouldn't fall out when we took the cap off. The pictures are starting with the injector pump and ending with the motor with the pump installed and the injector lines and intake manifold put back. I know this is probably TMI.

[stehansen]

Here are some pictures from today. I hooked up the bottom of the transmission shifting cable, and worked on making a bracket to hold the emergency brake cable. The first picture is from underneath the truck looking forward on the right hand side. I have to make a bracket that will hold the emergency brake cable and pull on the lever that you can see just under the brake drum. The second picture shows how little room there is between the motor and the radiator, we ended up putting an electric fan in front of the radiator.

[Frans]

wow good work Steve!

Better make sure your radiator is in real good shape. The electric fans sometimes go out so also make sure your thermostat gauge is working and visible. An audible alarm is a good idea if it gets too hot. Or an idiot light.

[sotc]

great advice frans

[stehansen]

I'm considering getting another set of fans and I think I would have room to put them in back of the radiator on the top. I'm worried about having electric fans as you are only a bad electric connection away from a hot motor, which in most cases is a ruined motor. But there was nothing else I could do given the space constraints. I have wired the fans right in the wire that goes from the alternator to the battery so they will be live all the time and thus eliminate a few more connections, but the fans will stay on after you shut the motor off for a while. We will see how it works out. I will check out the alarm thing. If you are up in the bucket the guage isn't going to be seen and I'm reluctant to have to engine automatically shut down as it would leave me stranded up there, so an alarm may be the best option for when the bucket is in operation.

[MasterBlaster]

Do they still make lifts with pony motors? I've always kinda liked that set up.

[Al Smith]

Do they still make lifts with pony motors? I've always kinda liked that set up. They usually are add ons . It really is not that big of a deal to hook one up .

It's a lot easier on the pocket book say running a 20 HP Honda engine as dumping diesel fuel into and maintaining the road engine to run the lift .

[stehansen]

Do they still make lifts with pony motors? I've always kinda liked that set up.

You see quite a few of them for sale. They seem to usually have a gas V-8 to power the truck and a 30 hp Kubota diesel to run the lift. I have never used one but it seems like it would be quite efficient.

I worked on the truck all day today. I got to my cousin's shop about 8:00 and he was out on a call for a guy who's powershift transmission on his Caterpillar D-8K had been run low on oil. So I was locked out of his shop and I went and picked some oil filters and the transmission filter at the NAPA. I got the bracket and yoke made for the emergency brake cable and that is all working, I hooked up the lubricating hose for the PTO. My cousin finished making the tank for the power steering/brake booster system. Everything is finished down under the truck. No pictures today as my camera battery was dead. Tomorrow I will put the grille on, and the transmission cooler on the front bumper and then start making an expanded metal cover for the trans cooler. When you write it down here it seems like it would take about 10 minutes to accomplish but it seems to take me forever.
I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, I made an appt. for next week to take it in for new exhaust, as it looks like real bugger to do and it will take me too long. I guess I will drive it over there with just the manifolds on it. Should be interesting.

[Skwerl]

Sounds like you're coming down the home stretch, Steve. I know it's going to be great for you when you get it back in service. A little break-in and getting used to the new motor and you'll be set for years.
:)

[stehansen]

Sounds like you're coming down the home stretch, Steve. I know it's going to be great for you when you get it back in service. A little break-in and getting used to the new motor and you'll be set for years.
:)

I certainly hope so Brian. My cousin keeps me on the straight and narrow and doing things right. I'm wanting to start throwing things together to get going, but I know that doesn't work very well.

[stehansen]

Today I mounted the transmission cooler on the front bumper as there is not enough room for it inside the grill. I took a piece of expanded metal that I had to the local machine shop so he could shear it and break it for use as a cover in front and on top of the transmission cooler. We also worked on plumbing the power steering stuff and have one hose to install tomorrow and ordered a hose to fit the radiator to the top tank. The first picture is the console that we made for the transmission shift lever, PTO cable control, hand throttle, the guages, and the 2-speed button. The second is the the transmission cooler on the front bumper of the truck (how cool does that look) and the last one is the console from the passengers seat.

[stehansen]

We got the motor running today. Drove it around the yard a little and got in the bucket for a little spin. Still have a few issues. The motor started leaking oil out of the bell housing. We removed the transmission and the torque converter then the flywheel and discovered that there are two holes in the crankshaft flange for which there are not corresponding holes in the flywheel. The flywheel which was originally on this motor had holes for these two holes, but the flywheel that we put on which fits the allison transmission flange does not have these two holes. So we looked at the crankshaft flange on the donor motor and it has these two holes plugged with threaded plugs which we couldn't remove. It was too late to call the Caterpillar place in Stockton to have the plugs shipped down in the AM so I will pick them up (assuming that they have them in stock) tomorrow when I return from visiting my wife in Sacramento. I thought we would get it all buttoned up today but maybe tomorrow. The new pump for the hydraulic system is larger than the old one and as you would imagine the boom moves noticably faster.

[stehansen]

Spent most of the afternoon yesterday testing the motor and making sure everything is OK. Here we are running the motor kind of fast to heat it up and setting the thermostat on the electric fans. I have a leak in the tranny that I will investigate today and we are planning on putting the headache rack on and the hood. I have an appointment Monday AM at Mitchell Muffler and Custom Exhaust. It doesn't have anything on the motor now. The exhaust just comes straight out of the manifold. Good day to test the cooling system as it was 103 here yesterday.

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[squisher]

Get R Done!!!8)

[Burnham]

That's pretty damn exciting if you ask me, Steve.

:thumbup:

[MasterBlaster]

How are you online, B?

I thought...

[Burnham]

Business trip, Butch, have to be at a training in Bend, OR at 0800. Laptop and free interweb access.

The FS drafted me to become a liscensed ATV instructor. So all this week I am getting tutored.

[Paul B]

nice Burn! :D you are gonna have more certs than the rest of us combined! :)

[MasterBlaster]

I want a laptop!

[sawinredneck]

I want a laptop!

I tried to talk you into one when you hurt your foot!:P

[stehansen]

That's pretty damn exciting if you ask me, Steve.

:thumbup:

I know. I'm really excited. I think it has gone on so long that most everyone is tired of hearing about it.

[Skwerl]

I wanna see when you get it back into production! :D

[sotc]

i want another highway video:D

[stehansen]

i want another highway video:D

I wanted to make sure your heartrate had returned to normal before I shoot another highway video.:)
I ran it up and down the road today. Seems like you have to almost floor it to make it upshift. There was a crack in the oil pan of the transmission and we pulled it off and brazed it up and then it was still leaking transmission fluid and we tracked it down to a plug missing right under the PTO lever. While I had the pan off I saw a filter I didn't know it had and I had to go to Modesto to get a new filter and a pan gasket. I think the missing plug is where the sender for the PTO light screws in. This is all up on the upper part of the transmission right against the floor board and you can't see much of anything. This was about 5:30 and my cousin had to go "take care of some business" (sounds kind of fishy:)) so I just came home. We got the headache rack and the hood on, and finished all of the wiring today. I scheduled a job for it on Friday and now with this PTO leak thing I don't know if I"m going to make it. I had an appt at the muffler place this morning and I moved it to tomorrow and now I'm not going to be there first thing in the AM like I said, but I might make it a little later. Is this enough drama for a reality show? Wrenchmen?

[Kman]

Nice swap! I have 2 non-turbo 3208's, one in the old Bruin loader truck and one in the Louisville crane truck. Very fuel efficient engines. Not powerhouses but good engines.

[stehansen]

Nice swap! I have 2 non-turbo 3208's, one in the old Bruin loader truck and one in the Louisville crane truck. Very fuel efficient engines. Not powerhouses but good engines.

It has way more acceleration than my non-turbo 8.2 L Detroit had. You need hearing protection when ever you accelerate.

[Kman]

I have always heard good stuff about those 8.2's. Read on another forum about Rockys problems a year or so ago and have started hearing more about them. 3208's don't have a strong following among some but I have had good luck with the ones I have owned. Recently purchased an F600 with a 6.6 for a chip truck.I always heard bad stuff about these engines but then I realized that another tree guy that was always bad mouthing them had 3 or 4 trucks with them that he had been running for quite a while....

[squisher]

I have a 6.6 in my F-700. I've heard they're terrific engines but no power, and that would describe mine pretty well so far :D. No glow plugs seemed weird to me but I've had no problems starting mine even in the dead of winter.

[Burnham]

I have a 6.6 in my F-700. I've heard they're terrific engines but no power, and that would describe mine pretty well so far :D. No glow plugs seemed weird to me but I've had no problems starting mine even in the dead of winter.

And that ain't no weak-kneed winter our boy Squish be talkin' here...that's a strong endorsement.

[stehansen]

Well guys, halla freakin luya. I used my truck today. Took it on an emergency job in Patterson (my hometown) and everything seems to be OK, and then went and did a palm tree take down in Modesto. It has way more power than my old motor and seems to use substantially more fuel also.:cry: My camera had dead batteries today or I would have got some pictures. The new hydraulic pump seems pretty noisy when not in use. As soon as you pull on a lever it gets quiet. I'm pretty excited.

[squisher]

Cool Steve hope it's all smooth sailing for ya now.:)

[stehansen]

Thanks Squisher. I ran about 20 gallons of diesel through it today.

[Skwerl]

That's great news, Steve. Sorry that it's so thirsty. Maybe the fuel economy will get better as things get settled in.

[stehansen]

That's great news, Steve. Sorry that it's so thirsty. Maybe the fuel economy will get better as things get settled in.

Can't have everything, right?:D

[Kman]

That seems like a lot of fuel. How far did you have to drive? My crane is a tandem Ford Louisville and working local with it running all day I'll use about 10 gallons.

[stehansen]

That seems like a lot of fuel. How far did you have to drive? My crane is a tandem Ford Louisville and working local with it running all day I'll use about 10 gallons.

I drove about 160 miles, about half of it towing the chipper the rest solo and ran about 3 hours working the boom.

This is getting kind of embrassing but, here goes. I left a nut or washer or something in the intake manifold while I was changing the fuel pump or when I removed the manifold and changed a fuel line. So 2 days after I ran my truck the washer or whatever it was went into the engine and started making some really bad noises. It beat the top of the piston up a little and put a notch in the intake valve seat and probably bent both the intake and exhaust valves. We had to remove the engine from the truck and take off one head and take it in to the machine shop as my cousin didn't have the tool to remove the valve seat on this particular motor. This was done way back in the end of January or early February when my cousin was sick and I was trying to do this work unsupervised (which is obvusly a bad idea). We replaced both valves and put in the one seat and ground all of the valves. We removed that piston to make sure the ring land wasn't damaged and keeping the ring from moving and everything was OK with that. Me and my guys helped my cousin put it in the truck today and we should have it running tomorrow. I also bought an additional electric fan so we now have 2 to cool the motor as 1 fan was inadaquate. I'm a dumb ass.

[MasterBlaster]

Crikey McShittySon!!! :\:

[stehansen]

Crikey McShittySon!!! :\:

You can say that again.:cry:

[Skwerl]

Wow Steve. Sounds like it's been quite an ordeal. I don't think I'd have the patience to last through 6-8 months of truck repairs. I about lost it after 2 months and gave up. The good news is that your truck is all paid for and you know exactly what you got. I've got 5 years of big payments ahead of me.

[stehansen]

Wow Steve. Sounds like it's been quite an ordeal. I don't think I'd have the patience to last through 6-8 months of truck repairs. I about lost it after 2 months and gave up. The good news is that your truck is all paid for and you know exactly what you got. I've got 5 years of big payments ahead of me.

I have only myself to blame is the trouble. When amateurs do these things, stuff like this happens.

[sotc]

sucks steve, sorry

[stehansen]

Thanks everyone. I've got customers that have been waiting very patiently through this.

[Cobleskill]

Don't beat yourself up, Steve. My experience with taking things to a shop to have a pro fix them has been so bad that I have been struggling to fix my own stuff for years.

Every time I sent something out to have it fixed and paid big money it came back half assed or screwed up. A JD 2240 went to the shop for a clutch-pilot bearing job. It cost $1000 in 1986. A year and a half later the clutch went out again. It was a loader tractor,which does get a lot of clutch abuse, but I just couldn't see spending another $1000. When I took it apart the problem was that the pilot bearing was supposed to be a press fit into the flywheel. It had siezed up and spun and worn the hole in the flywheel out. They used stud and bearing mount loctite to glue the new on in. Real professional huh. This was th JD dealer repair shop, not some shade tree mechanic!! I took the flywheel to a local machine shop and told the kid how I wanted it fixed. He bored it out and made a bushing to bring it down to stock bore. Along the OD of bushing and ID of flywheel he drilled and tapped 3 holed. He ran allen screws in from each side and tightened them against each other. The input tranny shaft also badly needed to be replaced. I don't know what the hell they did with the $1000 they charged but I used that tractor steady for 10 years and the clutch is still good.

Even pros make mistakes, take shortcuts, or half-assed slop through a job. At least you know what you have and didn't pay someone $80 an hour to scew it up.

[Frans]

Steve=I'm a dumb ass
A dumb ass is someone who doesn't learn. You had an expensive lesson which you learned from.
Frustrating, but you got it right in the end.
Now on to the next lesson :)

[Skwerl]

I gotta agree with Cobleskill on this one. I've also had crappy experiences with high dollar mechanics (see the thread where I got new fuel injectors on my old bucket truck). That one cost me 3 mechanics and $3500 to find out that the problem was a stuck checkvalve. But they also pulled out the high performance fuel injectors and replaced them with wimpy stock ones, which cost me about 30-40 horsepower (on a 225 hp motor).

With my pickup I'm lucky that I have a very good and honest mechanic. He gets top dollar but he's worth it because he's a perfectionist and will never charge me for something I don't need. For that I'll gladly pay him $80 per hour plus 50%-100% markup on parts. But with my big truck I'm not fortunate enough to have someone so trustworthy.

[stehansen]

My cousin and I worked on it this afternoon. We have almost everything in. Another 2 to 3 hours tomorrow and we should be running.

[squisher]

Hope it all works out for ya now Steve. 8)

[stehansen]

We worked on it most of the day today. We were test running it and had an electrical problem. My cousin changed where he hooked up the fans and overloaded the wire. He hooked them up to the output of the 2 speed axle. Should have wired them to the battery wire coming from the alternator and wired the relays to a keyed post on the firewall. Oh well, I'm taking my Father to watch the tree climbing tomorrow in Elk Grove and my cousin said he will fix it manana.

[stehansen]

Truck is functional again. My cousin fixed up the wiring stuff and we are good to go.

[Skwerl]

That's great, Steve. Now it's time to go make some money. :D

[stehansen]

Hopefully this thread will just die now.

[stehansen]

Hang on!

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[brendonv]

Sounds good!

[MasterBlaster]

"Clovis, we got us a speedster!"

[stehansen]

I think I was doing 50 in a 45.:D

[Skwerl]

That old Cat hauls ass! :D

[squisher]

Right on Steve good to hear that baby running strong!8)

[stehansen]

Thanks guys. It's not like I was fishing for compliments or anything.:D Now I just need some cup holders.

[CurSedVoyce]

welcome back to the road steve... Awesome job getting it running again. Wanna help put my 400 CI in the ford ??? LOL.. JK. Hey. We still need to have that beer, soon I hope... Maybe I get you to come up here in Sept at Bass Lake and have a day off...

[stehansen]

That old Cat hauls ass! :D

Who you calling old? I should be offended, but it's true, dammit.:)

[sotc]

ooooooohh ahhhhhhhh:D

[stehansen]

This should be the final chapter to this thread.

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Can anyone spot the stumpgrinder tooth?

[Skwerl]

Looks good. At 5 seconds into the video you can see a loose nut and bolt on the fan shroud. Looks like it might become a projectile if it rattles out and drops into the fan. The truck sounds real smooth though. :)

[stehansen]

Brian, I have noticed that bolt a few times myself. I think it held one of those little loops to fasten down electrical wires back on the 8.2 motor. I'll go out and tighten it up. One of the original problems with a belt driven fan was the fan drive I got from the donor motor stuck out way far and the radiator would have had to be about where the front bumper is now. We lost that fan drive and after several hours spent looking for it I gave up and bought another one. The one I bought was way shorter and allowed me to put the radiator just back from the grill. Plus there is supposed to be a spacer inbetween the fan drive and and the motor block which I left out and adapted (ground them wider with a portable grinder) the slots in the fan drive to accept 1/2" bolts from their original 7/16" bolts. The slots on the drive were the same width as the hole pattern in the block but were wide enough to accept a 7/16" bolt, and the threaded holes in the block were 1/2" course thread. I could then bolt the drive directly to the motor and this put the fan drive one belt width closer to the motor. Ther was a notch in the block where the belt tightening screw would push on the block and I use a stumpgrinder tooth to bridge that gap. All this enabled the radiator to be kept within the existing engine compartment, although pushed out to the limits. There is supposed to be a minimum clearance between the fan and radiator of 1" and I have about 2 inches. The shroud took a little modification as well, I welded some little stubs on the frame to hold it on the bottom and welded the original screw tabs onto the other side of the top radiator bracket to hold the shroud in the top. I also had to cut off about a inch of plastic in the lower part of the shroud to clear the fan and there is an extra big gap in the top and a few little gaps on the side, but it still seems to work OK. My only worry now is that the one fan belt runnng the fan will be used beyond it's strength, but there seems to be no problem so far.

[Skwerl]

I'd suggest buying an extra fan belt and sticking it in the glovebox if you haven't already. Glad the shorter fan drive worked out. :)

[thattreeguy]

i drove a ford ln 8000 tractor,that had the frame stretched and the rig turned into an 18 ft chip bed truck
had a 10 spd air injected trans 3208 cat...it screamed..75 on the highway with a load and chipper
ran so good they bought another for the boom, but the only difference is a 6 spd trans, and 14 ft chip box
cat has a lot of power, better than detroit, imo

[stehansen]

This rig hits the governor a little over 55 mph. But it gets there way faster than the old motor did. One thing I like about the Cat is that it starts immediately. I'll bet the starter only cranks it over a half a revolution or so. I hadn't thought about the spare belt Brian. I'll do that. I have one in my pickup, but not the truck. I didn't know if I was done changing things.

[sotc]

Steve, how do you get away with emmissions on that when they are shipping thousands o trucks out f california?

[thattreeguy]

Steve, how do you get away with emmissions on that when they are shipping thousands o trucks out f california?

thats whats screwing me at the moment

[stehansen]

They haven't made me smog it yet. I just looked on the DMV website and it says there are no smogs required on diesels yet.

[stehansen]

I did one last adjustment. I added a sheave to the water pump pulley and another belt to run the fan. I was told that the fan has full rpm load of 12 hp, and that a single belt of that size running that speed was good for a little less than 8 hp while still maintaining a good service factor. Everything was working OK, but this was pretty easy to do as I had the sheave from the other motor so I just had to bolt it on and go buy a belt. Maybe now I can quit obsessing.

[lumberjack]

Tighten or remove that fawkin bolt before Brian strokes out!

[stehansen]

I'll make sure it's gone before he gets here!