ol'stonebreaker
Senior Member
Just remembered that 398 we had finally went in for overhaul at 20k hours. Still running good, just leaking oil and burning some. There's good things to say for an engine running at 1200 RPM's.
Mike
Mike
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Caterpillar D398 Questions
- Thread starter Dan690D
- Start date
Dan690D
Member
Mike- Yes, they were talking about 300 Amps per starter.
With only a few feet of cable, a 1/0 might last awhile at pretty high amperage.
I would be very very interested in hearing what they pay to have it overhauled.
I've got the fuel side of things together, and I have 2000CCA's of 24V ready to try to kick her over.
I don't have a starter panel- I'm still very interested in hearing if anyone knows where I might find a pre-lube pump on the machine, or if it has one. I could figure something out to bar it over a turn or two if that's deemed necessary to pre-lube it. Or I could bump it with the starter and no fuel, if that's acceptable.
With only a few feet of cable, a 1/0 might last awhile at pretty high amperage.
I would be very very interested in hearing what they pay to have it overhauled.
I've got the fuel side of things together, and I have 2000CCA's of 24V ready to try to kick her over.
I don't have a starter panel- I'm still very interested in hearing if anyone knows where I might find a pre-lube pump on the machine, or if it has one. I could figure something out to bar it over a turn or two if that's deemed necessary to pre-lube it. Or I could bump it with the starter and no fuel, if that's acceptable.
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ol'stonebreaker
Senior Member
It's been 15 yrs so IIRC it's low on the right side of the engine. I could be wrong because I've slept since then, LOL!! You could crank it over w/ no fuel for maybe 15-20 seconds. I wouldn't crank much longer than that.
Mike
Mike
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Ah yes, I have been intimate with a couple of those prelube pumps on the 399's, worked sweet after being reassembled correctly. As somebody mentioned though I remember seeing somewhere some manually operated prelube pumps, don't remember where.
I've come across engines with a manual diaphragm pump for emptying the sump. Maybe that's what you're thinking of.
You may well be right, I haven't done any actual work for at least thirty years so I'm told, so my memory is a bit hazy on some things...
ol'stonebreaker
Senior Member
lantraxco, ever change oil in a 399? 110 gallons and IIRC 6 filters!!
Mike
Mike
We had twins, yes indeed, six elements in two stacks of three? I thought it was a drum of oil for each and a total of 110 gallons per service, but like I say it was long ago. On the boat we had suction for the drain oil tank, and filled off a clean oil tank with a pump, way too easy. When we were busy they ran around the clock so it wasn't long between services. They were old even then and not in their prime power wise, but I loved those big beasts... the pair would burn 2,500 gallons of #2 in 24 hours, towing at a hair over six knots in good seas and fair weather. They turned 8 foot wheels in Kort nozzles. Good memories.
ol'stonebreaker
Senior Member
Maybe the marine version had a smaller sump. Ours was for powering a portable crushing plant.
Mike
Mike
kshansen
Senior Member
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2012
- Messages
- 11,164
- Location
- Central New York, USA
- Occupation
- Retired Mechanic in Stone Quarry
Our D399 was used for various things last I was involved with was a continuous mix asphalt plant. The D398's were used to run "small" crushing plants and related screening plants. The 399 did have the electric pre-lube system like the one Cmark posted the 398's had a hand operated pump. It was not a diaphragm pump but sort of a vane type pump. It had a wing shaped thing on the shaft with check valves. Hold on I'll see if SIS still shows them, yep here it is:
and here is the outside view:
Note that the ones in the above pictures are shown as being "fuel priming pumps" which our's had and the "pre-lube pumps were identical, just plumbed in to the oil system. As I recall when pumping the oil you had to hesitate at the end of each stroke to let the pump fill with oil. You could feel a "thump" in the pump handle when the check valves closed. If you tried to pump too fast you would have lots of wasted movement in the handle.
We would just pump both pumps full time till we got oil pressure showing on the gauges then just bump the starter to crank the engine about half a turn and go back to pumping. Of course a "gas" engine would not need the fuel pump. The D399 with the electric pre-lube pump had the glow plugs wired in so all the time you were pre-lubing the engine you were also heating the glow plugs.
The D398 with the two hand powered pumps did create a problem with pumping two pumps and holding the heat start switch to "Heat" at the same time so we had a wire we could use to hold that switch on while pumping like crazy to get things ready to start.
Doubtful, it's more likely my memory is faulty. Considering we stood that boat on it's beam ends in storms, with the bows pointing at the sky one minute, and the wheels out of the water the next without losing oil pressure they must have had deep sumps.
Birken Vogt
Charter Member
Just an update, I heard this albatross is still gathering dust there, and the yard owner would like it gone....
kshansen
Senior Member
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2012
- Messages
- 11,164
- Location
- Central New York, USA
- Occupation
- Retired Mechanic in Stone Quarry
If you want to ship it here I might find a home for it! Just let me know when it's on the way so I can be sure wife isn't around! Wonder what it would take to convert it to diesel, don't have natural gas lines clos to here!
12 pistons, 6 cylinder heads, maybe new camshafts, 12 injectors, the injection pump, all fuel lines, etc. just for starters, oh dear!