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Cat Power train upgrade

simonsrplant

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2014
Messages
558
Location
Alberta CANADA
Occupation
Heavy Duty Off Road RSE
Looking to retire the 3126 in my 2001 FL80 and upgrade.
Considering a similar age C10.
More displacement, more torque, similar power added bonus of jakes. Which is a big sell to me here in the mountains.
The remainder of my power train is ample tough enough for the added torque.
Looking for any pointers to identifying a potential candidate.
Seems to be plenty of used motors available at reasonable prices.
Less so complete trucks to tear apart, which would have been the better choice.
If anyone knows a better prefix C10 to search out if be interested to know what to look for.
 

lantraxco

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 1, 2009
Messages
7,704
Location
Elsewhen
I had heard at one point the C10's were having issues dropping valves, any truth to that? Just curious, I never heard any more about it, was a couple years ago.
 

Coaldust

Senior Member
Joined
May 9, 2011
Messages
3,354
Location
North of the 60
Occupation
Cargo Tanks, ULSD, RUG, Methanol, LPG
Good score on the donor.!

I didn’t have many C10/C12 engines in my fleet, but the Sister company did. Mostly C12 2KS prefix engines. They are a decent engine. The single liner seal was odd, but didn’t appear to cause problems.

Some of the early C10’s used weird plastic wrist pin retainers that could melt and cause the pins to mess up the liners, eventually ventilating the block. Some camshaft/injector follower roller failures on high mileage units. Maybe because the overheads never got adjusted.
 

Cmark

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 2, 2009
Messages
3,178
Location
Australia
I look after a 3176C (which is much the same as a C-10) in a grader. It has just gone over 20000 hours and apart from routine maintenance, the worst thing that has happened is the rocker arm pads wore out.
 

N140MM

Member
Joined
Feb 12, 2020
Messages
21
Location
CB, NS
We just replaced a head and gasket in our 345B - 19000 Hr and never apart before. Crosshatching still in the liners. Head was cracked between the intake valves (I think) but the reason the head came off was the oil sampling showed traces of coolant in the oil. It was leaking internally by the lifter gallery.
Parts were an issue - head came from Singapore apparently. Also there's a difference in blocks and heads which determine which head gasket to use - early engines had scalloped edges on the internal lifter gallery edge but later ones had a straight edge.
 

simonsrplant

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2014
Messages
558
Location
Alberta CANADA
Occupation
Heavy Duty Off Road RSE
It appears that the motor has had an in- frame in its life. ECM shows 18000 engine hours and 800,000 miles. Not a whiff of blow by and clean oil.
No paint on the head or water pump etc.
Also genuine cat parts used.
No documents to back up this but it sure runs nice.
 
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