3306B The good, The bad and The ugly

[workshoprat92]

Looking at buying a truck with a 3306B cat engine. It has a blown head gasket. What are the common causes of a blown head gasket on the 3306 engines? Whats the good and the bad of a 3306? Never had one myself

 

[kshansen]

Looking at buying a truck with a 3306B cat engine. It has a blown head gasket. What are the common causes of a blown head gasket on the 3306 engines? Whats the good and the bad of a 3306? Never had one myself

Never worked on a 3306B truck engine but plenty of 3306's in loaders. I thinking the most common cause of head gasket failure would be bad liner projection. That's assuming someone was not playing around trying to get more power or just plain poor maintenance causing overheating and warped head.

 

[56wrench]

I used to see the odd one with a bad valve or valve guide or eroded lower liner counterbores. Overall an easy engine to work on

 

[Birken Vogt]

When you see something for sale and it says "blown head gasket", it has to make you wonder how they diagnosed it, did they just pick the thing to call it that would make the buyers think it would be easy to fix? If so why did they not fix it themselves?

 

[Former Wrench]

Is the gsk blown because the head is cracked; or worse?

 

[crane operator]

"Blown head gasket" sounds so much nicer than "cracked head" doesn't it?

 

[colson04]

"Blown head gasket" sounds so much nicer than "cracked head" doesn't it?

Sounds better than "we ran it so hot with a plugged radiator in 110° heat that we turned the exhaust red, seized the turbo and puked all the fluids out"

We overheated a John Deere 6410 once while pumping manure from a lagoon. Turbo 4 cylinder, (~100pto hp), loading tanker after tanker, about 28 ft of head, 6" pipe. That poor tractor gave it everything she had for about 6 hours until pop! White smoke and no more chug chug chug. Cracked the head and warped exhaust manifold.

 

[cfherrman]

Happens to be a western star with the drive line removed?

It does run btw

 

[AzIron]

3306 seemed to run good were not a power house tho we had 2 of them back in the late 90s had them 5 or 6 years each never had a problem

 

[workshoprat92]

When you see something for sale and it says "blown head gasket", it has to make you wonder how they diagnosed it, did they just pick the thing to call it that would make the buyers think it would be easy to fix? If so why did they not fix it themselves?

I took the long drive and went to look at it myself. It may be a blown head gasket or cracked head. It does run and its pumping compression into the water jacket as well as pumping water out the exshaust. When you pull the radiator cap you can see apoof poof poof of smoke every time that cylinder hits. He says no water in the oil but its way high on the stick way past full. Pretty sure if ya pulled the plug your gona get water. As far as it being overheated i dont see any of the tell tale signs of overheated. He says hes not putting money into it because he found out he has bad cancer. I have no rrason to doubt him. If the price is right even if its been fried it can get a cummins swap easy enough. Just have to balance that on tear down and inspection to see what and why it doing what its doing. As much as its puffing out the radiator its gona be fairly obvious!

 

[workshoprat92]

Happens to be a western star with the drive line removed?

It does run btw

Yes it is. Looked at it yesterday

 

[workshoprat92]

"Blown head gasket" sounds so much nicer than "cracked head" doesn't it?

I dont know a cracked head is a deal killer though. Looks like you can get aftermarket head for around $1800. Dont know if the aftermarket heads ate any good though.

 

[cfherrman]

I have it my watch list but I won't be bidding.

How did it look, how high do you think it will go? Typically things are going super high there and don't forget to add 10% plus 8% to your bid for fees.

I'm guessing 10k, it's already at 2k

 

[workshoprat92]

I real

I have it my watch list but I won't be bidding.

How did it look, how high do you think it will go? Typically things are going super high there and don't forget to add 10% plus 8% to your bid for fees.

I'm guessing 10k, it's already at 2k

I really dont think it will go anywhere near 10 k with a blown engine. Just hard to say and you never know till the hammer drops. Biggest thing about that truck is its not able to drive home and its so long its a big transportation issue. Its gona be very costly to move any amount of distance to get it somewhere to do the engine work. Other than that its the standard well used dump truck. Last one i bought with a siezed motor i paid $2600. But it was just a truck and not set up as a dump truck. Im aware of the 10%. As a company with interstate authority i am exempt from sales tax on big trucks and truck parts over a certian class trucks. This one qualifies as tax exempt for me.

 

[crane operator]

I don't think there's any way it stays under $10,000. I'm not looking for a dump, but I've been trying to buy another truck, and I've been blown away by what guys are asking for project trucks.


1990 KW 3406 that got hot- doesn't know what's wrong $28,000

https://www.facebook.com/marketplac...wse_serp:22e57123-f63c-4942-8b5c-9ad6712dabe3

1987 KW day cab tractor, " a L10 that's not running" (but somehow they know the A/C works )- $6,000

https://www.facebook.com/marketplac...wse_serp:22e57123-f63c-4942-8b5c-9ad6712dabe3

1980 Mack superliner, "needs a engine", -$10,000

https://www.facebook.com/marketplac...wse_serp:22e57123-f63c-4942-8b5c-9ad6712dabe3

1994 peterbilt 378 day cab that was a dump, "has a bad knock" N-14 - $21,500

https://www.facebook.com/marketplac...wse_serp:34a764bb-4d5a-4b43-a382-5afb78ee2ba8

 

[crane operator]

And as far as the 3306, I ran one in a crane, and it struggled to move it around, but the crane was 77,000lbs. I don't think there was anything really wrong with the engine, just sized wrong for the application.

I don't think you'll find it much different power wise than a L10 or any other 10-11 liter motor- its never going to be a 855/n-14, 3406 or 12.7 detroit, but it would be fine in a short tandem doing jobsite work.

 

[suladas]

$28.5k for a 30 year old dump that might need a motor? Does the bed come filled with cash or gold it in to make up for it being at least $15k overpriced? That price would be in line if the truck was ready to work.

 

[cfherrman]

It's a auction up 9/8 sitting at $2000 right now. I won't link the sure because the op didn't. Reasons I think it will go for too much:

It's in Kansas, In kansas this site they go for more as it's more local
Already setup as a dump
Western star truck, all though a 1989
3306 mechanical should be sought after engine
Video of it running all though drive shaft has been removed (so it has to be towed)
I've seen many non running trucks go for stupid high, last too I can think of is a ready mix truck and a refuse truck, both didn't run, both went over 10k.

Excited to see as it's kinda of my game on this site to guess what goes for cheap.

 

[colson04]

I'm watching a couple dump trucks on a local auction site today. They close after 730pm, bidding never gets exciting until the last 2 hours so things are just getting interesting.

 

[crane operator]

I'm watching a couple dump trucks on a local auction site today. They close after 730pm, bidding never gets exciting until the last 2 hours so things are just getting interesting.

Good luck- and remember, none of them in our price ranges are going to be perfect trucks.