In my experience…

[James Sorochan]

Ok, thanks for this ahart. I’ll have to see how far away the cups are from SMS ( Komatsu ) John the engine is a S4D 130-1. I guess I might be doing injectors too.

 

[John C.]

I haven't had the pleasure of working on one of those engines so can't be of much help.

 

[ahart]

If I’m looking at the photo you added correctly, those are external cups, correct? So you had an external coolant leak? Doesn’t appear to be any way to mix the coolant and fuel in that scenario. The biggest reason for replacing injectors on an MP8 engine aside from the cups and injectors sealing together, is due to the coolant contamination in the fuel will likely cause them to stick and fail soon down the road.

 

[James Sorochan]

OK, thanks for this.

 

[James Sorochan]

Sorry ahart. I believe they are external cups and yes the leak is external. . Talked to my mechanic buddy and he said an outfit called Apex tool makes pullers that work without damaging the cups. I'll check them out. I can also call the Komatsu dealer and ask them what they use.

 

[ahart]

Moved the new 374 next gen for the first time today. Not a lot changed from the D and F machines with the exception of the counterweight removal system. I liked the way it set the counterweight back away from the machine but I don’t like the fact that it would likely take more than one person to get it installed back on the machine (I had an operator on assembly). The old system used chains and sprockets and you could do the whole job by yourself. The new system isn’t like that. Pros and cons I suppose.

 

[cuttin edge]

Moved the new 374 next gen for the first time today. Not a lot changed from the D and F machines with the exception of the counterweight removal system. I liked the way it set the counterweight back away from the machine but I don’t like the fact that it would likely take more than one person to get it installed back on the machine (I had an operator on assembly). The old system used chains and sprockets and you could do the whole job by yourself. The new system isn’t like that. Pros and cons I suppose. View attachment 253950View attachment 253951

Will it set the CW down on the deck of the float, or does it have to go to the ground?

 

[JD955SC]

Will it set the CW down on the deck of the float, or does it have to go to the ground?

It will. Often our truckers prefer to do a lift for loading instead for positioning purposes.

 

[ahart]

Got a little play in my boom cylinder they said….Cat 345D. I was honestly impressed that the pin came out.

 

[cuttin edge]

Back in the day when I was wet behind the ears, I went to work for a company. I was hired to grade haul roads, but when I arrived on site, the old grader was broke down. They put me on an old 992 Deere to fill the time. Ended up staying on it all season. It was hot, no a/c, and no right hand window, so you got the heat off the boom cylinder. My first week, I complained about the main bucket pin not taking grease. RUN IT! By the end of summer, I could almost fit a tube of grease in the gap

 

[Acoals]

Just rotate that sleeve and stuff it back in . . .

 

[ahart]

Don’t give them any ideas. If they thought they could run a couple hours like that they’d try it

 

[Acoals]

Don’t give them any ideas. If they thought they could run a couple hours like that they’d try it

Yep . . I have had customers ask for stuff like that before

 

[ahart]

Been awhile since I’ve put anything up on here as we’ve had a couple of contract techs move on to other companies, this leaves me as the only field guy across several job sites that are 30-130 miles apart. Needless to say, business is good. So this is the latest challenge, M318D machine purchased out of the rental fleet from the local Cat dealer. This thing is decked out to the gills with aux hydraulics. Said we need to run a 130ES hammer on it so go set the flows and pressures for the hammer circuit. Set up flow meter after dialing in settings on the monitor which are in metric/imperial units with no way to change them to American English. Out comes the iPhone to convert from GPM to L/min and from PSI to kPa. 18 GPM is all its putting out. Changed everything imaginable in the monitor and could not get any more flow. Ran down a few leads in the MCV (multifunction combination valve) and I’ve finally settled on the flow control solenoid for the A port is not functioning because when I command a different flow setting, the solenoid current changes to accommodate the setting but the flow on the hammer valves never changes. Next issue is going to be getting the solenoids out of the control valve as they have a short hex shoulder on them and are pretty tall so it’s going to take an extra deep/extra thin socket to get them out. Appears that these solenoids are only used on the M3XX WHEX machines so probably European in design. Cat says H130ES is a bit much for machine but at 58 GPM required and 66 GPM available, agree it will work. That’s our MO, push it to the limits. Hopefully solenoid will fix flow problem and we can move along.

 

[JD955SC]

God how I despise those things.

 

[ahart]

Had a C9 in a Cat 336D getting fuel in engine oil, found issue pretty quickly and I thought I’d share the info. HEUI injectors, pulled valve cover off and inspected around the injectors and didn’t see anything that stood out. Ran the priming pump on the filter for about 60 seconds and climbed back up for another look. Could visibly see fuel around where the injector meets the cylinder head on #3 cylinder. If you look in photo of the injector removed from machine, there’s a hole above the pink backup ring that is above the surface of the head when injector is installed. Fuel leaks out of this hole and into the crankcase. It’s not this way on all cat injectors by any means but on this particular model, I’ve seen it happen a few times. Easy check by running priming pump to pressurize system and looking for leaks. No dye in the fuel required.

 

[chidog]

So is that some sort of lube hole or termites?

 

[Nige]

So is that some sort of lube hole or termites?

I would say it’s a weep hole designed to work as a tell-tale to show that the seals inside the injector are leaking.?

 

[ahart]

Fairly new 349 next gen excavators with hard lines coming off the main control valve, have seen 3 instances of welds cracking. Cat says it’s an issue with the welder being poorly trained in the process and has since been corrected. Of course the only available parts are in Shanghai, but I’ve come to expect that response.

 

[Nige]

Of course the only available parts are in Shanghai,

Not surprising I suppose, seeing as that's where the excavator is manufactured.