I ve rebuilt a bunch of the 3116 and 3126 engines.
Caterpillar 3116 marine engine problems.
This is why not good for bucket trucks driven by pto.
I don t know a lot about marine diesels and was looking for some input i am looking to buy a 1984 egg harbor with 2 cat 3116 ta 300 hp engines he has all documented maintenance and has said they have been well cared for my concern is they have 5000 hrs on them he says the boat was a charter and most of the hours was trolling hrs.
Make sure you get a complete cat history on the motors.
It s not that we hate the cat 3116 it s that we hate the fact that it s hard to work on.
3116 why we hate it.
Adjustment alternator belt illustration 16 g00285332 1 adjusting bolt.
If the engine is equipped with a freon compressor air conditioner the belt for the fan drive the alternator and the accessories will have an automatic belt tensioner.
It was a good engine.
Cat do not like to be idle.
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One still running with 650 hours will probably last awhile longer.
When you have hundreds of thousands engines on market you always will find hundreds of people who complain about.
It is extremely hard to time the fuel system and like the vw on the automotive side working on the cat 3116 requires special tooling you can only buy from caterpillar.
The 3116 had lots of early problems soft blocks head injector problems.
Any cat 3116 3126 or c7 are good engines.
Caterpillar upgraded the oil cooler gaskets because they all leak.
If the engine is not equipped with a freon compressor the alternator is used to adjust the belt tension.
Make sure you use anti seize on all bolts especially the front cover.
Most of problems are due to misuse or poor maintenance.