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I would also like to know also.

I have two D-17000's in my GE 44 ton unit and can't get any help from them on the engines. Maybe mine are just to old, 1949. I will say there very very heavy for what they are. But they run and have lasted this long so far. They say my are low HP, but all torque. It will be interesting when I bring it out this spring. We have a 45 Ton unit that is powered with Cummins units and is the strongest in the fleet. We will see how my 44 ton does in comparision.

The RR repowered a Davenport loco with a Cummins unit after the cat unit failed. It has alot more power than the Cat and was lighter and smaller. But this could simply be the technology advancements. 160HP vs. 400 HP, not much to think about. We are currently repowering our second Davenport replacing the orginal Cummins engine with the same Cummins engine, which turned out to have the same 855 block. just the stuff hanging on it is more modern. Fuel injectors, generators etc. Have improved. So the size of the Cummins unit hasn't changed that much.

So is it reliablity vs. size and HP. ??? Cummins was lighter and smaller. But wouldn't the weight give you more tractive effort, especialy with the high torgue?

Most likely Cat was the odd man out in a business sense in that GE builds Loco's and Generating systems. So Catapiler is now in direct compitition with GE so you probably won't see them working together. Both our 44 and 45 have GE electrical systems but different motors, Cat and Cummins. Something happened someware and they split.

We had issues with the front crank bearings on our Cat gensets in the early 2000's and that hurt there reputation. Who was suppling the engines on the AC6000 units that were plauged with problems.

Jamie
Last edited by CSX FAN
As a mechanic and have worked on Cummins, Cat, John Deere , International and other engines you have to realize that Cat and its dealers are a very arrogant bunch of people ,just talk to them and uou will see what I am saying . They could care less about a 50 year old engine and on top of that their product is not good quality , only the name they used to have good product 50 years ago . Thats is one reason International took over their truck engines. I just hope they don't mess up the EMD locomotives. I even know 2 people that work on the assembly line wher Cat makes those big engines for retrofit and they say they aren't that good
Jerry,

You may have worked on 'Em, well after 23 years of Drivin' em, if it ain't YELLOW, it doesn't belong under the hood of a truck. Nothing may run like a Deere, but Nothing PULLS like a CAT. In MY experience, I have had more trouble with Cummins than I ever had with Cats. It used to be said, with a Cat, you don't work on them as often, but it is more expensive when you do.

My current tractor(2006 Pete 385) has a Cummins ISM in it, I have driven almost as mmany miles with the check engine light on as I have with it off. I have often been tempted to get some Cat yellow spray paint, and paint that ISM a proper color, but I doubt that it would fool either Me or the ISM, sure miss that C-12.

I don't know anything about how Cats fare in the Railroad environment, but in MY opinion they were the BEST engine on the Highway, Hands Down, no competition. I sure Wish that Cat was still building Diesels for ON Highway use.

Doug
I have been doing a lot of research lately on diesel pusher motor coaches. The Lovely and Gracious Linda and I are planning some travel in the coming years, and that seems like a great way to do it.. Many of the diesel pushers are powered by that same Cummins ISM engine you have in your truck, Doug. They are usually rated somewhere between 360 and 380 hp. The coaches we are looking at are powered by the Cummins 8.9 liter ISL engine, rated at 400 HP, with a Jake Brake.

The most often used Cat engine in motor coaches is the 7.2 liter engine, rated at 350 hp. In the motor home world at least, the Cummins engines seem to be more highly regarded and more common than the Cats. From my reading, it seems a lot of people have had a problem with wrist pins in the 7.2 liter Cat, which ultimately causes catastrophic failure of the engine if it is not caught and fixed. Evidently Cat is not standing behind this very well, even though it is a known manufacturing defect.

Unlike Doug, I don't have any first-hand experience with any of these engines and have never run a Cat-powered locomotive. I'm just trying to learn about them from reading the internet, which can sometimes be a very dangerous thing to do. Just look at this forum... Big Grin
Rich,

My last truck was a 2000 Pete 385, with the Cat C-12 in it, I was not the first driver in it, I got that truck with 290,000 miles on it, and put another 250,000 on it. I had very lttle down time with that truck, most of the brak downs that I had were not Cat built components, such as an AC compressor siezing up.

The 2006 Pete 385 that I am driving now, I am the original driver in it, and I have gotten to the point of practically ignoring the check engine light, it is on so often. The most common trouble that I have had, repeatedly, is a "coolant level sensor". In 6 years and about 485,000 miles I think that it is on about the seventh or eighth coolant level sensor. When the check engine light comes on now(currently intermittently) I scan the gauges, and if there are no bad sounds or smells, just keep driving, and call the leasing company's shop " Hi, 1589 is feeling Unloved again, and wants some TLC".

Fortunately, it is not normally a code that will cause the engine to De-rate, but that has happened, usually in the worst place that it could. Just like the Ford/Chevy, Lionel/MTH debates, there are those that will swear by, and those that will swear AT either choice. In MY own experiences, I have come to prefer Cats (even though mine was only a "kitten Wink).

As far as Jerry's experience, it is not at all uncommon for what is popular with the drivers on the road, to be not the same as what is popular with the mechanics in the shop, we tend to have different points of view on what constitutes a "GREAT MOTOR".

Missin those Yellow Motors,

Doug
For CSXfan
The CSXT AC6000's had a German developed engine, by Duetz MWM, the 7HDL.

CSX is presently replacing engines in these locomotives with a new 6000hp GEVO 16 cylinder power plant. The work is being done at the CSX Waycross Georgia Shop by GE.

This may be dated, there may be more, but for sure 606, 620, 628, and the 640
have gotten the new engine, and I've read that all 117 of them will get the new power plant.

Ed Mullan
Rich,
You are correct Cat has left the on-highway truck engine market. The engine tooling now belongs to Navistar (International Truck & Engine Co.)They build a MAXXFORCE 15 based on the Cat block and the MAXXFORCE 13 based on a MAN design. The MAXXFORCE 7-11 series are Internationl designs dating back to the farm tractor days and the best wet sleeved mid range diesel ever built!

Cat also has International building trucks for them based on the PAYSTAR chassis with a remodeled hood and Intl. engine painted yellow. Iwould not touch a 7 liter cat with a ten ft pole.

Gunny
quote:
Originally posted by CSX FAN:
I would also like to know also.

I have two D-17000's in my GE 44 ton unit and can't get any help from them on the engines. Maybe mine are just to old, 1949. I will say there very very heavy for what they are. But they run and have lasted this long so far. They say my are low HP, but all torque. It will be interesting when I bring it out this spring. We have a 45 Ton unit that is powered with Cummins units and is the strongest in the fleet. We will see how my 44 ton does in comparision.

The RR repowered a Davenport loco with a Cummins unit after the cat unit failed. It has alot more power than the Cat and was lighter and smaller. But this could simply be the technology advancements. 160HP vs. 400 HP, not much to think about. We are currently repowering our second Davenport replacing the orginal Cummins engine with the same Cummins engine, which turned out to have the same 855 block. just the stuff hanging on it is more modern. Fuel injectors, generators etc. Have improved. So the size of the Cummins unit hasn't changed that much.

So is it reliablity vs. size and HP. ??? Cummins was lighter and smaller. But wouldn't the weight give you more tractive effort, especialy with the high torgue?

Most likely Cat was the odd man out in a business sense in that GE builds Loco's and Generating systems. So Catapiler is now in direct compitition with GE so you probably won't see them working together. Both our 44 and 45 have GE electrical systems but different motors, Cat and Cummins. Something happened someware and they split.

We had issues with the front crank bearings on our Cat gensets in the early 2000's and that hurt there reputation. Who was suppling the engines on the AC6000 units that were plauged with problems.

Jamie

The Cat D17000 is IMPOSSIBLE to get new parts for. Lucking into NOS material is your best bet.
Great news techie Frown

Looking at we have at the RR we have, mostly little stuff no main line equipment

2 Cats
4 Cummins
2 Detriot Diesels (GM locomotive)

All gensets are Cummins/Onan

MOW equipement

All Detriot diesels except one Duetz.

Speeders:
Onan/Cummins
Ford
Mitubishi
Kabota

Still a wide array of manufactures

Rich does the new and improved Forum have a spell check button??????

Jamie
quote:
Originally posted by CSX FAN:
Rich does the new and improved Forum have a spell check button??????

Jamie
No, it does not, and it is not needed.

If you use Firefox for your web browser, spell check is built into the browser. It works on ANY web site where you have to type something. I think other browsers have it too, however Internet Exploder does NOT have it, unless you install a 3rd party plug-in.
quote:
Originally posted by OGR Webmaster:
Doug, do you know what Cat's plans and policies are regarding the building of locomotive engines versus over-the-road engines? I am not clear on this, but as I understand it, Cat is no longer producing engines that would be used in your truck or my motor coach and are concentrating on the "big" stuff.

Is that correct?



Rich,

In this case, I'm Sorry that you seem to be right. I don't have have any "Not for Publication" info, but it seems that Cat is going back to Heavy machinery, Marine and Industrial applications, and is fed up with the Highway emmissions standards. Cat had tried a twin Turbo set up on their truck engines, never had one, but I heard that they had a lot of troubles with them.

Unfortunately, while a Noble goal, the emmissions standards are really hurting the industry, both manufacturers and end users. In California, a driver can get a $600 ticket for idleing his engine, even if the temerature is over One Hundred degrees. California, also will not allow APU's (Auxillary Power Units) for air conditioning, and other uses, because the exhaust particulate percentage is higher than what is allowed, even though the volume of exhaust is very much lower, they just look at the one number, rather than the net result.

Doug
quote:
Originally posted by challenger3980:
quote:
Originally posted by OGR Webmaster:
Doug, do you know what Cat's plans and policies are regarding the building of locomotive engines versus over-the-road engines? I am not clear on this, but as I understand it, Cat is no longer producing engines that would be used in your truck or my motor coach and are concentrating on the "big" stuff.

Is that correct?



Rich,

In this case, I'm Sorry that you seem to be right. I don't have have any "Not for Publication" info, but it seems that Cat is going back to Heavy machinery, Marine and Industrial applications, and is fed up with the Highway emmissions standards. Cat had tried a twin Turbo set up on their truck engines, never had one, but I heard that they had a lot of troubles with them.

Unfortunately, while a Noble goal, the emmissions standards are really hurting the industry, both manufacturers and end users. In California, a driver can get a $600 ticket for idleing his engine, even if the temerature is over One Hundred degrees. California, also will not allow APU's (Auxillary Power Units) for air conditioning, and other uses, because the exhaust particulate percentage is higher than what is allowed, even though the volume of exhaust is very much lower, they just look at the one number, rather than the net result.

Doug

The next thing will be Urea Exhaust injection. A friend of mine who manages a large truck fleet says the system adds $10K to the price of a truck tractor.
quote:
The next thing will be Urea Exhaust injection. A friend of mine who manages a large truck fleet says the system adds $10K to the price of a truck tractor.



Not the next thing will be, they are already in use. My troublesome Cummins was in the shop again Wednesday, and the substitute tractor they gave me had a DEF(Diesel Exhaust Fluid) system on it.

Doug
They had to switch to DEF to get rid of DPF!
Diesel Particulate Filters in the exhaust were killing the engines in those trucks. They were too restrictive, killing power and fuel economy. Worse yet, the DPF would need regeneration cycles to clean out the exhaust filter. When the computer determined that a regen cycle was needed, it would de-rate engine and essentially force the driver to pull over untill the cycle was complete.
These same engines were used in ambulances and fire trucks. Could you imagine riding in the ambulance to the hospital and the regen cycle begins forcing the ambulance to pull over! It happened too many times and made for a lot of unhappy customers.

All the new Ford Powerstroke trucks use DEF.
I hate to say it but owning a diesel pick-up truck these days is more of a novelty than a utility. Emissions controls have made the engines too expensive and practically taken away any advantage a diesel engine had over a gasoline engine of equal displacement.
quote:
Originally posted by CSX FAN:
Rich does the new and improved Forum have a spell check button??????

Jamie
No, it does not, and it is not needed.

If you use Firefox for your web browser, spell check is built into the browser. It works on ANY web site where you have to type something. I think other browsers have it too, however Internet Exploder does NOT have it, unless you install a 3rd party plug-in.

Rich Melvin, Publisher
O Gauge Railroading magazine
NKP 765's Web Site[/quote]


Rich, so what's this 'Internet Exploder'? Is it some secret bit of bespoke sotware you have developed which will be implemented to signal the demise of the forum at the end of this long journey?

Regards,

Neil
Naveen

Can you find out what is the proper battery for the D-17000 Cat engine. I have 72v starter. Can I get away with the 8-D battery utilty battery or do I jump up to the large Crown Locomotive batteries?

I ask this because the battery box on the 44 ton unit looks like it was built for the 8-D units, The box is not that tall. The Smallest Crown batteries are
hugh to say the least and would probably not fit in the Battery box. Well they would but I will have fun connecting the jumpers and even more fun trying to add water.

I can't get a return call from Cat every time I call parts or customer service.

We have a set of crowns in the 45 ton unit and it starts great every time. Even in the winter.Strausburg has modifided there batt box to hold the crowns and have fun trying to service the units.

Jamie
Matt

For the larger units Cummins is my favorite. Cat and Kohler are in there also.Detroit Diesel was taken over by MTU we have a MTU job bidding right now. Generac is a Japanese brand of a lower quality unit more for residental/ light duty work. There are several new smaller units out there coming from China, one is a one clyinder diesel coming out.

For our real small stuff I still prefer Cummings and Kohler, But your going to pay for them, vs the big box store knock offs.Even Honda has a knock off version.

Jamie
Gunny

I was told that Generac was a rebirth of the old Katolight units, which were Japanise. We had know that they had a wisconsin address, but still believed they were built overseas. Parts was an issue also leading us to believe they came from an oversea supplier.

Heard it through the grape vine but no one disputed it either.

Jamie
Jamie,
I just read your message. D17000 was an engine we built from 1935 to 1955. It will take some time for me to get this information but I am working on your request & I will have an answer soon.


quote:
Originally posted by CSX FAN:
Naveen

Can you find out what is the proper battery for the D-17000 Cat engine. I have 72v starter. Can I get away with the 8-D battery utilty battery or do I jump up to the large Crown Locomotive batteries?

I ask this because the battery box on the 44 ton unit looks like it was built for the 8-D units, The box is not that tall. The Smallest Crown batteries are
hugh to say the least and would probably not fit in the Battery box. Well they would but I will have fun connecting the jumpers and even more fun trying to add water.

I can't get a return call from Cat every time I call parts or customer service.

We have a set of crowns in the 45 ton unit and it starts great every time. Even in the winter.Strausburg has modifided there batt box to hold the crowns and have fun trying to service the units.

Jamie
Concerning the old D-17000's try this forum..ACMOC as I've read some old timer mechanics post about them over the years.

The old CAT engines were great but cost about 4 times more to overhaul than an old GMC 2-stroke. Why they never held up in the rr service? Guess just not enough iron in the bottom end and CAT probably seen no reason to pursue that market..and why? Afterall they are the largest manufacturer of heavy equipment in the world.

I hope challenger3980 sees this . The company I work for has a 4 year old paving machine that has a Cat C7 Asert engine the machine costs $800,000.00 to to date this engine has had 4 computers, 5 sets of injectors 1 wireing harness and weeks of Cat certified engine mechanics working on this engine at a cost of $42,000.00 in repairs. and the engine still is not right , it starts on 4 cylinders then 5 then 6 after about 20 minites . and that was the original problem .And now cat wants to put a new engine it at a cost of $30,000.00 so my question to you is is this a good engine .No its not! If you owned this machine what would you do? oh I forgot to mention I used to drive a International semi 31years altogether only 1 with a Cat 3406 engine  that every year we had to have the injection pumped fixed , a $3,000.00 bill each time  .Never had any problems with Cummins  like that.

Jerry,

 

 You must not have read my posts very closely.

 

 

 Just like the Ford/Chevy, Lionel/MTH debates, there are those that will swear by, and those that will swear AT either choice. In MY own experiences, I have come to prefer Cats (even though mine was only a "kitten Wink).

 

 

 

As far as Jerry's experience, it is not at all uncommon for what is popular with the drivers on the road, to be not the same as what is popular with the mechanics in the shop, we tend to have different points of view on what constitutes a "GREAT MOTOR".

 

 

 

 I very clearly stated that those were MY EXPERIENCES (of more than 23 years, 2 MILLION+ miles) YOUR experiences may well have been different. Possibly  you got the rare bad Cat, and I got an unusually trouble prone Cummins. The 3406 had an almost cult like following, and I personally heard MANY more tales of praise than criticism of the 3406 (especially the "B" model), and us Truckers are known to be "*****ers and Complainers"  telling the poor side of a product way more than the positive.

I have had more trouble with Cummins than Cats, you had just the opposite experience. I still feel that IN MY EXPERIENCE, the Cat was the better motor, and what I would spec in  a tractor, given the choice.

 

 I drive a Ford, chances are You drive a Chevy or a Dodge, Ain't America GREAT?!!!!

 

 

Doug

 



 

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