CAT 3208TA head gasket replacement

[Mischief Managed]

Maybe I missed it but how are you measuring the bolt stretch? How much stretch are we talking about thousands of a....?

I could literally see that the top 25% of the bolt threads had stretched out like a screen door spring.

 

[Capt. Jon]

I could literally see that the top 25% of the bolt threads had stretched out like a screen door spring.

Be really sure that the bottom of the thread bore is super clean. Anything down there like liquid, dirt or grease could cause the bolt to bottom out before it is torqued. You could by accident hydraulic the block.

What you are describing sounds more like thread deformation or thread shear and not elongated bolt stretching. Without laying my hands on them it’s more of an educated guess from the description. If it’s really bolt stretch I’d bet Cat really would like to see it. Be worth them looking before proceeding further.

 

[Boating Golfer]

My boat is equipped with a pair of 375 HP 3208TA engines that are 29 years old and have about 2000 hours on them. I knew that the head gaskets were a known problem on these engines when I bought the boat and decided to replace them with re-designed parts from CAT over the Winter. The work is complete on my starboard engine and about 70% complete on the port engine. I found that 3 out of the 4 head gaskets had already failed, but none of the failures were catastrophic, yet. If you have 3208TAs, I strongly recommend that you budget some money and time for this work.



I used the opportunity to:

• Rebuild the water pumps, heat exchangers, and transmission oil coolers.
• Add remote cooling system drains and Walker Airseps.
• Replace all the hoses, hose clamps, cooling system gaskets, thermostats, fuel injectors, injection pump seals, zincs, belts, o-rings etc.
• Clean and repaint everything I could without removing the engines

I will also be flushing the cooling systems once the boat is launched.

It's been an interesting project. I was hoping to make a video of the work, but gave up when I ran out of memory on my phone. Feel free to PM me if you need any tips.


Here's a picture of two failed head gaskets stacked. The shiny metal ring is supposed to go all the way around each cylinder hole, it's missing where it has failed and burned away. Three cylinders on this engine had this problem but it had no symptoms except some coolant loss, which may not have been caused by this failure.

I would appreciate your info on head gaskets and all your other repairs. I have a pair of 1988 3208s of the same model with 1800 hrs on them. Email at dpowell935@gmail.com.

Thank you,

Dave

 

[contingensea]

Super clean!

My boat is equipped with a pair of 375 HP 3208TA engines that are 29 years old and have about 2000 hours on them. I knew that the head gaskets were a known problem on these engines when I bought the boat and decided to replace them with re-designed parts from CAT over the Winter. The work is complete on my starboard engine and about 70% complete on the port engine. I found that 3 out of the 4 head gaskets had already failed, but none of the failures were catastrophic, yet. If you have 3208TAs, I strongly recommend that you budget some money and time for this work.



I used the opportunity to:

• Rebuild the water pumps, heat exchangers, and transmission oil coolers.
• Add remote cooling system drains and Walker Airseps.
• Replace all the hoses, hose clamps, cooling system gaskets, thermostats, fuel injectors, injection pump seals, zincs, belts, o-rings etc.
• Clean and repaint everything I could without removing the engines

I will also be flushing the cooling systems once the boat is launched.

It's been an interesting project. I was hoping to make a video of the work, but gave up when I ran out of memory on my phone. Feel free to PM me if you need any tips.


Here's a picture of two failed head gaskets stacked. The shiny metal ring is supposed to go all the way around each cylinder hole, it's missing where it has failed and burned away. Three cylinders on this engine had this problem but it had no symptoms except some coolant loss, which may not have been caused by this failure.

Super clean, at least compared to my twin 3208TA’s.

What paint brand and color did you use?

 

[Mischief Managed]

Super clean, at least compared to my twin 3208TA’s.

What paint brand and color did you use?

Krylon Gloss Dover White. It matched what was on there pretty closely and looks rich. Not the most durable paint I have ever used, but it's easy to touch up. I also had my local Sherwin Williams paint store mix me a quart of oil based paint that matches the color.

 

[smith6]

Look at all that PM work u were able to get accomplished. Now u can enjoy a few years of maintenance free cruising.

 

[FF]

"Now u can enjoy a few years of maintenance free cruising."


Nice dream!

 

[Mischief Managed]

"Now u can enjoy a few years of maintenance free cruising."


Nice dream!

Well, I won't likely be doing after-coolers, impellers, fuel injectors, valve lash adjustments, thermostats and turbos for years, or a coolant change ever again, so there's that. But yeah, plenty of other tasks left.

 

[Waywego]

It will be interesting to see if this reduces the amount of steam you were getting when you first got the boat.

Looks like you have done your usual thorough job!

 

[Mischief Managed]

It will be interesting to see if this reduces the amount of steam you were getting when you first got the boat.

Looks like you have done your usual thorough job!

I think the steam is normal and the difference between the two motors was likely just due to a difference in the amount of water mixed into the exhaust elbows. These engines have a big gate valve on a tee just upstream of the exhaust elbow. The valve is used to bypass a certain amount of raw cooling water that would go into into the exhaust and dump it directly overboard. I'm told the purpose of setting up the flow into the exhaust is to dial in the back pressure, but I cannot find any proof of that. If those gate valves aren't set exactly the same on both engines, the one with less water going into the exhaust will always make more steam than the other. If the starboard motor is still steamier when I am done, I may tweak the gate valve a bit to see if it make a difference. I may also re-purpose my home made stern drive pressure tester and turn it into a boost and back pressure tester.



That said, there may have been a component of unburned fuel in the exhaust on the "steamy" engine. According to my injection guy, that engine had one good injector, five fair injectors, one poor injector, and one junk injector. It always used more fuel than the other engine too. Both engines will have 8 new Stanadyne injectors when I am done.



I am learning soooo much doing this project, I just love that...

 

[Mischief Managed]

Lots of redundatnt information here, but thought I should compile all the tips and tricks I could think of in one spot.


If you don't have a service manual and a parts manual, that's the first place to start.



You will need the following special tools:



timing pin 3P-1544

pump gear puller 6V-4069

Maxwood 5146 46MM flat wrench cut or ground to fit the water sleeves


Every kind of "special" 9/16" wrench you can get your hands on. Get stubby, long, S-bend, offset box end, ratcheting, ratcheting stubby, flex head ratcheting, etc.

A slide hammer makes injector removal much easier.


Tips in random order:


As long as you lift the head straight off the block and set it down on something soft, you can leave the injectors in the head for this work. That said, I replaced all my injectors as they are really easy to replace while the heads are off and they are only 77 bucks each.


When you remove the rocker arm assembly, don't touch the two bolts at the ends of the rocker arm, they stay on the shaft and hold the assembly together when you lift it off the head.


Don't loosen the ring of bolts around the engine oil cooler case unless you intend to remove and rebuild it, something I do not recommend doing unless it's leaking.


Pay close attention to the correct bolt tightening sequence when putting the exhaust manifold system back together.



When you put the after coolers back together use a bunch of 1" 3/8"-16 bolts to seat the after cooler core in the housing WITHOUT the aluminum ring clamp. Once the core is seated, remove the 1" bolts and install the last gasket and O ring with the aluminum clamp ring and tighten it slowly and evenly with the original bolts and washers. That clamp ring is brittle and costs 460 bucks, don't ask how I know this...


Take a zillion close up pictures of everything before disassembly


Bag and label all the parts and fasteners.


A pair of 4.5" or 5" 3/8-16 bolts with the heads cut off can be used as studs to get and keep the exhaust manifolds and gaskets in place on the heads while you get a couple of the regular fasteners installed. Once the manifolds are secure, you can back the studs out and replace them with bolts


If your exhaust manifolds have rust around the bolt holes, one of these: https://www.harborfreight.com/53-amp-12-in-bandfile-belt-sander-62863.html?cid=paid_google|||62863&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=&utm_content=&gclid=Cj0KCQjwrsGCBhD1ARIsALILBYpQTU8_aco86w2w4QTUJU5WUpI-t04jThcmmWyoMbFJ8LPh_xvUYs8aArHJEALw_wcB works remarkably well to clean the rust out or the crevices.


If any head bolt feels like it is turning too easily on the 110 ft-lb stage, STOP, back the bolt out and replace it with another.


Find your engine arrangement, find the right pages for your engine arrangement in part 5 of the parts manual, then use those pages to find the right part numbers in the parts manual. For example, my engines are arrangement 7W7500 and that arrangement is on pages 5Y and 5Z. From there, I can tell that my engines have the 2W8471 turbocharger group which starts on page 38A. This is not intuitive in the least...


Gasket kits are near the back of the parts manual (page 105A in mine) and can save you a lot of money and time. Cross reference the gasket kit with the group number listed to your arrangement page, again, not intuitive...


Don't buy new old stock gasket kits on ebay, buy the latest kits from CAT or CTP. I think the CAT gaskets are superior, but CTP is OK.

 

[Mischief Managed]

Engine #2 started right up this afternoon and sounds great. Very pleased. The oil filter relocation bracket that's on this engine (port) is just awful to remove and install if you have big hands.