Cat 3306b
- Thread starter jsbraga
- Start date
The friendliest place on the web for anyone who enjoys boating.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
Mischief Managed
Guru
- Joined
- Oct 24, 2018
- Messages
- 715
- Location
- USA
- Vessel Name
- Mischief Managed II
- Vessel Make
- 1992 Tollycraft 44 CPMY
I have never worked on one, but it's a big, rugged, old inline-6 engine with a great reputation. It's more traditional in design (it has cylinder sleeves and can be rebuilt in-frame) than similarly-sized engines like the 3208 which are more popular in pleasure boats. I can't recall ever seeing a pleasure boat with a 3306.
Like any other marine diesel, longevity is a function of rated HP and how hard it was used. If it's a high HP version that was pushed hard, it will last a fraction of the time of a low HP version that was used gently.
sunchaser
Guru
- Joined
- Apr 9, 2008
- Messages
- 10,296
- Location
- usa
- Vessel Name
- sunchaser V
- Vessel Make
- DeFever 48 (sold)
There are several variants of the 3306 for marine use. They are:
-3306BT
-3306 BTA jacket water cooled
-3306BTA raw water cooled
All three are very robust and pulling low HP/L. Most desired would be the T only version. Great engines generally with spare parts readily available.
But as MM mentioned prior maintenance is crucial, especially if having suffered from an overheat. So get some comfort from decent records. Those older 10 L Cat 6s could not take much of an overheat before cracking the heads.
-3306BT
-3306 BTA jacket water cooled
-3306BTA raw water cooled
All three are very robust and pulling low HP/L. Most desired would be the T only version. Great engines generally with spare parts readily available.
But as MM mentioned prior maintenance is crucial, especially if having suffered from an overheat. So get some comfort from decent records. Those older 10 L Cat 6s could not take much of an overheat before cracking the heads.
Taras
Senior Member
- Joined
- Jan 11, 2008
- Messages
- 430
- Vessel Make
- 49' Kha Shing Europa
I have 3306’s in my Cheoy Lee 66’ 1991 LRC. Have 5500 hours on them and they don’t even smoke when you start them. Still tight and use little oil. The Paradyne external oil filters were installed after 500 hours of use so this has really kept the oil clean. Would recommend these. I pull about 4 GPH from each engine at 9.4 Kts. Very happy with the 3306.
Russell Clifton
Guru
I had the Cat 3304 4 cylinder turbo engines in our previous Defever and they were very good engines. They were an industrial engine used primarily in big machinery and also many were used as engines for big generators. The 3306 may have been used as the same.
sunchaser
Guru
- Joined
- Apr 9, 2008
- Messages
- 10,296
- Location
- usa
- Vessel Name
- sunchaser V
- Vessel Make
- DeFever 48 (sold)
The first 3306s I remember from Cat loaders and excavators were pre combustion. About 25 years ago they went direct injection for dirt moving. I've no idea what the marinized versions used. Cat gensets numbering into the tens of thousands for the 3304 and 3306 likely went direct injection early on due to improved economy.
Sadly this block went the way of the dodo bird by the early 2000s due to emissions compliance. Cat bought Perkins around 1999 as they started phasing the 3306 design out to fill the lower HP markets. Remanufactured 3306s are quite popular especially with OEM parts so readily available.
Similar threads
