Iron, Iron, Everywhere!

[Keith Browning]

While at CAT this week I was in their highway truck shop for some hands on lab work on a training C-13 engine. They had mostly iron in the shop and you couldn't help notice. Two C-9s and the rest were the larger engines but I couldn't tell you they were. One had rods though the block, another getting a new block and cylinder heads on all of the benches. It's cool to see a cylinder head that is as long as the bench it is on. I really haven't seen engines this size apart since technical school so this was really kind of neat but the technicians didn't look like they thought so. This just seemed like an unusually large amount of heavy work, Do you CAT guys really see this kind of carnage?

[SteveS]

It's cool to see a cylinder head that is as long as the bench it is on.

I guess it is in the perspective. About 1980 I worked at a Honda car dealership when just about every car they imported needed a headgasket. We'd leave the intake and exhaust manifolds, carburator (remember those?) and the emission control box attached, yank it off and flip it over on the bench to clean it for the new gasket. I was next to a customer that commented that the mechanic "just ripped out half the engine!" when he saw the head come out of the car.

 

To us a head as long as the bench looks gigantic, to the ship mechanic....

 

It sounds like a good class despite the poor presentation; always interesting to see how the other half lives, isn't it?

[Keith Browning]

It sounds like a good class despite the poor presentation; always interesting to see how the other half lives, isn't it?

It is really interesting to see what other manufacturers are doing and HOW they do it. I recall having to attend a "familiarization" course for the Cummins ISB engine when Ford began offering it in the F650 F750 trucks. That training was like the instruction I received in technical school way back as a Pup.The material was good, the instructor was not in a rush to throw the material at you and I don't remember having that huh? feeling. It is all good though but in this day and age I can see that specializing in one or two things is beneficial. It is at the point where there is so much to know and it takes time to get to a level of competency that makes confident AND valuable to employers. Maybe I am biased but in my opinion, between the web based training and the classroom instruction, nobody's in-house training is better or clearer than Fords.

[HeuiTim]

To answer your question, yes I do. /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/eek.gif

[Scott B]

While at CAT this week I was in their highway truck shop for some hands on lab work on a training C-13 engine. They had mostly iron in the shop and you couldn't help notice. Two C-9s and the rest were the larger engines but I couldn't tell you they were. One had rods though the block, another getting a new block and cylinder heads on all of the benches. It's cool to see a cylinder head that is as long as the bench it is on. I really haven't seen engines this size apart since technical school so this was really kind of neat but the technicians didn't look like they thought so. This just seemed like an unusually large amount of heavy work, Do you CAT guys really see this kind of carnage?

Yes,Plenty of it.We had a one with a C-13 Towed in the other day.It was one of the most Violent type carnage I have seen in awhile.This guy was turning High RPM;s when #1 piston shatterd.The rod went through the side of the liner,Jammed into the block at almost TDC.It broke out a chunk of the block the size of a Baseball.Locked the Engine up sheared all of the flywheel bolts off and managed to snap the crank in half at #5 main.It also cracked the case on the trans around the Input shaft.Cool stuff.We got a Brand new engine off the Line from CAT and Fuller coughed up a new trans.This was in a 05 tk.I didnt see the Bill since it was warranty ,But it had to be Huge.C-12-C-13 are Notorious for Blowing up.