1994 Cat 3176 s/n 9ck its in tandem dump truck 350 hp. 270,000 miles. Anyone know if these engines are any good?
Well if the rumors I've heard of them are true you probably don't want it
I believe it's a smaller engine and in a tandem dump truck you are going to want a bigger engine even if it's in the same power range
I think it 10 liter motor
Not the worst engine for a tandem, but probably on the second page of acceptable candidates. A C12 is light-years better, so is a 3306, M11, ISM, 8.3, 50 Series, ........
I'll agree on you about the c12 well the rest where it's level I suppose. I wouldn't want a 8.3 in a tandem here in the pa hills even with our c12 I wish for another 3 liters and 600
Very interesting engine and innovative for the time. One of the most efficient engines ever made by Cat if you look at BSFC, blah blah. The two piece block on the A and B is weird. Leak prone. Not many people around that understand them & have the tools to work on them. Electronics can be hard to source. Cat put some of the sensors in the ECM. Like the boost sensor. Need a boost sensor? Buy a ECM, sucker. Good luck finding someone with the correct software to program it. Pre-ET, Which means a ECAT is needed for a few things. Dealer won’t be much help. Good luck and have buckets of cash when it breaks.
I just sat around and waited---and let someone else call it a turd.
I had the good fortune of working on a few. Had one come to the shop ran fine but no power. They had spent a lot of money throwing parts at it. The boost sensor is in the ECM there are two #4 fittings on the ECM one is boost pressure the other connects to the air inlet piping. One port on the ECM is NPT and the other is ORB. The ORB is the boost connection if you cross the lines and put the boost line on the NPT connection the engine will have no power.
Josh (+other contributors) at Adept Ape covered the 3176 pretty well.
After a quick search I found there was the ecm with the sensors then they went to a 40 pin like a 3406e could the newer setup be fitted. Or even a 70 pin off a c12.
Lot of similarities between the 3176C and the C12 with the 40 pin ADEM 2 ECM. Probably could mix and match if one was inclined & crafty.
If a 3176 lays down, I'd guess the smartest play would be to put a C12 in it's place. Last spring, I was in a Cat shop to pick up a machine and saw a guy working on one. He was glueing the head onto the block, per Cat specs. It was the first one he'd ever worked on, and he said it would be the last. Not hopefully, he was absolutely positive it would be a one and done for him.
We've all had one of those jobs
I didn’t mind working on them. They were introduced when I was in the dealership world, so I received a lot of training on them and followed the updates. But, time moves on and they are now a red-headed step child.