Looking at buying a truck with a 3306B cat engine. It has a blown head gasket. What are the common causes of a blown head gasket on the 3306 engines? Whats the good and the bad of a 3306? Never had one myself
Never worked on a 3306B truck engine but plenty of 3306's in loaders. I thinking the most common cause of head gasket failure would be bad liner projection. That's assuming someone was not playing around trying to get more power or just plain poor maintenance causing overheating and warped head.
I used to see the odd one with a bad valve or valve guide or eroded lower liner counterbores. Overall an easy engine to work on
When you see something for sale and it says "blown head gasket", it has to make you wonder how they diagnosed it, did they just pick the thing to call it that would make the buyers think it would be easy to fix? If so why did they not fix it themselves?
Is the gsk blown because the head is cracked; or worse?
"Blown head gasket" sounds so much nicer than "cracked head" doesn't it?
Sounds better than "we ran it so hot with a plugged radiator in 110° heat that we turned the exhaust red, seized the turbo and puked all the fluids out" We overheated a John Deere 6410 once while pumping manure from a lagoon. Turbo 4 cylinder, (~100pto hp), loading tanker after tanker, about 28 ft of head, 6" pipe. That poor tractor gave it everything she had for about 6 hours until pop! White smoke and no more chug chug chug. Cracked the head and warped exhaust manifold.
Happens to be a western star with the drive line removed? It does run btw
3306 seemed to run good were not a power house tho we had 2 of them back in the late 90s had them 5 or 6 years each never had a problem
I took the long drive and went to look at it myself. It may be a blown head gasket or cracked head. It does run and its pumping compression into the water jacket as well as pumping water out the exshaust. When you pull the radiator cap you can see apoof poof poof of smoke every time that cylinder hits. He says no water in the oil but its way high on the stick way past full. Pretty sure if ya pulled the plug your gona get water. As far as it being overheated i dont see any of the tell tale signs of overheated. He says hes not putting money into it because he found out he has bad cancer. I have no rrason to doubt him. If the price is right even if its been fried it can get a cummins swap easy enough. Just have to balance that on tear down and inspection to see what and why it doing what its doing. As much as its puffing out the radiator its gona be fairly obvious!
Yes it is. Looked at it yesterday
I dont know a cracked head is a deal killer though. Looks like you can get aftermarket head for around $1800. Dont know if the aftermarket heads ate any good though.
I have it my watch list but I won't be bidding. How did it look, how high do you think it will go? Typically things are going super high there and don't forget to add 10% plus 8% to your bid for fees. I'm guessing 10k, it's already at 2k
I real I really dont think it will go anywhere near 10 k with a blown engine. Just hard to say and you never know till the hammer drops. Biggest thing about that truck is its not able to drive home and its so long its a big transportation issue. Its gona be very costly to move any amount of distance to get it somewhere to do the engine work. Other than that its the standard well used dump truck. Last one i bought with a siezed motor i paid $2600. But it was just a truck and not set up as a dump truck. Im aware of the 10%. As a company with interstate authority i am exempt from sales tax on big trucks and truck parts over a certian class trucks. This one qualifies as tax exempt for me.
I don't think there's any way it stays under $10,000. I'm not looking for a dump, but I've been trying to buy another truck, and I've been blown away by what guys are asking for project trucks. 1990 KW 3406 that got hot- doesn't know what's wrong $28,000 https://www.facebook.com/marketplac...wse_serp:22e57123-f63c-4942-8b5c-9ad6712dabe3 1987 KW day cab tractor, " a L10 that's not running" (but somehow they know the A/C works )- $6,000 https://www.facebook.com/marketplac...wse_serp:22e57123-f63c-4942-8b5c-9ad6712dabe3 1980 Mack superliner, "needs a engine", -$10,000 https://www.facebook.com/marketplac...wse_serp:22e57123-f63c-4942-8b5c-9ad6712dabe3 1994 peterbilt 378 day cab that was a dump, "has a bad knock" N-14 - $21,500 https://www.facebook.com/marketplac...wse_serp:34a764bb-4d5a-4b43-a382-5afb78ee2ba8
And as far as the 3306, I ran one in a crane, and it struggled to move it around, but the crane was 77,000lbs. I don't think there was anything really wrong with the engine, just sized wrong for the application. I don't think you'll find it much different power wise than a L10 or any other 10-11 liter motor- its never going to be a 855/n-14, 3406 or 12.7 detroit, but it would be fine in a short tandem doing jobsite work.
$28.5k for a 30 year old dump that might need a motor? Does the bed come filled with cash or gold it in to make up for it being at least $15k overpriced? That price would be in line if the truck was ready to work.
It's a auction up 9/8 sitting at $2000 right now. I won't link the sure because the op didn't. Reasons I think it will go for too much: It's in Kansas, In kansas this site they go for more as it's more local Already setup as a dump Western star truck, all though a 1989 3306 mechanical should be sought after engine Video of it running all though drive shaft has been removed (so it has to be towed) I've seen many non running trucks go for stupid high, last too I can think of is a ready mix truck and a refuse truck, both didn't run, both went over 10k. Excited to see as it's kinda of my game on this site to guess what goes for cheap.
I'm watching a couple dump trucks on a local auction site today. They close after 730pm, bidding never gets exciting until the last 2 hours so things are just getting interesting.
Good luck- and remember, none of them in our price ranges are going to be perfect trucks.
One was a late 90s Kodiak with a 7.4l gasser. Listed as having a misfire, no brakes, obvious body rust, and hydraulic system partially torn apart and exposed. Truck brought $8000 in that condition, plus someone paid 13% buyers premium and then 6% sales tax on top of that. The other truck had a C7 Cat and brought even more. Not near as many issues, but still a 20 year old truck. The search continues.
The 3306 engine was common in concrete trucks around here for years. I looked at a fleet of around thirty trucks back in the early 2000s and at least half were 3306 and the rest were L10 Cummins.
$2600 with 15h to go
Guess I called that one! No wbere near 10k!
Yeah sold for $2600 + fees! If my back wasn't hurt I might have tried to get it. A ready mix truck I had watched sold for 10k and it was fine, I've seen broken engine ones go for more than that, strange trend. I've seen items go way up in the last 2 hours on this site, typically most of the bidding is done then
I don't mind being wrong. Just ask my wife. So did you buy it?
https://www.purplewave.com/auction/...ruction_Trucks-Construction_Dump_Truck-Kansas
Now I just gotta figure out how to get it 200 miles to springfield mo. I had it added up right. In nowhere kansas with a bad engine a d 32 foot bumper to bumper means hard to move and gona be expensive to deal with. Also 3306 cat even being a mechanical engine is not very desirable as its not something you can turn up to 500hp to be another swingin di ck blowing coals! I hate to toot my own horn but i was spot on on my estimate!
Lol me to! But why is it so expensive being right lol. Yes I did buy it
Auctions are fun, when you bid no matter of won or outbid you have the same feeling of happiness and regret. In my uneducated and unknowingly opinion the 3306 is a excellent engine to have except that it's only a 10l, which it's heavy duty so that's even fine. You can probably safely turn up to 300-400 with money I'm guessing. I think they still make new 3306's in mine equipment.
Yes it is quite the adrenalne rush. I am pretty darn happy with this purchase. Even if the engine is totally toast it will be a good cummins transplant candidate. The truck is worth the sum of the parts. I am considering flat towing it behind one of my other trucks to get it home.
That's great you got it bought, and I agree that the 2,600 is cheap- the rear ends as a cut off are worth that, to say nothing of the bed and the cab- if you had to part it out. Its double frame, 8LL, tarp on it, and has room for a couple lift axles if you need them.
Those drives look to be 402P's which is a good rear drive.
Yes sir thats exactly what they are!
It actually had two lift axles on it at one time. Not sure why they would have been removed.
Maybe transferred to a newer truck?
A new lift axle with tires setting on the ground is 6 to 7 thousand, used around here 3 plus and no wheels.
I tow one truck behind another with a military surplus tow bar frequently, it works great. HeavyEquipmentForums
That's pretty cool, what do you do with the steering of the truck bring towed?
You leave it free, it tracks perfectly behind. If you tied it, it would try to to go straight always, and you would have to drag it sideways around corners. I knew that was the answer, but the first time I tried it, I rode in the towed truck with my hands an inch from the wheel.
I've always figured the caster would keep it straight
I really heavily considered doing this. In the end the time and materials plus the lost work from time off to go do this just didnt add up. I might set something up for future use if i get free time. As for now I opted to let a tow compang do what they do best while i set in my truck and continue to do what I do best and not lose the revenue. In the end the math added up to a break even letting someone else do it and going the flat tow option it was a net loss all the way around. Long story short its setting in my driveway. Gotta get past vacation at the inlaws and then I can start in on it! New thread to come.
That's probably smart. Long trips like that, anything goes wrong it is a PITA, not being in familiar territory, or having support. When I do it, I am within 125 miles of home.
Yea it was a little over 200 miles. A little outside my comfort zone lol! Usualky I haul them on my 20 ton tag along but this one was just way to long. Im really eager to open this thing up and get it going!
How much was the tow?
As one guy put it, if it runs and is in good shape and go directly to work, its worth gold, if it needs much of anything for work, its much cheaper, if it needs an engine or anything major, it worth scrap price, unless more than one person needs something off the truck for the same parts.
I dont know why but some want to turn the opposite way when being towbared . We towed several cars with the steering locked. Studebakers are one of them as soon as you start to turn the wheels will turn the wrong way completely. We towed one over 600 miles with the steering locked the hub caps came off at the first corner.
In many cases it's worth the value of the tires holding it up.
I bought the first truck 3 years ago that i ever payed more than scrap value for. I was able to drive it home without doing any work to it . That felt strange
Sounds like us buying equipment it's odd when it drives its self in the shop
The skid steer i have i bought it used off a dealer i went to test run it and it wouldnt start for some reason it was like i already owned it.
Just talked to one guy a few days ago about trucks, his comment was if the tires are almost new, be very Leary of it, because it usually means something was wrong with it and it never ran long enough to wear them out, so the seller finally said screw it, just sell the dang thing and be done with it, if the tires are shot, it means at least the truck ran good enough to wear out the tires and then before buying another new set, they just decided to sell the truck. I laughed at first then thought back to all the trucks I've ever bought over the years, pretty much sums them all up to a T.