Guys and Gals, I have not ran this machine personally yet. Boss just put me on this project and gave me a run down on it. He claims that he'll run the machine hot and heavy for about an hour and it runs great. But after about an hour it starts spitting and sputtering and boggin out. New fuel filters and all obviously. My first culprit in my thinking would be the transfer pump. But its weird that it runs great for that amount of time before anything happens. This unit does have a small hole in the tank. That is my main project, power loss was a side note. I dont think that is the culprit though. Ive had power loss due to a clogged tank vent but not from a tank that is..shall we say, Excessively venting. Ill put a gauge on it to check the pressure but figured why not post it to see if someone has dealt with this before and can point out the solution. Serial# 9BL02024 Thank ya thank ya
Sucking air at separator bowl on fuel supply would be my guess. Change all the seals.
Can always be trash in a tank, do not discount a floater in that big chunk of steel
Do you have any way of hooking a gauge into the fuel system and measuring the fuel pressure from a cold start up to the point where it starts acting up..?
Any rubber in the fuel supply would be my first thing to check for, if it's consistently doing this. If it's random, then I'd guess trash in the tank. You already know it's full of rust, unless it's cracked or rusted from the outside.
Somehow there is RAT involvement somewhere.....I just know it.
Thanks Gents, I havent found a place to install a gauge yet although the manual points out a place somewhere on the fuel filter housing. The fuel filters are new i might add. Maybe onto something with an obstruction in the tank, mechanic before me had the tank out and i seen his previous patch job. The leak is on the other side of his patch job...why you wouldnt have tested that while it was out...SMH So the tank will be removed again and ill check for obstructions. Just thought it was weird that itd run great for about an hour and then fall on its face. It almost sounds like a non-venting tank but you know its venting! haha And its funny you mention a rat cause there is quite the mouse nest on top of the HVAC blower motors! have not found any damage yet but the boss pulled me off of the unit till after some gathering hes having at the shop this weekend.
Ended up dealing with this thing a few months ago. Removed the tank for repair and also discovered that it had a shotty tank liner...paid to have it cut open, cleaned, repaired and tested. Got back blew the lines and got it back together. Ran good for a bit but same issue still arose. Found the "unfiltered" fuel pressure port and installed a tap. i was only getting 5PSI at full throttle! installed and inline electric pump to test my theory and issue was corrected. Replaced the fuel pump which was a bit tricky i might add, takes 4 hands. When you seperate the pump from the governor there are alot of moving parts that you have to account for and put back together correctly. Machine runs as it should now with no issues. Thanks for the help.
They can be interesting the first time you pull one apart.
Not too bad, the linkages were the ones you had to hold your mouth right on to get em back together correctly
I never followed up with this headache. after replacing the pump with a complete unit from Cat (the one i had previously installed was not building pressure) I was now building pressure but still not what i needed. Around 25 PSI. I installed an inline high pressure pump to get the machine going on the job. Worked well for a bit but would always eventually start to have a power loss. Pulled apart the water separator and found some old tank lining material inside. AHA! finally! Resealed and put back together. Issue still persists... come back out and bypass separator. Runs good for a couple weeks. loosing power again. Scratching my head. check pressures without inline pump on and with it on. Not building what i need still without the inline pump. Go to replace the inline pump because it is no longer building adequate pressure but i cannot find the spare. Decide to run it without just to see what happens...Runs like a champ building over 80 PSI. Hallelujah! Turns out that my "band-aid" ended up becoming my problem. Probably catching material until in clogged up. So the new pump fixed my original issue. The fuel water separator was causing air to enter into the system giving me a lower pressure reading than what was actually being supplied. Thinking i still had a pressure issue i installed the inline pump. After continuing to have an intermittent issue did i bypass the fuel water separator which fixed my issue but i left the inline pump installed while rechecking pressures, once again giving me false readings due to a partial blockage. Thinking i still had an unsolved issue. Not until i finally ripped off the band-aid did i see i fixed my issue previously without realizing it and the stupid band-aid was replicating the original issue. I have lost some hair due to this da-gone thing. But i figured i give the next guy some insight in the future. Tank liners will wreck your life. Don't do it.
Still need to drag the tank out and clear any loose liner or this will be back
Yeah forgot to mention that. Tank was removed, repaired and cleaned professionally.
Great news
The tank was probably the root cause of the problem all along, everything else was just a symptom pointing towards the back of the machine saying "look back there"........... A good practice is to open the tank drain every so often and let the water and/or sediment run out until the fuel runs clean. Maybe the previous owner had the tank lined in an attempt to "fix" a corrosion issue caused by not draining water often enough.?
Yes, i should have mentioned that first, The tank was removed and dealt with first before any other problems were addressed and dealt with.
Too late now but suggesting things to look at and/or try is far easier when you get the full story first up.........