I stopped turning wrenches full time a few years ago but have a long time customer that wanted to get some machine running again to clean up his old quarry. Anyway one of the machines is a Komatsu WA600 that has been sitting for years because of mechanical problems that for some reason they didn't want to fix. It sat long enough that you can see the berry briars hanging over the base of the tilt cylinder. New batteries and cable terminals, two new pump sets, replaced pump suction hoses, replaced engine oil and filters, new engine coolant filter, transmission oil and filters, clean transmission strainers, changed hydraulic oil filters and checked hydraulic pressures. Put some of the sheet metal back on and have to repair some of the rest. The air pressure feed to the hydraulic tank has a bad regulator and the hoses are leaking so those have to be replaced yet. Anyway the monster has some life left in it yet.
I worked for an outfit that had an old 600. It was a BEAST. Had a log grapple on the front. It had a few issues but they kept it running. Eat more then one hydraulic pump. But would it lift. They would bundle logs into a set of stationary bunks, get the straps around the bundle and then the 600 would pick the bundle up and put it into the water. The mine I worked at had a WA900. That was a BIG machine. Those old Komatsu's are a tough machine.
I worked on a lot of WA600 loggers that have been specifically modified by McDonald Industries to lift entire highway log truck loads. The rear main frames were reinforced with two inch steel and a custom box was made on the back to hold lead for counterweight. Even with all that extra load on the machine, I never had to do a center hitch on any that were built in Japan. They changed the pump set up for the loggers after some years to a three section hydraulic pump instead of the two section pump that they still use in the bucket machines. There is an update to the bucket machines now that help them live longer. They also put a bigger tilt cylinder on for the loggers. When working on these, at the end of the day I feel like I've climbed Mt. Rainier a couple of times.
Think yourself lucky you never had to work on a 994 (of any vintage) on a regular basis then. If the loader in question happened to be located 15,000ft above seal level that made it even more interesting....
Place I worked had/has a WA600 was new in fall of `96 S/N A50104. Last notes I have on it dated 2014 say it had 25,000 hours on the clock. Ours has the KT1150 Cummins another plant in the state had one with I believe a Komatsu engine. We did have some pump problems and hydraulic cylinder problems. Engine did have a broken valve spring but managed to not damage a piston, just did a six head rebuild and it was back to work. Last I knew it was still being used as a second string loader in the quarry. I could probably write a book on some of the fun I had working on it over the years but all in all it was a hard working and very dependable machine. Probably my biggest complaints would be the parts book and service manual. Many things in the books did not agree with the machine! Apparently there were some updates or modifications to the machine that did not show in the books. Some major and others just a pain like our cab was apparently an aftermarket one so things like heater/AC and wipers took a good parts man at the dealer to figure out and that was not always easy to find!
Did the engine fire fairly easily after sitting all those years? I've seen old equipment go both ways; fire off quick with fresh fuel, or spend a day or better turning wrenches and chasing one thing after another.
Oh God!!!!
I wasn't there when they fired it up but have to wonder how it even started. The strainer basket was packed tight enough that the top of it broken up when I pulled it. The fuel filters were rusty on the top inside of them. They moved it to a mud hole and shut it off where I had to start working on it. I hate working in rubber boots. After I got the pumps in I started it up and moved to the current place in the photos and finished changing oils and filters. When I ran it to warm it up, the breather tube looked like a steam whistle so much vapor was coming out. After several minutes of stalls in cleaned up. Smokes a bit when first start cold but all in all it starts good and seems only a little down on power. What I've seen in the past was engines that had leaking injectors seemed to start real well. These engine are pretty high compression and injector firing pressures were around 3,500 PSI which was high in those days. Clean fuel and plenty of air and they will start at 10 below without the heaters. As far as working at 15,000 feet goes, I'd need oxygen just to get that far up and likely come down on a stretcher in a body bag.
John C, What engine does that WA600 have? The WA600 they have at the quarry where I worked had the Cummins KTA 19-C470
This one is the original Komatsu S6D170. It's just a little bigger than the K19.
Those that work on this type of equipment I find fascinated , I don't care what brand it is etc. It sits for a few years in the open elements , put new batteries , filters , fluids etc. and it starts up, not saying the first try or so, but it gets running.......amazing! And every F'in Spring I can't get my lawn mower to run!(lol)
Not sure why our's came with the Cummins, but kind of glad it did as I was familiar with the K engines and we actually did, I think, the first repower of a Hough 560 with a KT-1150, same thing as a K-19 just in cubic inches not liters. That 560 originally had the DT817 IH engine. Still have some of the drawings from Cummins that they supplied for the project.
I wonder if the formation of KCEC (Cummins/Komatsu engine partnership) in ‘93 had anything to do with which engine came in which year machine.
I've put hands on both the Hough line with either engine in 1980 and 1981 range and the Komatsu line in 1994 that had the Cummins engines. The Cummins was probably a step up from the 817 International engine but it was, in my opinion, a step backward when it was put in the WA600. The K Cummins didn't have the same torque curve and the operators that I was around in the logging industry hated it. The S6D170 could pick 30 tons off a highway truck at low idle while the Cummins engine would be snuffed out just turning the machine at low idle. That PT fuel system had to have the engine at half throttle for any response and the operators hated having to slam things around all the time. Once the issue of the injector coppers in the heads on the big Komatsu engines were solved, they started getting the 15,000 to 23,000 or more hours out of them pretty regularly. I don't recall any of the Cummins engines getting that kind of time. Komatsu and Cummins entered into a joint partnership to build engines in Japan in late sixties or early seventies. The "K" in the Cummins "K" series engines stands for Komatsu. Komatsu didn't plan on all the EPA stuff it seems and for a time put Cummins engines in their entire line of equipment in the late nineties up to the mid two thousands. That has since changed and I haven't seen a Cummins engine in any of the construction equipment for quite some time now. I was involved in some capacity multiple times concerning Komatsu machines that fell well short of performance specifications because of the Cummins power plants. I don't want people to think I'm down on Cummins with all this information. I think it is a fine product for trucks and equipment that is designed for it. In the Komatsu situation though, it was my opinion that it was a temporary fix till the manufacturer brought their own engines up to the new pollution standards.
I now have a tank and pump for non ethanol gas at home. Highly recommended.
Well not sure if we were lucky or if I did something right but the K19 in our WA600 only had basic work like one set of injectors replaced before it broke a valve spring at 23,865 hours. Then we only pulled the heads and had new springs and some valves replaced and last I knew it was still running good at 25,000 hours. 90% of it's work was loading haul truck in the pit.
Sounds to me like great operation and maintenance practices and possibly a different application. Logging machines do a lot of delicate lifting and positioning of max loads that stick out way beyond the tires on each side with the engines at low idle. Once the load is clear of the truck/trailer it's time to scream out at full throttle through the sort yard in third gear to the proper row and then drop engine speed to inch in between the rows and set the logs down. Then full throttle reverse and scream back to the trucks for another load. The big Cummins didn't seem to like that type of operation.
Are there any Cummins that like screaming? For many years we have 16F speed power shifts on the Steigers. If you upshift past 16 you get “16H” or high which is just an engine RPM increase for roading. Some people figured out how to get the extra RPM in the lower gears. Seems all those engines were done at around 3k hours give or take.
It wasn't the screaming that people didn't like or that seemed hard on the engines. It was the low idle pick and crawl that seemed to kill the motors in just the wrong place at the wrong time. Dog into the load on the truck with the engine at low idle it the engine died. Now restart and give it some throttle and if the engine was below 1,500 and the engine died again. Now restart and give it all to get the load moving and now the trailer is coming up with the logs. That Komatsu engine could pick the load at just off low idle and torque up through the pick accelerating all the way. On the Steigers were you able to get above the governor setting?
I would guess they were above the governor setting?? This would be a QSX so all electronic.
Well our KTA19 was just a simple PT pump only electric on that was the shutdown solenoid. And yes our operation was loading haul trucks so nice short runs not much more that the length of the loader from face to dumping in truck. About the only long runs were from fuel pump or parking spot to the face. Latter in life it did do duty loading customer trucks so then it did put on s few miles a day going from stock pile to stock pile as needed. And I would like to think that some of the life could be credited to my attempts to fix little things before they got to be big things!
Sadly there were only a few tractors that came with KTA’s.... While we are on that topic, if anyone has a Case IH 9190....
I'm sure the wrenches had everything to do with the longevity.
That and the air restriction gauge! That machine sure liked to go through air filters. Never was able to talk them into a modification to the air filter set-up always something more important needed doing so just did my best to keep up on the filters.