Hello all, I have a 2010 C13 in a mobile application. I am looking for advice wrt to some preventative maintenance. I am told it would be a good idea to drop the pan, inspect or replace the bottom end bearings. Maybe throw a water pump on it. Reset the valve lash. Is there anything else I should be looking at for piece of mind. My goal is to catch a catastrophic failure before it happens, if it happens. Ive owned the engine since 6500 hours, and there are no issues to speak of. serial number: LGK15881 tia
You may get opions on this from pull it out for a rebuild to do nothing. I think id run the over head and change the coolant if it hasnt been recently. Sure a freash water pump wouldnt hurt. I doubt you need to go farther then that c9nsidering its not showing signs of death
I don't think the number of miles is as important as "what kind of miles." Did it get regular maintenance? Was it driven by a cowboy or a truck driver? Were the miles from crossing the Rockies once a week or flat-land travel? Did the hauls weigh the max or did it deadhead a lot? Good luck with your decision as there is much to consider
I used to tell customers of one of the shops I worked at that had high hour engines when they changed oil drain the filter and bring it to me. I would cut the end off it and take the element out and cut a 4" by 4" chunk of the pleated paper out of it. I would put the paper in the vice and squeeze the oil out of the pleated paper and wipe it off then when the vice is released the paper would dry up then unfold the paper. You can see any metal particles in the paper. A few particles are normal most likely from the valve springs rotating. One day you will look inside the filter paper and see a sudden increase in the amount of metal. When that happens its time to go inside and find out what is failing.
Have you ever done oil sampling?
The main things I’ve seen with the 12’s and 13’s have been cam/cam follower wear and valve issues. Also have seen quite a few worn valve bridges. All the high mileage/hour 12’s/13’s I’ve OH’d have come in with dropped valves. I cannot speak to maintenance practices for them other that they’re less than ideal.
My question would be that if you bought the engine with 65000 hours what do you know about its previous life and has the Preventive Maintenance since you got it been done by the book.? I'm with @Junkyard regarding the cam/follower/
Are bearing replacements between overhauls even necessary these days? Bearing materials and lubrication have come a long way in the last 30 years. Outside of internet speak I haven't come across a single person or have had a single customer even mention a bearing roll on an engine between overhauls.
One factor not mentioned so far - fuel burn. I would suggest to go into the ECM and find the total fuel consumed. This can be a major factor in determining what to do and when to do it.
Yes, routinely at every oil change. I always get elevated copper, and the suspect is the oil cooler. That has been going on for years now. Also, I can't speak for the previous owner, but I have done oil changes at 250 hour intervals without exception.
You’ve had it for 3500 hours. Ever done a valve & injector set on it.? Book frequency is every 2k. Elevated copper within the first 1000 hours on a new engine can be indicative of a cooler leaching. At 10k hours I don’t think so. Have to look somewhere else. Have you tried removing an oil line to the cooler and take a look at the condition of the copper tube bundles through the hole.?
No, never touched it yet. The odd belt, and oil changes. Thats it. Fuel and oil filters every 250
Engine Oil samples
In that case IMHO it's somewhat unreasonable to claim it's been maintained by the book. I have to apologize the frequency for valve/injector sets is 3k on your engine. I was thinking of C13 machine engines, only just checked under your engine S/No. TBH the first thing I would do is obtain the total fuel consumption to date from the ECM. The lower limit for an overhaul consideration is 110k US gallons or 415k litres. I wouldn't continue any with any decision-making process without first having that number.
I just had a look at the engine performance data for LGK15881. Full load it burns 22.3 US gallons/hour. I have no idea of the Load Factor in your operation but say, for example, that it was 50% average then by 10k hours the engine will have burned somewhere around 111,500 gallons or just past the number where a complete overhaul should start to come into consideration. Regarding the oil analysis if the oil lab is quoting "per Service Magazine SEPD0667" then the only thing I can think of is that the engine has had multiple oil cooler failures each one of which resulted in the installation of a new cooler core. I will repeat that I have never seen the leaching process go past 1000 operating hours on a brand-new new engine or 1000 hours after a replacement cooler core had been installed. Usually it's closer to 500 hours. See attachment.