Hello, I just bought my first skid steer. A cat 246 with a blown Perkins 3034 engine. The oil pump failed. The previous owner tried to drive it back to his shop with the oil light on after the pump failed. It didn't make it! The crank is pretty bad, one rod journal in particular. The Turbo didn't survive either.. I have been doing some googling and looking around on this motor and have heard that there might be a problem with oil galleries being too narrow and that they might be able to be machined to reduce oil pressure. Seems like a pretty expensive engine to find parts for also. I am hoping to find a used crank and used set of rods. Will prob buy a new oil pump. The block is still in really good shape. Hoping to just give it a quick ball hone and put a new set of rings in it. Obviously will get all new bearings and gasket set ect. One guy I was talking to has swapped the Mitsubishi 3.4 into a 246 from a 246 B or C.. This sounds like quite a bit of work with the intake and exhaust being on different sides, and mounts being different. Is there an engine that anyone knows of that swaps in to the 246 easily that is cheaper to buy than the Perkins engine? Would be great to get some leads on used parts or new parts even.. Fixing the engine is the option I want to go with mostly.. Some info on the motor.. The engine is a Perkins 3034 Turbo. (3.0L) Perkins engine part # 704.30 Arrangement # 147-1234 ESN# 3NW20365 These engines came in Caterpillar 226, 228, 232, 236, 242, 246, 248, 252, 262 Thanks!!
i think they came in all the skiddies not just the wheel machines you have listed. is the crank to bad to have turned ? we have rebuilt a few of them just out of our own fleet and we did find used parts, i think the local cat dealer located them for us. we have had crans turned and undersized bearings put in at a lot more reasonable cost than a new crank and yes it is a very expensive little power mill to repair but if you really want a shocker price a reman or a new one from cat, if i remember right it was about $10k for a 216
Try to find a burned or smashed one at salvage. Or like PJ said undersize the crank. Core value is 5K. If you google the history of that engine its made by PERKINS SHIBAURA ENGINES in china. Not a bad unit except for the oil pickup tube issue... The A models were the best made units.
Thanks for the replys! I thought the engine with the oil pickup tube problem was the smaller engine.. Can't remember the displacement 2.4 maybe? This oil pump cracked in half basicaly I'll try to post a pic of the crank and the oil pump. I should see if there is a machine shop that repairs cranks locally but kinda doubt it I tried to get a 2 stroke boat crank done a while back and nobody would touch it. I would ship it out if I have to though.. Good to hear that the A models are the best made! Can't wait to get this thing goin!
swap in a cummins 4BT.
Man that would be sweet, I looked into a little bit but didn't find anything on it. I wonder if it physically fits being a 3.9 litre vs the Perkins 3.0... Do you know if it's doable? Thanks for the reply.
I had the same thing happen with my 248 except #4 rod cracked the block. I bet that's your worst bearing too. I did some research and found this to be a common failure with this engine and complained to Cat. They helped me with engine replacement even though my machine was outside the warranty period. I had considered a different engine too, I was going to try a Cummins 4BT as they are super reliable and fairly inexpensive. It would have required a lot of adapting, but as I mentioned I ended up getting help from Cat for a rebuilt Perkins. You can read my experience here
Hey Steve thanks for the reply, That's great that Cat helped you out. I read the thread, too bad it was down for so long but still great that they helped you out. My machine has 4200 hrs on it. And I bought it blown up. I'm going to try to contact Cat today. I especially want to find out if there is a known problem with the size of the oil galleries causing too high of oil pressure and the failure of the oil pumps. I really doubt they will do anything for me but man that would be amazing if they did! I think my rod journal that is the worst is #4 as well. Luckily no damage to the block in my case. Just hoping the right person will see this thread and have a crank and rods laying around!
Pics
That looks like a similar point of failure to mine.
I have the same problem with my 246. The oil pump broke the casting just as yours did and I spun all my main bearings. I bought a new surplus block from my local cat dealer for 1450.00 (thru cat used parts) and bought a good crank from Schaefer Enterprises for 750.00. The rings, seals, gaskets and bearings were another 1050.00 from cat. Cat also offers a rebuilt short block for 4500.00 with a core charge on 450.00 and a new short block0for 4950.00 with a 500.00 core charge. as long as your core is put back together and it will spin over regardless of the shape the bearings are in, they will accept it as a core. Good luck
$750 for the crank is great compared to the $3200 Cat wants for it! I am in Canada where everything is more expensive.. I'll check out Schaefer. Thanks for the lead! What did you do about your turbo?
Turbo is in great shape. I had to buy the timing cover from Schafer for 125.00. When my oil pump broke, it but a gouge on the machined surface that the pump rides on. total cost on all the parts was just under 3600.00 so I think I did pretty good. My Cat dealer gave me a price of 2284.66 for a new crank. part # 173-1280
I have a Cat 246.... Reading these engine threads scares me...does anyone know if the new oil pumps have been improved so they do not crack?This is a pretty big engine defect that is costing owners a ton of money to repair..i have 1800 ish hours on my machine, and I'd rather deal with this before I loose oil pressure than when I need an engine...
Yeah no kidding! I'm still trying to find out if the size of the oil galleries are a problem. Or maybe just the pump being a cheesy pot metal POS.. I guess if you lose oil press don't make the same mistake as others and seize er! Shut er down!
Hey guys, im very familiar with the cat branded skid steers with the perkins motors,,, I use to work for a cat dealor for few yrs an ive seen everything from a work out motor at only 2 hrs to one worn out at machines with only few hundred hrs or even round a thousand or so hrs, these motors are all produced by perkins an they all have cat serial number tags on them so therefore ya have to go threw cat to get repair parts. well few yrs ago I was laid off an I started working on equipment for myself, I then had a cat 252b brought to me that was flipped over an oil go on top of its pistons, they let it sit for hr then tried to start the motor up, was hard to turn over but it finally did an started smokeing an running crappy, I removed motor an took it apart an noticed that it had bent 2 rods an bent few valves. needless to say I looked an couldn't find parts an everybody said hade to go threw cat for parts. witch I knew that from get go due to I worked there an knew how hard to get the cataperkins parts. so I went threw cat for my parts an they were around 3500 bucks, very expensive at the time, but sense then ive done a few other cat skid steers with motor issues an ive done lite an major over hauls even bought new cranks an heads from a company an didn't even go to cat. did I mentioned an saved aloooottta money. I use a company down in Valdosta ga. there called Equipment Parts Supply,, I get all my engine kits there from them guys an they save me loads of money, I read over a few differ posts here an I saw were someone even asked if theres a motor that can inter change with the cataperkins motor, think someone mentioned a 4 bt cummins, but it want work due to its over all size is too big plus ya cant interchange motors that weren't attended for the cat due to the computer that's hooked to the machine, even tho the motor is mechanical its still tied into the ecm under the floor board. hope ive helped if need further help with the cat machines feel free to write me I have the cat software that cat dealors run for service,parts,updates an so on.
Hey Chris thanks for the reply, I'll get hold of equipment parts supply and see what they have for used and new parts. So you have used their non OEM rebuild kits with good results hey. Good to know about the 4BT being physically too big. I think my best bet is just going to be waiting for the right deal to come along for a used crank and rods and go new for the rest. I'd rather keep it more or less stock.. Hey you wouldn't happen to have an emailable manual for that thing on file would ya? Thanks,
Hey Dubbs1,, well I have manuals an electrical an hydraulic schematics on ur machine,,,but theres not one on the motor,,but I do have the cat software on my laptop that will tell you anything you wanta know, so if ya need any torque specs or anything don't think twice on asking or I can try an print something off for ya an email it to ya or mail it to ya. but my manuals I have cover troubleshooting machine,testing an adjustings,, mainly everything but internal motor info. but like ive said ive built 2 cataperkins with the aftermarket parts an saved a crap load of money too, them boys are still running strong today still. basicly all you need to do is if ur crank is bad ,clean it up an get the casting number off of it, an same thing for ur pistons an rod, then call them guys at Equipment Parts Supply an ask for a guy named Stacey Rewis an he ll hooook you up an tell em I sent you to him. AN SAVE THERE NUMBER,, never know what tears up tommorrow
I am in the same boat looking for a crank and a block, how did this job turn out? sourcing parts and using an aftermarket engine kit
Dubbs1 hasn't been on here since 2014, not sure we'll ever know how it turned out. Here is a thread that might give you some answers.