I have owned a Cat 416-D for three years now. Sometimes it runs well and other times poorly. I have changed fuel filters a dozen times, cleaned the fuel tank vent, replaced the air filter, drained the tank looking for debris etc. I found a few old gas cap parts in the tank and a small tubular screen that looks like it should be over the fuel intake tube. The machine runs well at idle and it also runs well when hot (after 1/2 an hour). In between, it often stalls out or dies. During this time, I can put the pedal to the floor and it will not respond and will slowly die (sometimes), but at other times it will slowly ramp up in RPM. This behavior is on and off. I have drained some fuel out of the bottom of the fuel filter and found some little black specs that were attracted to a magnet (rust...?) but the inside of the tank looks very clean. We are a long way from a Cat dealer and the one time I took it there, they couldn't find any problems. Can any of you please help me with tests procedures or ideas? Kind regards, JB
Add a tee to the fuel supply line to the injection pump, run a line to a pressure/vacuum gauge in the cab. When it slowly dies with your foot to the floor, read the pressure. If it's identical to the pressure idling, take your pump off and have it fixed. OR, take the supply line from the tank off and hook it to a portable boat tank, if it runs fine, then take your tank inlet off and put a screen on it. The running fine when hot doesn't make sense to me though... Any soft rubber hoses?
Thank you Delmer. :usa I really appreciate your ideas and will try to figure out the fittings to make the pressure test. I will have to get back to you on the soft rubber hoses. About running fine when hot, I have wondered if the heat changes clearances on something, or makes some air in the injected fuel less of a factor due to greater ignition?
Checking the feed pressure it #1.. On some of the manual/mechanical lift pumps/supply pumps there is a screen in the top of them.. that can be checked easily..
Similar woes on my 416c. I can't see inside the tank b/c of the crooked fill neck, but I'm sure it's not clean. One time when running poorly and after checking lots, started tapping on the fuel primer and it started running smoother. Maybe some debris was clogging it and tapping it turned it loose.
I recently had similar problems also. My unit would run fine for a short time and then die over and over. It would restart after a wait or after manually pumping the fuel supply. We changed the usual suspect parts with no success. The CAT tech finally fixed the issue by using an air hose to blow the fuel return line back toward the fuel tank. After a few seconds, something unclogged in the line and went into the tank. I drained the tank twice but never found anything that I thought substantial enough to block the fuel line. The unit has performed fine since so I assume he resolved the problem. Lucky I have quality trained CAT personnel for help when needed.
just went through this same issue yesterday, our 416 d would crank up and die pulled all filters found bottom filter at tank dry and had a lot of sediment in it un hooked supply line and took air hose and blew back towards tank replaced both fuel filters it runs great now just have to get tank cleaned some how.
It's not hard. There is a drain plug located on the front inside corner of the tank. Get the machine pointing slightly downhill first.