I am in the process of replacing pistons and liners, also replacing cracked head. I pulled liners and I am cleaning block, and noticed some small pitted areas in block where top fat oring rides in block. also noticed some scaling in upper groove where top of liner seats in block. I used scotch pads to clean up lower and upper areas of block. Instruction sheet says to use liquid soap on orings to install liners in block, do not use any petrolum base lubricants. Also how I assure after liner is installed that liner protrusion is enough to seal head gasket. all advice will be appreciated thank you keith-50
The correct way to check protrusion is to clean block and counterbore, put liner in without Orings, clamp down with H bar, use a dial indicator to check around the liner ( 4 places) if good remove and install orings and reinstall, if bad shim accordingly or sometimes if cracked the counter bore can be machined out and an insert installed.
Sounds like you have had cavitation in the block and probably the liners as well. Were the outside of the liners pitted when you removed them..? If they were I would suspect the quality of the coolant you are using.
The chamfer on the lower bore must be good in order to allow the lower seals to slide in with out being cut. If it is eroded away bad you can build it up with JB Weld and sand it smooth. Later Bob
In addition, the counterbore in the block (where the liner sits that you say has scaling) can be re-cut by a competent engine machine shop and a shim can be had from Cat to get your liner projection where it needs to be. They can come out to the machine and do it and it's not very expensive. This is a very common place for exhaust gases to leak and pressurize your cooling system if you put it back together like it is. Then you'll have to tear everything back down again to get to it.
The top Filler Band seal has to be dipped in Engine oil then fitted to the top seal location on the liner just pre to fitting the liner into the block after all the hight measurements are confirmed as good, the clamping of the liner is very well explained in the workshop manual, this is standard practice on near all CAT engines from this Era, the torque set is 50 lbs ft using 2 head studs/fasteners with a hard bar across the cylinder top, the sludge build up around the bottom seal area on 330/3C's always hids an amout of erossion, the oil cooler/s if fitted will also be pegged with crap and need a good clean out, it might be cheaper to whip out the motor to take it to the engineer shop??? it is possible to swap out all the crank bearing in frame.
I was wondering if I could do some initial clean up in lower block area with wire brush on drill. Then finish up with sand paper , or is it not worth gamble of a single loose strand of wire brush left behind after through clean up. Crank still in block.
You can if you're careful. The larger the pieces that fall into the oil pan the less chance the oil pump can suck them up. Make sure to try as much as possible to protect the crank from falling debris.