My 1997 Cat IT24F ran out of fuel the other day. Has done it many times as the fuel gauge has never worked since we bought it in 2001... Anyhow, it now feels short on fuel so we changed both fuel filters with new OEM ones. Still short on fuel and blows a lot of blue/white smoke. Engine is a 3114 T. Has 14500 hours. Never changed injectors. Can they be failing? I remember my excavator having the same engine and that one had to have new injectors once. Engine has been overhauled about 3 years ago, had a crack in a cylinder wall, was putting water in the oil. New sleaves done by machine shop, on CAT dealers order with warranty. Local mechanic did the rebuilding of the engine. Thanks, Dennis
Running a diesel engine out of fuel is never good for the injectors. The fuel system only burns a percentage of the fuel anyway, the rest is used for cooling the fuel system components, and gets punted back to the tank trhough the return lone. For that reason alone going below about 15% fuel level in the tank is not recommended. I think you've probably run it out of fuel once too often and taken an injector out while doing it. I know it's never a good idea to rush things but don't you think that in the space of 13 years you could possibly have fixed the fuel gauge and avoided all this pain..?
Check your fuel pressure first. Could be a transfer pump problem. Fuel pressure should be about 20 psi idle and 50 psi full throttle. You can check it at the secondary fuel filter. Should be a plug to take out and put a gauge in.
I think you are right Nige, maybe I would have had time for that in 13 years.... :cool2 Is there a way to test them, or do they just need replacing? I remember from my excavator (was a 212 BFT) that the cat mechanic had to come out with some special tools to fit the new injectors as they were a bit different then the original ones. I was once told those injectors need replacing every 3000 hours???
Take Mobiltech's advice and check, or have checked, the fuel pressure first. It could well be that in sucking up the dregs from the bottom of the tank you may have damaged the fuel transfer pump, although TBH I have my doubts because I can't see where the blue smoke would come into that equation. Still it's worth starting there, because a transfer pump (especially a Reman one) would be way less than the cost of 1 injector, let alone 4. I also suggest to go through the whole of the "low pressure" fuel side, because from just a brief look there are all sorts of relief valves and screens in that system that you will probably not have touched despite changing both primary & secondary fuel filters. How did the water separator bowl underneath the primary filter look BTW..? Was it full of **** and water or was the diesel in it reasonably clean..? There are a million and one different variants of engine used in this model, and to give detailed suggestions we would need your machine Serial Number, plus the engine S/N if you have it. I can't see injectors being required every 3,000 hours on that engine, I would have said 6,000 minimum and probably as much as 10,000 (odd failures in between notwithstanding). How many hours does the engine have on it since the rebuild..? What part of Portugal are you in BTW..?
I'm in the southern province called Alentejo. I'd have to ask my brother about the fuel in the filters as he changed them. Engine was rebuilt probably 2 or 3k hours ago... Fuel rail was set by Cat mechanic. I'll test the fuel pressure next week, when I'm done planting corn. We have a 924G as well so no problem there.
At a brief look of the Systems Operation for the fuel system it's very likely to have a small screen somewhere in the inlet to the primary fuel filter. From the outside I'd bet it probably looks just like a pipe fitting. Most people won't even know it's there.
Dead right Nige. Our CAT AD55B's with the C27 engine if run out of fuel would start to drop power within 10 hours of the event. The only fix was 12 new injectors at a cost of around $24,000. Low fuel was an issue too. The 55B's have major heat rejection issues anyway and there were upgrades fitted such as fuel coolers etc, but power and injector life suffered really badly if we ran them below 40% fuel level. We introduced a 3 loads and refuel rule. Provided operators complied, the C27 was basically trouble free. If they didn't and ran out of fuel, then the C18 powered 55's would actually out pull them once they dropped a few injectors. I think I read that modern diesel injection systems return as much as 85% of the fuel to the tank for cooling purposes.
Is that what to me looks like an elbow on the inlet of the fuel water separator? That's the only thing I can come up with that's in between the tank and the filter...
Is that what to me looks like an elbow on the inlet of the fuel water separator? That's the only thing I can come up with that's in between the tank and the filter...
Without your serial number it's impossible to be sure it's even there on your machine.
6kn00246
Solved my fuel problem, I took off the hose between the fuel/water separator and the fuel tank and gave it a shot of compressed air. Then bled the lines proparly (dont know if they did that proparly when they changed the filters) Must have sucked up some dirt as the blue smoke is over now. It's back to its usual puff of black smoke when accelerating which it has always done. Thanks for the input and a special thanks to Nige for all the extra help you provided me by PM!
Now you're on a roll it would be a good time to fix the fuel gauge.....!
Don't you think it's to soon to think it's broken? Who knows it might start working again one of these days. After all its only been 13 years...