i've got a cat 312 that i use for house demo, and its always overheating. i know its becasue of the dust in the radiator. does anyone have any good methods, tips, ideas, or products, besides the good ol' air compressor and air gun?
I checked out a Claas silage harvester at a show a couple years ago. They work in very dust conditions and move huge amounts of air through the radiators. The dust abatement system was pretty slick. But as I´m typing this, It may only work for coarser dust, not the finer particulate that comes from building demo. Anyway, the radiator assembly has a rigid fine screen in front of it. There´s a vacuum that rotates 360 deg to vacuum of the dust from the screen....think of a wiper blade that sucks away all the dust... I believe that system was pretty expensive but also 100% effective. How old is the machine? Is the cooling efficiency compromised by sludge in the radiator as well? How old is the coolant?
machine is a 95 fluid is maybe 3 months old. i was thinking about totally redesigning the radiator and oil cooler so they can swing out for easy cleaning on both sides.
Fit a hydraulic fan that can be reversed ,seen it done here on various demo equip and it really works,watched a guy with a garden hose wash a rad and oil cooler got them spotless by reversing the fan and spraying the water from both sides.While the excavator was working it was set up to auto reverse and you would see a plume of dust every so often ... Stock
I have had minor heating problems in the past on my Cat 330L. Heres what I made that solved my problems. I went to my local auto parts store and bought a 4ft long piece of break line tubing, with fitting on one end and flair on the other, cut the flair off crimped the end and cut a small slit in one side of the tube, found the proper fittings so I can attach it to my air gun. This enables me to get between the radiator and the oil cooler as well as the air conditioning condensor. I can also get between the fan and the radiator using this tool. Now I can blow the stuff out from the direction it was sucked in instead of driving it deeper into the fins. I have been using this method for yrs, and it has solved my heating problems.
overheating Ive been in the demo/site prep/grading/excavating business many years. Ive had the same issues you say you are having. These were some of my solutions. Sometimes its real simple 1. The cheapest, was, I removed the radiator and oil cooler and took them to a radiator shop and had them cleaned out, inside and outside. They both were gummed up inside. I also replaced the water pump,thermostat, at this time. 2. I also had a weak hydraulic pump, causing the pump to try to over work. I had to get the Cat man, to put guages on this, to find the problem. I bought a rebuilt pump. 3. Make sure you check, your hydraulic strainers and replace the filters. 4. I did install a reversible fan, on one machine. I do remember it was kind of pricey. 5. Head gasket leaking, or cracked head 6. MAKE sure, there is not big open spaces, between the radiator and oil cooler. Top/bottom/sides. some have like foam rubber in these areas and if the air flow is coming out between the two, it cant cool. There cant be any major openings in this area 7. This happened on a Cat 315, bottom radiator sucking closed, when it was working hard, when youre working it hard, get someone to keep an eye on the hoses a.The center swivel, could be bypassing also, working the pump too hard. b.You could have a cylinder, bypassing, also, is there any function, that acts funny, or doesnt have good power? Bottom line, and Im the worlds worst one, to take this advise. Call the Cat mechanic, or someone that used to work for them and get them to check it out. It may cost you $300-$??? to get them to tell you whats wrong, but its better than parts changing and hoping youve got it. I spent about $1000 changing different things on one machine and I finally got them to check it out, all it was was the pressure needed to be adjusted. (cost me $250) HUMMMM :Banghead:Banghead:Banghead My experiences, say there is nothing wrong with the design, we all work in dusty places, without major issues. Im not sure on the 312, but on most machines, there is a plate, or foam rubber, etc located on top, between the radiator and oil cooler. You need to remove this and make you a side blower, out of a brake line (steel) fold over the one end and drill about a 3/16 hole in that end, on one side only. Get you a air hose adapter, to fit the other end. The line needs to be about 2-3ft long, depends on the radiator. Blow from inside out on radiator and cooler. If you have a A/C cooler, it would be best (the first time) to unbolt it and swing it out the way, as much as possible, so you can blow out the oil cooler. My experience shows, that pressure wahing is not good, what you dont wash out, causes the other to cake in there harder. If you must pressure wash, dont work the machine until the water drys, or the dust will cling to the moisture, stopping up it again. The problem, is if you have a lot of wear in the hydraulics or engine, little problems amount to the big ones, unless you can fix some of the little ones (hope that makes sense ) Dont mean to be long winded, but I know how crappy a running hot engine can be Keep us posted. Im still thinking check the radiator hoses remove and clean radiator and oil cooler, its pretty easy to do, take a little time borrow/rent a radiator tester and check to see if it will hold pressure. Maybe a simple way to rule out a head gasket. just remove the cap, screw this on and pump it up, usually about 12 psi. Make sure cap is good and correct pressure. I have owned 15 different excavators and thse were my thoughts and solutions, hope it helps
You might want to look into buying a reversible fan from clean fix, http://www.cleanfix.ca/ , we have used them many times on feller bunchers and they work great they use an compressed air to rotate the fins rather than hyd. reversing the motors
Reversing fan for sure.
we have a couple cat 312s. we usually pull the radatior out after starts over heating again and pressure wash it and all the coolers out. Thats the simplest cheapest way we do it. Or buy a c model i pretty sure the c models they swing out on a hindge
I agree clean-fix is the way to go.
Sorry guys, but i think that all manufacturers have the knowledge how to fit the fan flow.... however, i believe that the radiator air flow is better to be from inside to outside!
i agree my friend! first check out if everythink works fine! Personally i had overheating problem in my jcb 3cx 1986 model. When i bought, it in 1995, i used the jcb engine oil 15/40 which was not compatible with our climate in Greece, where is too hot. I used 20/50 and no problem again. About a month ago, i had overheating problem with my cat 307. i have replaced the oil engine with 15/50 and no problem now... Sorry for the long post!!!
Had an overheating issue this spring on our PC220 but only when running the bucket and digging dirt. So we checked everything over, and washed the fins and changed the cap. Same old thing, just took a bit longer to get to the overheating. So did some test and the only thing we did was to tighten the belt(and that seemed fine but we just did it to do it kinda thing). Fired it up and went to digging, couldn't get it to heat up. Fixed. Somtimes you get lucky and then overlook the easy stuff, cause that never happens. Trbo