I was looking on here and noticed someone complaining about fleetguard filters. I am prepping for a complete fluids change. I bought all case air and fuel filters but I bought fleetguard for the hydraulics and engine. I will be using full synthetic rotella in the engine and all case fluids everywhere else. Did I mess up getting the fleetguard and should I return them?
Never ever had an issue with Fleetguard, and they're owned by Cummins, unless that's changed recently. My other favorite is Donaldson. In my opinion you can't go wrong with either one, keeping in mind no company is perfect, stuff happens no matter who you dance with. Cheers, Lanway
Thanks lanway. This is my first big machine case590sl and I am learning everything is way more engineered than my Massey tractor. Just don't want to make any mistakes starting off
As I recall there were only three companies making filters. Wix, Hastings and Fram. A bunch of years back it didn't matter when all of them were just paper made to spec for another company. Might be a little more complicated today but I bet not much. Fleetguard was made by Wix as were all the Napa filters. I used to buy Hastings for all our highway equipment but haven't seen them in years now. I had a ton of trouble with Fram so quit them all together. The best deals were on case prices so I used to figure how many units I needed in a year and buy them all at once. Not many places do case prices anymore. I've heard all kinds of arguments over the years for synthetic oils and finally figured that unless you were in some kind of severe climate it wasn't worth the extra cost. Oil is changed because of contamination, not because it wears out. I had plenty of conversations with oil company engineers about it and finally most agreed when I asked for a guarantee that I could run the oil 400 hours with no ill affects. They almost all backed down on that. The one that didn't balked when the oil sample program was brought out. The Cummins engine trainer came flat out and said they didn't recommend any oil type over what they specified in their literature. Oil of the right API spec and weight that is recommended by the manufacturer is all you need.
Best prices I've seen for case prices. wix filtration products, gates belts, lighting etc http://www.discountfleetsupply.com/ Haven't actually ordered from them though
Yep, fleetgaurd is good stuff over on bobistheoilguy forum there are plenty of comparisons between different filter makers and all the history you could want to know about the manufacturers.
John c thanks for the reply. I don't plan on puting many hours per year on this machine many 100 or 150. You are correct that that standard weight oil doesn't wear out. Neither does synthetic. However the additives that they put in multi grade oil does in fact wear out with both use and time. So if you have any machine that you don't run much synthetic IMHO is the way to go. I have full synthetic rotella in my Massey 135 and in my Harley. My 2011 f150 calls for a synthetic blend but I use full synthetic. It required oil changes every 10000 miles which I am here to say is nice. I know people can be down right anal about what they lube with particularly grease. Doesn,t grease come in pretty much three varieties? Red is general purpose yellow is marine and grey is moly added. If you pack your fittings with moly you should be good am I right?
And yes john c I never had a filter leak until I bought a fram.
That's the first time I've heard that. Red is high temp grease, black or grey is anything from Moly to the cheapest. Moly is important for pins and bushings, not every grease fitting though. filterspro is a good place to get Donaldson and Baldwin filters cheaper than anywhere else. Not a fancy site, no application lookup, but their search will cross reference numbers which is very handy. Also, has anybody ever heard of "fit in parts" (all one word) or "JS Asakashi" filters? Supposedly the filters are Japan, and the site is based in Singapore. Lots of spam links to be found online, and I wouldn't consider them but they did have all the filters (and cheap) for a Mitsubishi.
All of the Case filters you bought are Fleetguards painted black, which is true for all Case filters, except now in some instances they are using Donaldson Powercore air filters.
Fleetguards are most definitely NOT made by Wix.
Fleetguard has the best warranty in the business. And no I am not a Fleetguard employee. https://www.cumminsfiltration.ca/pdfs/product_lit/americas_brochures/LT20715.pdf
Thanks all that is good to know. From now on I will stick to buying fleetguard.
Wix manufactures their own filters and also supplies them to Napa,great filters,as are Donaldson,Baldwin,Cat, and Fleetguard.I wouldn't trust a Fram filter in any of their styles/levels for any application.Another great sourcing with excellent pricing is Fleetfilter in Texas.
I have been using nothing but fleetguard for years except the odd Donaldson. The Volvo L70 transmission filter integrated bypass valve fell apart twice over the years and one was a fleetguard which probably caused or added to transmission problems . I only use Donaldson for these and fleetguard for everything else as they are cheaper .
I buy Delo 5-40 full synthetic for $19.99 per gallon. For a buck or two over Delo 15-40 I feel it is worth it, especially for cold starts in the winter, and with a 500 hr service interval on our hoe it just makes me feel a bit better.
I use fleetguard filters and delo 400, best oil ever.
TBH I wouldn't use Fleetguard if they were the last filter manufacturer on Earth. Over the years I've had too many issues with them that has completely eroded my confidence in their products. The fact the Fleetguard is part of Cummins Group means SFA to me, they are a separate company and stand or fall on their own reputation. The fact that they are generally much cheaper than the competition should tell you something. I would use Donaldson or OEM and that's about it. As a caveat I have no experience in North America so can't comment on how good the brands that are uniquely only available there are. Personally I can't get my head round the fact that anyone would contemplate buying a machine costing 10's (or even 100's) of thousands of dollars and then compromise it by nickel and diming on lubricants and filters. Doesn't make sense to me.
Yup, I have thought the same thing many times. One example (out of hundreds) I engineered on a tugboat in a former life, had a lovely pair of old CAT D399's, was a long walk from one end to the other on those gems. Anyway, they took six oil filter elements each, and the company were buying some cheap paper brand, saving a couple bucks a filter. I demonstrated politely the fact that I could crush the paper elements in one hand, and handed around a CAT fiber element with poly endcaps, told them I would pay for it if they could do the same to it. Of course these desk jockeys couldn't crush a purchase order with both hands, pretty safe bet. I suggested that if any one of those paper filters were to come apart that we would be doing an overhaul and the last one had cost them, back in the late eighties mind you, over forty grand. They grumpily said they would buy only CAT from then forward, but I had to use up the several cases of filters then on board. The next trip offshore running up the California coast on a lovely warm clear night I set out on the deck watching the stars and the tow, every few minutes I would sip my coffee and throw a filter overboard, lol. Used 'em up boss!
Yair . . . . lantraxco How I can relate to that . . . I have never done tug work but can imagine the gentle heave and the creaks and those Cats grumbling and the phosphorescent wake . . . do you miss it man? Cheers.
I was only an engineer for about six months total, did a year at 30 days on, 30 off, but I actually loved it, just couldn't handle the group dynamic there. We were short haul, by the day or by the trip, so the crew changed constanly. Everybody that was on the boat spent most of their time badmouthing anyone who was off the boat, so everybody pretty much hated everybody but we all worked together at some point. Didn't take long to figure that was how I was talked about when I was ashore. One thing about the older CATs, the 399's were a V16 and only turned 1200 as I recall so they did indeed grumble along. The pair burned 2,500 gallons of #2 in 24 hours, and she could carry 56,000 in her tanks.. funny how you remember little things like that Oh, and the yang to the romantic ying setting I described was coming out of San Francisco harbor the week after Christmas into the teeth of a storm blowing down from the gulf of Alaska. Eight foot seas under the Golden Gate, twenty-footers at the sea buoy, turned South to make the run home to Long Beach and we got blasted. Night black as coal, seventy knot plus winds from the stern, 25-30 foot seas, Cap'n backed her down to bare steerage, mebbe two knots, the barge on the towline trying to pass us constantly, and she was slugged down with Bunker "C", low enough the waves were running the length of the barge and breaking on what superstructure was there. 150 foot gulf built boat the Champion, we were climbing the back side of the waves and when the bow dropped finally into the ditch, the eight foot wheels would come out of the water and vibrate wildly as the engines ran away, sliding down and the whole boat would shake violently when she hit and the wheels dug in to pull her out of it. Shipping green water up to the bridge screens. I was watching the Woodward governors go from full tilt boogie to slamming shut two or three times a minute, and the alarm panel was lighting up constantly as the fluid level alarms all went crazy. Not something I would volunteer to do again, but an amazing experience. Good thing those tugs are built like tanks, they do go down sometimes, but not without a fight usually. My last tour on that boat, last trip before I flew home, we were anchored to buoys off Santa Barbara putting a load of crude in the barge, got her topped up and the Cap'n says "Light 'em". Got the Port main idling and went to fire the Starboard, all the vanes in the air starter blew out into the bilge. Naturally the two starters were different, and opposite rotation, no spare vanes. Captain says "Your gonna miss your flight, it's gonna take forever to make port on one main". I found a hunk of plexiglas sheet close enough in thickness in the stores, sawed out some vanes, filed them to fit, put the starter together, closed my eyes, said a short prayer and yanked the handle. She lit, and we went home. I left it running in case they got called out, so the last thing I remember as I walked away is the sound of that old CAT purring. Yeah, I miss it. Now I have other things though, so it's all good. Would have liked to sail on a real ship once too, tanker or freighter I think. Maybe in my next life. Lanway
There's nothing like being on the water when the weather's nice, nothing like being on terra firma (the more firmer the less terror) when it's not. I've never been what they call "deep sea" but the shallower waters round the coast of Britain can be nasty enough in winter. Living on an island we depend on the ocean for everything, the shelves empty really quick if the boat doesn't sail ........ the Irish Sea is one of the nastiest stretches of water in the world apparently. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZGw9EewhGg . My house is located pretty much directly above the tower that carries the light at the end of the breakwater at 2:08 onwards. Personally that doesn't look like a Force 9 to me, more like 7-8, still chunky though. Most likely it was a sou'wester so the harbour would have been in the lee of it sheltered by the island itself.
True Dat. Yeah, the little blow I went through wasn't much at all in the grand scheme of things, coast of California is not known to be a scary place usually. That's beautiful, lucky man you are. That captain didn't waste any time making that spin turn before docking eh? lol I can't see the Pacific, but I can almost throw a rock into it from where I live currently, different sort of coastline.
Today the weather is more like this ........... Believe it or not but that fast craft has no less than 4 x Cat 3616 engines in it. And no that's not a misprint of 3516, they are 3616s and are ferking huge......... The Steam Packet Co is the oldest shipping company in the World that is still operating. It has been providing a shipping service between the IOM, UK, & Ireland ever since it was founded in 1830. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcApSNUCg9I
:trdjk were we talking about filters? LOL. Fun anyway. Sweet! Unusual hull design also. Yeah, at one point at the CAT dealer I did a stretch with we sent some parts for a 3600 series up to one of the pumping stations for the Alaska pipeline. I remember the piston ring sets were near the size of a dinner plate. That engine was the backup genny for the big GE gas turbines pumping the crude oil. I can't imagine the horsepower of four 3616's. Are they a coupled up engine Nige, like the 3516?
Yair . . . Good one lantraxco . That was an interesting night . . . and you describe it very well. I think I detect a latent writer? (big grin) With apologies to original poster for Hi-jack (we are along way from Fleetguard filters) I'll pop a picture of this old darlin' on here . . . She was built as a single screw steamer in 1929 and then fitted with a six cylinder Mirrlees some time after WW two. She was bought by one of our clients and towed fuel barges for the Gulf prawn fleet for many years. We had a major drama when we made a set of phosphor bronze bearings for the rocker gear . . . odd ball series engine and parts could be made to order out of UK with eight weeks lead time. Any way we fitted the bits and some new shafts and shimmed the towers perfect, adjusted the lash and did trials in the river for an hour or so all good, but ten hours into the tow the bastards started seizing. Eventually got it sorted with a reamer but it was ****s were trumps for starters as it was coming in to blow. Incidentally that was a good lesson for my partner . . . always work to maximum permissible tolerance when jobbing. Cheers.
Nice!
Looks like an Incat ferry made in Tassie, Oz and a good demonstration of water jet propulsion. :cool2
Latent writer? I doubt it, more like a misspent youth reading world war 2 books by the likes of Alistair MacClean, Douglas Reeman, Edward L. Beach, etc. LOL
It is indeed, originally built in 1998 as yard #050. it spent its early life on contract to the US Govt as HSV-X1 before the SPCo bought it and had it converted for passenger service. Each of the 3618s (18 not 16, my mistake) is rated at 9650 BHP and drives a dedicated Lips 150D water jet. The service speed is around 40 knots with 50+ knots available in lightship conditions.
Yair . . . lantraxco Gotcha. (big grin) Cheers.
3518?? I had no idea.... Must need a bicycle to get around it?
The biggest engine I had the fun of working on was one of those D399's like you had in the tug. Can't imagine being down below deck with a pair of then wound out to the 1,200 rpm limit. Ours was a genset in a trailer. So besides the engines we had that huge fan blowing through the radiator. One time while test running it I was up near the fan and the boss drove by just as the wid blew my hard hat off and out the end. He said he hesitated to look close at the hat, afraid my head was still in it! AS far as filters go we used Donaldson for most things only exception was when new machine was still under warranty we would use manufactures filter just to short circuit any claims.
What did you say???? Oh, they were loud, but I wore muffs when we were working. Keel cooled, but still a lot of heat, big suction fan up in the stack pulling heat out, blowers in the mushroom intakes behind the bridge tower to help the cool air in for the turbos.. I thought of those engines like two old draft horses, feeling their age but still strong and always ready to lean into the harness. The Port was stronger, but finicky to start, and the odd minor issue now and then, the Starboard would light before you could get your hand off the valve, but she was a bit more tired. They got a major tune not long after I left, the whole boat did in drydock, sorry I missed it, lol.
No - 36 18. The next engine range above a 3500 series. Literally about twice the size of a D399 or 3516. Here are the relevant dimensions: - L x W x H (overall) - 20' x 7' x 11.5' Dry weight - approx. 83,000 pounds Bore x Stroke - 11" x 11.8" Capacity - 333 litres Power/Rated Speed - 9650BHP @ 1020rpm https://marine.cat.com/cda/files/1377769/7/Cat 3618 Propulsion Spec Sheets.pdf
Right, typoed it sorry, I have seen a couple 3606 and the like, but have never heard of a 3618... WOW!
And that fast craft has 4 of them ........!!
Just call it a round forty thousand horsepower... WW2 destroyers took several boilers and a large engine crew to get there!
I would imagine that engine room is automatic and monitored by CCTV from the bridge ...... plus ca change.
Probably... what do they do if they have a major malfunction, call for roadside assistance? Or are their still engineers aboard?
If you lose one engine out of four I suppose you just continue at reduced speed on the three remaining power units. Each engine drives a separate water jet so the loss of one should just reduce available power by 25%. One of these days I'm going to get a good look round that engine room and hopefully take some photos. Watch this space.
Nige, right, but when the system goes sideways and all four go offline, or the steering units decide to do a zig zag stitch across the pond, who you gonna call? LOL... More likely the auxiliaries keeping the electrics going catch fire and you're either running everything on manual backups or dead in the water and adrift... Automation is a wonderful thing, until it isn't, heheh!
Has anyone been on the Stena HSS1500 ships? In a former life I made that trip from Holyhead to Dún Laoghaire more times than I can remember. Looking over the back end, watching how much water four gas turbines with 120,000hp can pump out is one impressive sight.
Went on that beast a few times when it was new . An animal from what I remember . I paced the carpark in spades but I cant remember the dimensions . The bones of 20 years ago
I know that when things go haywire , some of the manufactuers do use the competition to keep production up... Kralinator often had filters assembled by Fram using their paper at the Stratford On plant .. Purolator also did that on occasion... I know that now that many of the Fram filters are made in Mexico , the quality is no more ... When i worked for International we used Fleetguard filters and never had an issue in the truck engines ..
I,ve line bored the crank tunnels on a couple of 3612,s. Mains are 230mm dia from memory. I could stand up inside the block when setting it up. Big donks.
I have, with good results. Now my filter cabinet is full of cases of Wix filters for various bits of machinery. For single filters and oddballs stuff, Rock Auto is awfully handy. Howard
Been using fleetguard filters for years tractors,trucks,caterpillar,cars,lawnmower,combine for years don,t be afraid of them. Good