Hello. I can't find that thread where someone wrote that Komatsus are good when there new, but around 8- or 10.000 hrs almost everything breaks at the same time. Is this a fact, or just one persons expericene? We have a PC340 LC7, and it's about 8000 hours on it now.. It's the first Komatsu we have had, and this far is has been a good experience. opcorn
Any machine will experience problems above 8000 hours, depending on maintenance performed. It honestly comes down to how the machine is used, and taken care of. I have had several cat and komatsu mechanics tell me both manufacturers only plan on the life span of a machine to be 10,000 hours. Meaning you will be looking into major component repairs around this hour mark. This being said, at this point, the machine should have made back its initial investment, tax costs, any minor repairs, and a good bit of profit by this point.
On all reputable makes, you'll experience pump problems, track motor problems, and swing motor problems around the 10k hour mark. Komatsu pumps sometimes die a little sooner, as in ~9k hours. The difference between different makes is often the engine. Komatsu engines seem to go ~10k hours and then start giving problems that necessitate a full rebuild. John Deere engines seem to go around 12k hours (but they vary) and then need a rebuild. Isuzu engines can often go 15k+ hours without a breakdown that necessitates a rebuild, but they become very worn out and need a rebuild anyways because they won't start on colder days. CAT engines can also often go above 15k hours without a rebuild (but not always) and generally can still start reasonably and maintain decent compression etc. Example: I once ran a Hitachi EX270-5 that had 15k hours without a rebuild on its Isuzu engine. Technically the engine still worked, but it had no hope if starting by itself below 5 degrees celsius. To start it on a typical mild winter day of -5 C, you had to crank it for 45 seconds while spraying in ether. Then it would smoke and sputter for another 5 minutes before the engine would even run normally. Above 15 degrees celsius, the engine started and ran just fine. For comparison, I personally own a CAT IT18F loader with 12k hours on its engine without a rebuild. At -5 C, it cold starts with just 3 seconds of cranking and no ether. The typical failure mode of Komatsu engines that I've seen is that the engines seem to be run fine until one day when you find coolant in the engine oil ! Not to scare you, but be ready for some big repair bills coming up soon r00t.
My komatsu has 13000 hours on it and the engine is still the best part of the machine. Even on a cold day it starts immediatly. The pump has a little bit of whine and the track motors are getting weak but it still works hard.
That's good. The engines in Komatsus seem to start and run fairly well provided that the cooling system isn't leaking. I've seen several high hour Komatsu engines that do seem to run quite nicely.
My Komatsu excavators run well, but as Turbo stated its all about the maintenance. I change the fluids when they are scheduled and do oil sampling as well. Quality filters and fluids are equally important to longevity on the machine.
I have worked on a PC220lc-6le that had 45,867.56 HRS. on it 1st. engine replaced at 22,500. hrs.....of course the pumps were puled and gone thru......just sayin.........
this pc220 have won his heaven....lolll the dash-6 serie where pretty popular here in the montreal area...they have been built for several years too
woah! That's impressive. I've seen a CAT 988B loader with 46000 hours. First engine rebuild was at 26 k hours, and second rebuild at 42k hours.
Just my 2 cents but the thing that bothers me the most about high hours komatsus is the sloppiness of the controls. New they are tight and after about 6000 hrs. they seem to get really sloppy. All of our 300's over 8000 hrs are like this contrary to the 330's we have with higher hours feel almost new. Just my thoughts.
I never really had much problem with Komatsu engine wearing out. Usually they break long before they are worn out. Usually the breaks were maintenance caused by overheating, run out of oil and so on. The engines that do not have liners usually didn't give any coolant leak problems unless they were overheated. The rubber seals in the head gaskets would leak and you would have coolant running down the side of the block. The bigger engines that had liners had two issues for years. First was the same O rings in the head gaskets would cook out quick when the engine overheated. Second was the heads had injector coppers that were swaged into the heads. The bottom of the coppers would crack and leak coolant into the head and then into the basement. I've heard those problems have been long solved now. I've never seen any 95 series Komatsu engine past 15,000 hours in any application. If someone got better than those hours I congratulate them on a great operation and maintenance program. As far as the hydraulics on the excavators go, I've found they need at least adjustment at around the 5,000 to 6,000 hour mark. High hour main control valves do get sloppy internally and they are far too expensive to replace. I've also found that the relief valve cartridges can go bad any time after 4,000 hours. Still in all I've found the line to be at least as good if not better than most if not all the others.
some interesting comments here guys. all of them pretty spot on. it all comes down to PM maintenance at the end of the day. we have had 2 pc 1800 with twin saad6170e-3 engines that have run out to 17000hrs before scheduled c/o. but our maintenance is pretty good. oil and filter changes every 250hrs on engine.