Hello I was gifted a older 3208 engine . It has insulated oil pan and insulation on the side of the block . I know it came out of a Ford truck but I do not have the year etc . I have a pic of the tag I will post . If anyone can source this for me I would really appreciate that. Sincerely Jett
why do you need to know the year? cat engine parts go by the engine AR# and the engine serial number and you have both
3208 TRUCK ENGINE Engine Serial Number - 51Z22449 (Build Date - 30/01/1984, Test Date - 30/01/1984, Ship Date - 31/01/1984)
10.4 litre V8. Wide range of horsepower ratings. Crank & connecting rods are not robust, so juicing them up may not end well. A parent bore engine, to rebuild, you'd have to bore it. Mine is turbocharged rated 250 HP. Not a real powerhouse but good torque.
Jett01 is probably curious about what his newly acquired prize engine might fit. Ford did use those for a long time. Like 75-90. I don’t remember when the 1100 became the 3208. Funny story time. As a young ambitious fella trying to make my mark on the world, I told my boss at the dealership that I had a CDL. I volunteered to be a back-up driver. You can count on me boss, whatever it takes! Just get me in the game. Our delivery driver wasn’t available on a late Friday afternoon. I was told to hitch up the trailer to the Halton Ford F800 and deliver a rental backhoe to a customer in Astoria. ASAP. Got that b&@ch loaded and chained down. All went well, navigating my way out of Portland. I was on-fire, full of diesel and ready for hire! Until I hit that first hill on HWY 30. I pulled over because I thought something was wrong. That naturally aspirated, two-ring, Cat 3208 was making equal amounts of noise and smoke, but 15 mph was the best it would do. No matter what combination of axle and transmission gears, I used. With commuting traffic stacking behind me. Lol. Learned fast that was a feature of the creature. First time I got paid for using my CDL.
Later in life, I made a lot of scratch fixing marine 3208’s. Especially the 435hp DITA versions. Cause’ they were always broken. Cha-Ching$$$! And the people that typically owned those things didn’t care what it cost to fix them. And there was typically two of them in a boat. And one was always broken.
I'm not a fan of these things, they smoked so bad they made my eyes burn and were gutless. They had an Ottowa yard shifter where I worked powered with one, it needed engine replacement annually. Most people I knew with trucks that had one blew it up. The 3208 seemed better suited for constant rpm work such as a generator or an excavator, it was the powerplant in the Cat 225 excavator. We had several fire trucks on C Series Ford chassis with them, they couldn't get out of their own way! They were available in the F Series, C Series and L Series Fords, and possibly the N, they ran their course before I knew what a 3208 was.
They were loads better than the competition at the time, International 9.0 liter and Detroit 8.2 liter. But just a boat anchor nowadays, very long out of any kind of meaningful production for road trucks.
5th and 6th generation Ford B series busses, too. Poor kids sitting in those stinking things in the loading line. The first bus pumping blue exhaust into the second bus defroster and down the line.
Just the mention of an 01Z serial number used to mean an interesting day ahead.
Navy Sea Systems Command has a not-so-secret, secret submarine acoustic listening center on Back Island in Behm Canal near Ketchikan. They had a patrol boat that would greet the local kids if they fished to close to the Island. It had twin E -rated 01Z’s and they ran them at 100% duty cycle all the time. The dealer would get dispatched for repairs when the Navy couldn’t figure things out. There would always be a couple armed guards watching me on the dock while I worked. Got to visit a few times. Even had the opportunity to assist a Marine Analyst with a full sea trial one time. 500 hours was the average life expectancy before those engines were trashed.
I worked for a outfit that was running International 2150 trucks with 555 Cummins engines On average they lasted 6 months before they required rebuilding. The owner got fedup and replaced then with 3208T's. In over 2 years until I left none required any attention at all. I have seen a 3208 marine engine rated at 500hp but it was sitting in a shop looking for a buyer.
My 250 HP version is OK pulling a 28,000LB truck with Allison. Extra weight on a heavy trailer, the steep hills might be low gear only. I'm comparing it to a gas engine, so it is a big improvement over it in power & fuel economy.
Thank you all I was Hoping to find out the year. I have a 1980 Ford L8000 tandem dump, red with a Trail Mobile box. It also has a automatic transmission Allison. I took the old 3208 cat engine out and swapped it with this 1984 engine . It seems like it’s in really good shape fires up with the flick of the key. It does smoke however 3208 if I remember right smoke . When it was gifted to me it was on a Ford frame chopped with engine and transmission fit it in the chopped frame. Thank you all I enjoy HeavyEquipmentForums
sometimes those engines got a bad rap. i've had several and they have been ok. one tractor of mine has one and it made 10000 hrs. in my opinion they were better than the 3116 that replaced them in the early 90's. they were an easy engine to work on unless they were stuffed in a GM kodiak or similar. some firetrucks used them but in small towns they did not get many hours on them before they were outdated and de-rated( for pumping capacity, 10 years if i recall)
Halton? I peddled parts out of the Portland store from 97 I think into 2002... not that I admit it.
Cannot help you out on the year and such but I will share this as everyone has hammered the 3208 pretty good. Years ago I worked at a large farm sometimes. They called and said they were in a bind. Have a custom harvester cutting 1500 acres of corn silage and needs a clutch put in a truck. While I was working on that the owner came and asked if I would mind to look at something on another truck. Ok: It was something simple repaired and gone. It had a NA 3208 Allison with a 12 or 14 yard dump and high sides. He came by later to ask about the deal. Throttle linkage maybe? I asked is not really under powered anyway? He replied: Anybody can drive them and they do not have enough power to tear much up. I buy everyone I can find.
I knew a guy that was one of the first to dig pipeline with hyd. excavators. He said the Cat 225 with the 3208 was terrible and that it might be better in a truck application than running flat out.
That's interesting. The company I worked for had two 225s and they never had any problems the whole time I was there.
Here's the original factory dyno test if it's of any interest to you.
I've heard other people say they weren't bad. In the case of 3204's, I think there's some truth that the non turbo models have longer life than the turbo models because they aren't trying to push as much power as possible. The pipeliner I knew had 6 P&H machines with 6V-53's (5 H418's and 1 1250 newer model) and he said they needed a major overhaul every 3000 hours so a lot of it could be personal opinion. He did say the 3306 in the 235 was a lot better. It's no coincidence he wore a hearing aid. 10 hour days with a 6V-53 running at 2650 RPM would be enough to send most to the rubber room. He went to Hitachi's in the 80's and they revved 1000 RPM less and were quiet by any comparison.
Only had two run in's with 3208 Cats. One was in a small Mack dump truck at one of our quarries. Forget all the details but recall it was not running good. Do recall that it had the sleeve metering V-8 pump, maybe they all did? Not sure how I figured out the problem but recall that a set screw for the internal linkage in the pump had backed out and it was only running on the right side of the pump! Not having access to a pump stand or any calibration tooling I did what I could. I just lined the linkage as best I could by eye and tightened the set screw good and tight. Seemed to run good and everyone was happy! The other one was in a small dump truck with plow that we were gifted by higher ups in the company to plow roads in quarry in winter. It was from a small town, Ilion NY. I know a few reasons they wanted to be rid of it. First the road salt they carried in it sure did a number on every part of that truck and the stench of raw fuel and white smoke made it unbearable to use. Two problems about the way it ran is first I was not allowed to spend time working on it in the winter as they might need it to plow the roads and second thing is could not spend time working on it in the rest of the year because, well don't need it and other equipment was a priority. Kind of like the story of "Can't fix the leaky roof when it's raining and when the sun is out the roof isn't leaking so why worry?"
Thank you Nige
Along with this this motor I am restoring our 1980 L8000 . I will post pics when I’m done . My son asked me 5 years ago to do this and we are finally getting to it ....when I get time in between other repairs
one of the common issues that came up often was the leaking governor shaft seal on the sleeve-metering injection pump. easy to change on the NA engines and only slightly more time-consuming on a turbo engine. if you have the engine out, maybe think about changing it now as opposed to having to change it in the future when it is in the truck
Cat used a lot of them in "mid to large" sized forklifts back in the day. Made a great counter-weight. Non turbo and probably detuned even more than the truck versions, they lasted just fine.
Just pulled her out of the shop until I get more time . Ran very well till the summer fuel I put in while it was in a warm shop acted up with the -40 weather here today . I’m guessing the fuel gelled on me .... anyways I got it in the lineup . 56 I got the engine in already but thanks for the advice . What are the symptoms of when this sleeve leaks ?
Looking good so is yours a smoker or clean running I've had both ways damn fine running engines either way like kshansen with the smoker you couldnt back up plowing on a cold day couldnt see and if you stayed on the road that thick cat smoke would be with you for days
Thank you ... yes she smokes good - and blue
Were bad for Injection pump getting loose and eroding the bock deck it attached to, Cat actually had a Steel Epoxy we used to build that area back up but was never like new again. Quarry had several in the last months I worked at it, all trashed in a few years per my buds there.
The insulated oil pans were notorious for rusting through, too.
Any of you 3208 guys recognize this ?
That's yer FIP drive gear puller. No thanks, I don't want to borrow it. Ever. Again.
Lol!!! Are you sure? I could put it in the mail tomorrow. Too funny. Made my day. I see that I still have a bunch of tooling for these things. Even a Bachorak kit for rebuilding Stanadyne pencil nozzles. Holy crap. Pencil nozzles.
Thing about 3208’s, couldn’t just fix one little thing and move on. A small repair most often results in a major repair. One thing leading to another, major component replacement, to fix a small leak. Dirt Customers would not understand. Always thought you ripping them off.
Start with slight oil drippage, ended up pulling injection pump with bad housing and block damage, older owner cussed me as if I had just raped his daughter or stole his best pickup. Showed end result of ignoring small noises and stains, he was still not happy but agreed repairs were needed. He sold all six of his Fords with 3208s and picked up GMC Fuel pinchers!!! used for a song. I walked away then.
Thank you
symptoms of a poor governor shaft seal are fuel leaking into the V at the rear of the injection pump and/or engine running rough. if not leaking externally, it can be checked by installing a temporary, vertical looped clear fuel return line just after the constant-bleed valve on top of the injection pump and checking for unwanted air bubbles while running and revving the engine. like DM said, check the bolts at the rear of the governor that hold it down to the engine block. if they come loose, they will allow the injection pump assembly to squirm and wear both the engine block and the bottom of the governor, also the large yellow o-ring at the front that seals the injection pump to the gear train.
Thank you 56wrench this will be helpful information if I do need in the future
I’ve re-powered boats with 3208’s after removing Detroits 8.2’s. Maybe not the best option but lots of times nothing else will fit except another short v8. I think the 3208 makes for a decent seine boat engine. I’ve worked on them after recover from Davy Jones locker. Flush the crank case with diesel a couple times, add clean lube & filters, prime the fuel system and back to fishing.
I worked on and ran several that were in tractors back then i saw 2 pickups that had them. I wanted one bad for a one ton i had but never got one.
You'd sure need a whole lot more front suspension. I've read the weight, I can't remember, but it is a lot!
I had it planned to use a 1 1/2 ton front axle and drill it for ton wheels. I saw in a magizine in the early 80s a guy bought a brand new Blazer 2WD he lenghtened it made a 6x6 with a 3208 but the real crasy part was he used a Firestone/ford f150 front axle.
I showed up on the jobsite for an L8000, 3208 engine wouldnt start so owner pulled some of the plungers out of the injection pump hoping to find the problem, needless to say he did not find the problem, but he couldn't get the plungers back in so he called me.
Funnily enough, maybe 10 years ago I had a customer with a couple of 3208 powered fishing boats. He had recently got into the charter-fishing business, catering to the tourist trade. Unfortunately, during inclement weather the smoke from the mighty V8s was contributing to the passengers' discomfort and causing some of the more fragile landlubbers to puke over the side, thus spoiling their excursion. We pulled out the 3208s, installed C7s and the the patrons' gastric upset was somewhat mitigated. The undertaking wasn't a great success in other areas, but that's a story for another day......
All these lame engines from that era had their own unique smell. I'm thinking of the 3208, 8.2, 6.9 IH, 9.0 IH. You get a bunch of them congregated in one area on a cold morning, it made you question your decisions in life.
Yes I used to own a 6.9 IH in a F250 Ford . I had to use starting fluid in the summer to start it . I now own a deleted powerstroke Ford that smokes like a heathen and the smell of raw diesel is just everywhere especially in colder temps . As for the 3208 yes she has her own distinctive smell too . Enjoy the day guys and gals ....Valentine’s Day
Apparently back in the 70s there were lots of 3208-powered gensets on platforms in the North Sea offshore oil industry. The story was that when a genset wore out a welder would be called to cut round the floor under the set and drop the whole shooting match into the sea. Weld a plate over the hole, install a brand-new set, and happy daze - until the next time.
That story there just goes to prove that the dirty old 3208 was a pretty decent workhorse in its day
I drove for a construction company in the early 80s that had a large fleet of Ford LN 8000s with 3208s. They were quite a step up from the Ford L 800s with the 475 gassers. They started easily in any weather, did a lot better on fuel, and made lots of smoke. The engines lasted longer than the rear ends as the trucks were routinely loaded with 40,000 lbs. The rear axle housings would bend and break. Then they got some Binders with DT 466s and they left the Fords and little Cats in the dust. Not long after that, the company went out of business.