CAT 3116 vs 3126
This question does not pertain to Motorhomes per se, but I have been looking at some boats recently that are powered either by the 3116 or the 3126 depending upon the year of manufacture. These are...
Forum Discussion
BobR wrote:
I owned the 3116 engines. In the 1995/96 time frame they did have some bad castings of engine blocks. Failures occurred in the first few years so by now that shouldn't be a concern but I would check the history of the engines using their serial numbers with Caterpillar. Also, the turbos were modified (drilled out) to increase oil flow through them. At the time, it was recommended to use straight 30 wt Rotella for max flow.
As far as problems, I did have to have several fuel injectors replaced. Other than that, no problems. I would check boating sites for other input since marine applications are the much more severe on an engine running 80% load continuously.
As far as fuel consumption, I was running a 40 foot flybridge weighing 26,000 lbs. My cruise was 20 kts and fuel consumption was 1 to 1.2 gpm which in the boating world was darn good.
Thanks for the input, you are right the fuel consumption was darn good to say the least!
I read about the block issues on some boating sights, apparently they were from the foundry in France and would not be an issue now. Read about a few injector replacements as well.
These units are in a 44 foot flybridge with a 28,000 lbs weight, so performance should be comparable.
