Hot CAT forestry mulcher!

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kkottemann

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I have a contract in Louisiana to do some mechanical fuel reduction for the state office of forestry. I settled on the CAT 299C compact loader outfited with the cat version of the FAE mulching head. All has been going well until the last few weeks. I cannot seem to get but one and a half hours of production without it overheating. cat checked it out, and all is well with the machiene. They suggested adding a vent on the rear door to allow more air to flow through the motor. Now it is really hot and dry and dust is a problem currently. Has anybody else encountered these issues with a similar piece of equipment and how did you rectify the problem? At 230 degrees i have to shut it down. It has been working between 210 and 216, after that she spikes up pretty quick and indicators light up which means it is time to stop. What about some additives to the coolant? Remember....its hot down here. no relief. 80 degrees at 6 am, thats as good as it gets.
 
do you blow your air cleaner and radiator out with air every couple of days?i have to clean my dozers air cleaner daily in the summertime and it helps..how much smoke comes out the exhaust?do you think you could be running lean on fuel?
 
When it get's dusty, that's just the way it is. You have to shut it down and blow out the radiator & oil cooler when she starts getting hot. When it rains a little and it's not so dusty you can go 1/2 day or more before you have to blow it out.
When the oil cooler & radiator get full of crap it restricts the air flow. No air, no cooling.

Andy
 
hey red,few years back our cat would overheat bad could not figure what was wrong?turned out they had the fuel pump turned way too high,it was great the thing would climb anything in second gear but halfway up you would have to neutral and cool for three 4 minutes,we are having the same problem right now with our newer cat right now firkin powerhouse it is but you gotta shut down for cooling,apparently there is a secondary thermostat on the base of the radiator got one coming in next week,hopefully that fixes it...
 
bullbuck said:
hey red,few years back our cat would overheat bad could not figure what was wrong?turned out they had the fuel pump turned way too high,it was great the thing would climb anything in second gear but halfway up you would have to neutral and cool for three 4 minutes,we are having the same problem right now with our newer cat right now firkin powerhouse it is but you gotta shut down for cooling,apparently there is a secondary thermostat on the base of the radiator got one coming in next week,hopefully that fixes it...
Click to expand...

Hahaha. You needed a pyrometer on that cat. When they mess around turning up the pump you've got to watch the exhaust gas temp more than the cooling temp. When I was trucking I saw more than one Cat, or Cummins burn a hole in the top of a piston. :cry:
I guess the new equipment is nice, except when some engineer somewhere decides to put something (like that extra thermostat) somewhere, and forgets to tell you about it. All that computerized crap drives me nut's too. I am a firm believer that a computer belongs on a desk, not in a piece of equipment. We used to be the computer on a piece of equipment, but we've now been replaced.

Andy
 
well this is a 77'model d6c if im not mistaken?no computers here just real steel,but yeah even george didnt know abot this thermostat?we have replaced the fan,radiator,upper thermostat,oil cooler,we are out of options i sure hope this is it..and yes i fully agree computers have no place on steel.
 
bullbuck said:
well this is a 77'model d6c if im not mistaken?no computers here just real steel,but yeah even george didnt know abot this thermostat?we have replaced the fan,radiator,upper thermostat,oil cooler,we are out of options i sure hope this is it..and yes i fully agree computers have no place on steel.
Click to expand...

Ok.:blush:
When you said "newer cat", I thought George must have won the lottery or something and gone big time on us.
I've messed with a few 6's, and never knew they had a second thermostat. I hope that fixes it for you guy's.

Andy
 
thanks for the replys fellas! I keep it real clean. I blow everything out every 2 hours or so. well right now I cannot get two hours of run time. so when I shut down I clean. my problem i believe is the dust/heat. I need to get more air moving through the motor. goanna get that screen put on the back door and hopefully that will help a bit. I got 5 hours of production today, from 6:30 to 11:30.

fill me in more on the problems with second thermostat.....i an not much of a mechanic. Also, the maual calls for 10W 30 oil....how about going to a 15W 40. what about some additives to the coolant? thanks again.
 
Also, I have had it for 6 months now...so i am not a stranger to using it. I ran it all winter and spring with out this issue. got to be the damm heat! 103 by 10 am today in southwest louisiana!
 
103 now thats damn hot!i think they make a coolant called engine ice,i have never tried it but it probably couldnt hurt you situation,also you might check the impellers in your water pump they can deteriorate over time and give you low coolant flow,or your radiator could be plugged from using non distilled water,are you the first owner?
 
i think even a perfectly tuned machine will overheat when worked hard in those conditions,i dont know anything about your attatchment but i assume it is putting a constant load on your motor not giving it sufficient time to catch up on cooling,and also is your machine large enough to power this attatchment?
 
redprospector said:
When I was trucking I saw more than one Cat, or Cummins burn a hole in the top of a piston.
Click to expand...
Lug a B5.9 Cummins up a hill long enough with a load on and this will happen, too. As to the original post, for what a 299 CAT cost, somebody better be able to tell me what's wrong with it. Fool around long enough and it will look like this.......

cat.jpg


catengine.jpg
 
HorseShoeInFork said:
Lug a B5.9 Cummins up a hill long enough with a load on and this will happen, too. As to the original post, for what a 299 CAT cost, somebody better be able to tell me what's wrong with it. Fool around long enough and it will look like this.......

cat.jpg


catengine.jpg
Click to expand...

OUTCH!!
There's been a few of them burn up like that no matter what brand the carrier is. Was that one your's?

Andy
 
I bought it new in december. i have been to cat with it and it checks out just fine, just need more air through the engine....it makes sense. I have the cat 315 mulcher (FAE). It sure does put a strain on the motor though. I demo the gyro trac head last week and it blew mine out the water. much more efficient with a lot less strain on the motor.
 
man it does not even compare! I took out 10 inch material and it did not even seem to strain. made one pass on brush and it was done! I am going to buy it, I would like to get rid of the FAE head first though. The gyro trac guy showed how to sharpen the blades and said you can get about 60 hours out of a set. Not too bad, i am sold...i just need my machine cool down.
 
Can you get more blade on the engine fan, and build a corrugated pre filter, something that will catch some dust?

I know that sounds to simple, but it starts out fine, you may have to stop every hour to blow it out when it get real hot in the dead of summer.
 
thats a good idea! I will look into it. I pretty much do stop every hour or so...the problem is after 4 hours or so it heats up too fast after a break to have a productive day. I am going the get the screen put on the back door this weekend and we will see hot much that helps.
 

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