$2000 for a Cat tech? Good luck You’ll spend way more than that. The 25 YO fella that shows up from the dealer, will be in awe of the first 3116 he has probably ever seen, and now gets to practice working on your rig at $190@ hr.
Looking at that video I posted to you really think it will be $2000 at a dealer....and done right?
I really appreciate the line questioning guys. I have been my own service department my entire life except the early years of employment as an aircraft mechanic for yours and Uncle Sam's war fighting machines and therefore probably a bit naïve to the ways of current mainstream dealership/tech services. I would hope they would not quote a rate, or entertain a job if they did not have the resources (technicians) that know how to perform it and how long they expected but your input seems legit based on what I have seen with the new workforce and business practices in general. With this feedback I'm just planning on doing it myself and then I only have me to blame and pay for making it right if needed.
I would connect a primer pump and try that before pulling injectors. Cylinder 5&6 will have you hating life.
Good advice but I jumped the gun and pulled them and now have accepted my fate of hating life sometime in the future when I put this back together and unknowingly added a new headache of trying to find someone with a test bench to check these buggers. I could be wrong but we cracked lines and cranked and had clear fuel everywhere we could check and went through more cranking campaigns than I have ever done to get any of the Perkins, other Cat, or DT engines going with no improvement in wanting to start. I would have bet a 30 rack that it would have been thoroughly purged and primed by then unless it was getting more air in. It would consistently produce smoke during cranking and it would hit on one cylinder repeatably but never more than that, it sure seemed like it was getting air in somewhere after the fuel enters the head fuel galley (presumably the sleeve to injector connection?) and that kept it from being able to fire on any downstream cylinders towards the back of the block.
You mentioned installing aftermarket primer pumps on these engines. Do you have a link or information to share on what you used and where you put it? I'm considering adding such a thing for the same reasons, to get it primed after injector reinstall and when filters are changed or when it sits in storage for most the winter when I don't need it. Assuming this pans out to be worthy of adding to my fleet of inexpensive to purchase yet mentally and maintenance-ly taxing farm trucks.
A lot would depend on the quality of oil/filters used in the engine during its life and whether or not the oil change intervals had been strictly adhered to. HEUI injectors don't like dirty oil if you want them to live a long life.
Good point. I picked it up with relatively new filters (maybe Napa brand if I recall correctly), used but good looking oil at the right level, and clean fuel with no water that came out the separator drain. This was just one recent snapshot in its life that suggested at least recent maintenance but I agree doesn't really speak to the full history of regular and good quality maintenance.
The same result can be obtained with a cylinder cutout test using ET without even removing the injectors.
What is ET? I am familiar with an injector "buzz" test I've done on DT444E injectors with engine off. I did the poor mans version of this when we were cranking with the valve cover off and listened and felt for each injector solenoid actuating and all seemed to be functioning. Plus the evidence of smoke and an occasional fire while cranking indicated injectors were functional and delivering some fuel but probably not at the right quantity, timing, atomization (air in fuel), or heat (compression) to combust. With the scan tool I have it does a cutout test/cylinder contribution test but only with the engine running. Not having anything to connect to this Cat EDM or IDM and with a non-running engine I didn't think I would be able to perform that test.
Thanks much for the information on the tooling required! I'm going shopping now.
With everyone's input and suggestions I am currently planning on purchasing the tooling to ream sleeves and reinstall injectors and avoid the costs, potential incompetency, and being at the 'mercy' of expensive dealer techs. I appreciate everyone's contributions thus far and spending the time to research and provide information to help me out. I do have a lead on someone who thinks he might be able to get an injector holder for his test bench to check these (he does 3126 HEUI injectors already). If not I'll ream the sleeves, reinstall and seat the existing injectors and try again hoping for the best in at least getting to run.
