3406 Cat Crank

I was in the machine shop yesterday, there was this HUGE crank in the jaws of the crank grinder, i asked the boss, is this a 3406 crank, he shock his head yes, Darn is that a piece of Metal, i drove one for 750 thousand,but all i did was put in bearings twice. those counter balance throws in the middle are wide, Oh i am sure the Tractor Vet has seen one, but the rest of you, seen one!!

Never seen one but put a bunch of miles on them. 1 has a 1,150,000 I put all but 450 miles on it. The other has about the same mileage with me only putting on the last 500,000 miles. and then another I had is in a Stieger now not sure how many miles that one has or I put on it. Sure does pull good in that Stieger though. Will pull 30ft sunflower disc in the 5-6 mph range easily. That engine when I bought the truck had papers where it had just recently had an in frame. I ran it a year before pulling it for the tractor and it set in the shed for a couple more. I should probably put new bearings in the one I'm driving.

You should see one from a 95l v16 cummins.

Or a v16 caterpillar

That one wouldn't even fit in the machine,LOL, but i did see that big Allis crawler with the two 855 Cummins molded together,That tracks on that crawler are almost 6 foot high, on a old D-8 sitting next to it didn't come to my waist

The good old VTA 1710.

I have a block from the VTA1710's replacement, the QST30, in my yard. We plant flowers in it.

I hope you have not seen many cranks from the "Hedgehog" QSK95. It has only been in production for 5 years so far.

I see them everyday and also 30 liters going down the assembly line.

It is amazing how much metal it takes to counterbalance the forces of combustion and balance all the parts

I've seen 3406 and 855 cranks. Drove 2 kw's with the 3406 B. Loved those engines. RB

Do I know you? I was at Seymour from 2007 to 2015. Then moved back to Wisconsin. I commissioned HHP15 for testing the production QSK95's.

Something about the purr of a caterpillar running rite is soothing to the soul
Has to be perfectly tuned though.
That "knock" is music to the ears

Well you may! I came from ctc to stc in 2014. I did not do much around hhp 15 since it was a production cell. Shoot me an email..my id is bi457 and you know the rest. You still work for cummins?

I was working at Allis Chalmers Springfield when they had three prototypes at the proving grounds.
One had twin-engines. I don't think they built one for production. Is the prototype still around?

That one i was referring to is a Cummins, two 855 molded together in a V formation, its at Albany Minnesota at the thresing show grounds, the owner of it gave it to the association!

It is amazing how they will pull at low RPM. I have been right down to 650 RPMs on a gentle slope, very light on the throttle, and it would keep on pulling 73,000.

I cant remember how many 3406 cranks I have seen. I was a field mechanic for a Cat dealer from 1992-2006. The 3516 was the biggest diesel I have worked on. I did get a few jobs on a 3612 NG engine though.

Not to hijack your thread, but I saw a GMC V12 702 gasoline engine sitting in the machine shop a few years ago. They had ground the crank on it and assembled the rest of the engine. I guess it was just sitting there as a conversation piece more than anything. The machine shop had long finished it and the owner couldn't come up with enough money to take it home. Perhaps the machine shop did a price bait-and-switch with the owner of the 702...like he did to me.

I was with the 30 liter from December 1, 2006 to March 1, 2008. After 40 years I found out they would pay me not to come in. I retired. Before that, 1992 to 2004 with 15 liter later known as ISX. We probably crossed paths.

I worked on the Apex development, later to become the isx. I would hate to say how many of them I rebuilt, 2 of use could do a piston, liner swap and have it back on test in 6 hrs.

They are not that big . Personally i have never been into a 3406 other then change T stats . The crank that amazed me was the crank out of and Allison V 12 , you can lift it with one hand as it is Hollow . I was not a Cat truck engine fan . I liked the NTC and NTA Cummins . They were fun to play with and miss match pieces and parts and make them go . Last big truck i drove had a 3406 E with the BOX added pushing it above the 550Hp and it was ok to the point that with just shy of a 100 Grand setting on the deck coming N. on I 77 i could top Fancy gap at 72-74 Mph , my OLD 4300 with what started life as a NTC Small cam would take the same weight up the same hill between 78 and 82 and Dine on KTA600's for a snack. NOW that was FUN My favort thing was running up a hill with a Charge on yelling HERE KITTY KITTY and blow by them like i was empty.

While working at Dana we received several pallets of 3406 cranks. Cat had rent the shop for a crank grinding school. There were 8 or 10 men in the class and one woman. Come to find out the lady was the boss.

I work in the nondestructive evaluation..NDE..field. One of the short term jobs I had when I got into it about 20 years ago did some wet magnetic particle testing, which some may know as Magnaflux on semi-huge crankshafts. They were about 15ft long, someone thought they were for locomotives. I say semi-large because these would be baby sized compared to a ship engine crank.
To go another route I have always been amazed by the offset throws of the crankshaft used in the even fire GM 3800 engine, see example in the link. In the late 80s Buick produced the Regal with a turbocharged 3.8 V6 245hp stock. A quick Google showed someone has a modified one pushing 800hp. The amazing part to me is that 5 of the 6 cylinders push their power through that offset throw at the back between cylinders 5 & 6. Any kind of reliability to that arrangement seems incredible to me.
3800 crank example

Link to example of large ship engine crankshaft mentioned in my other post.
Poke here

Tractor Vet,

You got to tell us more about what you did to that Cummins.

Vito

Let him rest, he is probably still winded from the last story he told. Vet, I hope you know my pokes at you are all in fun.

I have a lot of respect for the 3800 engine,except for the leaky intake,LOL !

What all i did , some head work with all valves Stelite some port work , a matched set of what was called SIX shooter injectors. Pulsar Exhaust manifold , Custom built turbo , pump work with a drilled throttle shaft and spring changes inside , four shims to bring RPM up from 2150 run out to 2475 run out , v 12 gear pump , from the 3/4 inch to the 1 and 1/8th a slight change in cam timing and a balance job . All this work was done a little at a time . This all started after i took mine up to Cummins for two reasons First was the oil problem . My buddy and i had two 4300's both bought from the same dealer on the same Thursday evening , Both trucks were Built the same except color , same engines , same transmissions same tires same rear ends just color , both were a blues with several colors and striping . The deal on the pair was THOUSANDS under everybody , BUT we had to do our own install of the fifth wheels wet lines and fenders . NOT a big deal with us and the dealer let us use his Frame drill the pieces and parts for this was in the price of the trucks . Straight out the gate my buddy's truck ran better then mine . Till i took it up to Cummins to be put in service and tell them that mine was eating oil His was not . The service manager and his brother who was a mechanic were friends of mine . I asked Bobby if he could get me a WEEEEEE bit more go power and Bobby told Chucky to TWEAK it a bit so he did and to check his work they put it on the dyno and even after the Tweak she was not getting the job done and found a problem in the pump so the pump came off and back into the pump room it went and the problem was found a taken care of along with a unmentioned ft spring change . Well now my truck was way faster and more pull power then my buddy's and the BATTLE WAS ON . Then Mike took his up and his ran better then mine again . Mine had to go up and have the sleeves and pistons changed due to the oil problem , Mikes engine never had that problem and once again Chucky did the work and a wee bit more , and when i got it back the next morning Mike and i went on our gravy haul that started off with a load of fire clay to a pipe plant then down to Zoar for two to three loads of shale to the pipe plant . We did not haul light most of our loads were in the 40-45 ton range and we live in hill country . On the shale haul were run up and down I 77 getting on one mile north of the scales and at the bottom of the long hill You had one mile to get rolling before the big hill . Every Thursday like clock work the portable scales would be setting in the cross over at the bottom of the big hill and watching for someone dragging the hill . We never were dragging on the hill Mike and i would be Passing every thing all the way up and over . In there eyes LITTLE trucks don't go fast and little trucks going fast up a hill are NOT hauling heavy . Our trucks had one STOCK pipe with Muffler up the right side , No dual seven inch straight pipes with no mufflers just two sharp little trucks pulling a tandem 30 foot box dump trailer that were always clean and shinny , no extra chicken lights . Mike and i got both trucks running almost even but i did have about two or three MPH more on the top end . This went on for over a year till one day we got split up i had to go west and he went east , when we got back together he cleaned my clock not by just a little but by a bunch like a whole gear more and the battle was on once again . till he told me about the HOT DOG shop and what was across the street . Bobby and Chucky were good BUT Bruce was better and the devil made me do it . When done picture a Hemi Road Runner pulling a 16 foot fiberglass boat behind it . There are a few people still alive that remember those two I H 4300's , my Buddy SID got to run the truck for a week when we had our fist daughter . He had fun , Big ZEK who last i knew works for R&J trucking Capt. Crunch also worked for R&J Mountain Climber and again worked for R & J . Then we come to Frank Rodgers AKA HOG HEAD ain't seen him in god forty years Don't think he will ever forget those two 4300's and all the money he spent tryen to out run us . First it was when he had the 8V 92 475's in 4300 I H's and The first afternoon at the salt mine, As we called them the river rat crew did not know how to get out of the mine and back up on I 77 so Mike and i lead the way out down to I 480 . We told them to TRy and keep up . Well we got them onto 480 and Mike and i layed the coal to them and were gone . We all were going to St. clairsville Mike and i never saw them again till we were coming back empty for the house till Mingo Jct on Rt 7 . Hog Head was ticked NOBODY runs away from his trucks . We heard that when they dumper the whole crew spent the night at Western Branch diesel getting them worked on . Two day later back at the salt mine once again we run into Hog Head and company nad we are all going to west fifth st. Columbus salt shed . Once again Mike and i lead Hog head and Company out of the salt mine down W 25 th st. in Cleveland onto I 71 and down past the turn pike and the BIG long hill that will suck the life out of some of the best . Once again we were gone donw dump and coming back as they were just going by the Delaware exit still south bound . Next time round Frank had a brand new Freightliner with the 3408 Cat turned up Big truck with a twin stick 6 and 4 and once again that one was nothing more then a light snack . Even the KTA 600's turned up 20% were not a problem . Now for the down side of the fun , She ate head gskt's and head bolts , usually you would start to see seepage and for a buck and a half the problem was cured about 55-65000 miles along with about four to five hours of work once you get the short cuts down and it was time to run the overheads anyway. She ran for just shy of 400000 when she ate a piston and limped it home and in three and a half days and for under 2500 bucks she was back up and running . At least back then ya did not need twenty grand in tools and electronic to work on them , a jake brake socket , a valve wrench , a fuel pum and compressor wrench , and inch pound torque wrench a 1/2 inch torque wrench and a 3/4 torque wrench and the dial indicators for the cam timing and if you wanted to be fancy the set to set the injectors everything else could come from Sears . But the big thing about back in the day is god we had FUN and truck drivers could really DRIVE . If i was to do this all over would i have changed anything Yep , (1) i would have gone longer wheel base (2) Sleeper would have been a walk in (3) gear ratio would not have been 4.33 but 3.90 . as i had never really planned on going out on the road and just running with in W. Pa ,W Va. Oh. maybe a little Mich. NOT 27 states and being out there all week . Yea i can rattle on as you can probably tell i am BOARD , This bug thing is getting me down . And would be the last thing i need to get so i am Holed up . And with the county numbers going up and up each day with no let up . Lost my Dad last year and pretty sure it was from the bug as he was the first at that nursing home to die and they started dropping like flys days after . So now going out has become a walk in a Mine field on a dark night

Tractor Vet, when I had my 2003 5900i it had the C-15 set for 475. I was happy with what she would do. I didn't run away from anybody, but nobody ran away from me either. One day I was talking with the service manager at the dealership where I bought it, and asked about getting it turned up a little. He told me that it could be turned easily up to 550. So I asked well what will that do to my fuel mileage? He answered that it would be no more than a 10% drop so i told him that I was good at 475 and kept on getting 6.5 mpg.

It is very possible. At that time I was Manufacturing Engineer of Upfit/Paint/Tag. I enjoyed the work and the people down there. There are many times I wish I was still there.

The 98 9400 i was driving there for a while on the over sized stuff with the 3406 E turned up somewhere around 740 so they say with 3.90 gears on tall 24.5's in the summer months would do .6.5 to 6.7 everyday running hard , when winter came and the truck running 24-7 i was still getting decent mileage between 5.9 and 6.2 . running heavy most of the time . Only light loads if you want to call them light were the New Gradalls at around 48-49 grand but still was and over load due to light weight. The OLD Cummins stayed around 5.5 to 5.8 and that was a bunch better then the days with the 318 and a avg of 3.7- 4.2 and a gallon a day on oil . Back in the early coal hauling and only running about a max of a 100 miles one way We would normally burn around a 120-150 gallon of fuel a day and a gallon of Delo 100 30 weight , Come in at night and stuf the two hoses in the tanks and go fetch a gallon of oil then thump tires and check the coolant . Then ya may need to adjust brakes . Back in the fun/ outlaw days we had a blast and it was a competition on who had the running trucks , who hauled the big Jag's , that title went to Big D Martin when he bought the 34 foot City Welding trailer with three on the ground and a forth on air and twin 12 inch HyCo scopes in the nose . And a new 359 Pete up ft with a 1693 Cat cranked up from day one . He loaded a load of Manginess ore out of the Revenna arsenal that was a foot over top the boards on a 6 foot deep trailer and had to be split weighed at S H BELL on scales that went to 160000 lbs and pegged the scales then found out even with the twin scopes he could not lift the load and they had to clam off half before he could lift it and dump. I worked for Big Dee and he told you when you started he did not want to see any bills come in the office with less then 35 ton Tat day he put the super charge on i was pulling out as he was coming in to load and asked me if i had enough on because he could not see it i had the 32 foot City with and air axle lead on the tri . I was about half full up the 6 foot sides and had 65 and a half ton on. I was glad it was going DOWN to the river and not try bring that up off the river since them hill coming UP off the river were Steep .