D6B how bad are the early engines?

[CR]

Speaking of the "rose colored glasses"

in this thread

http://www.acmoc.org/bb/showthread.p...d-clutch/page3

you post that you worked for California Canners and growers which was bought by Tri Valley Growers when Cal-Can failed in 1983.

Again what kind of cats were you operating and repairing during your ten year at Tri Valley?..





I hate to come down to your level... but you do it every time anyone with experience post on this board..

[Old Magnet]

What!!!!!!
Never did work for Tri-Valley.
Was in charge of Engineering for four of the seven plants that at one time was Calif, Canners & Growers.

In those days it was design and specification of machinery and equipment, construction management, installation and startups, expansions and maintenance staffing.

One of several stints with fortune 100 companies such as Standard Oil, United Technoligies, Owens Corning Fiberglass.....
The wrenching I do and observe on my own....never worked as a mechanic except for my time in the Navy. Fortunate to have the high road and made good money. Enjoying my retirement.

Nothing wrong with experience but there is a big difference between design and create vs fix and repair.

Is this what you refer to as "Rose Colored Glasses"????

[u-joint]

wow!
several stints with fortune 100 companies?
high road, made good money?
nothing wrong with experience? big difference between design vs repair?
















why is the word insecure on my mind!

[Old Magnet]

Because you are....

[u-joint]

like your mother...

[Grizz]

Boy this sure went off the rails, I know that a lot of engines in certain stages of their production have inherent problems, which are ussually corrected later in production.
But as humans we tend to look back on old machines and life in general with What I believe OM was refering to as "rose colored glasses" : a view in which the problems of the past are forgotten or glossed over and the good things magnified.
Every time I see a thread lead to personal attack or insult it reminds me of a school yard, and what we didn't learn there.

[Old Magnet]

Your right on target there.....that was my intention for the expression.
Thanks for your response.

[chumduffy]

Old Magnet, what is your actual experience with the d333 engines? have you owned any? have you worked on any? have you seen any torn apart? have you ran any? or is your experience limited to what you have heard from others, or from out of the book? i have been around several D6B's in the oil fields of Pa that were building locations, and moving old spudder drilling rigs and latter on rotary rigs. i had two competitors in the forestry road building business that ran D6B's for several years, all these machines were subjected to very hard work and very severe conditions where temperatures will range high 80's low 90's early summer to zero to 20 below in winter with very high humidity year round and I just can't remember these dozers having high engine failures. not trying to be a smart A** but can't understand how i could have it so wrong.

[anyoldiron]

l went shopping for a Dozer recently. l had a project and price in mind not a brand. l looked at a Allis and a couple of IH monsters before a Cat came up in my shipping area.
Before going to look at the machine i called a couple of "in there 60s" logger Gents about 'older' cats, both have different appoaches and opinons (on most things) but have huge experiance. When questioned about 50s-60s cats they both said the same thing without prompting " the whole range was pretty much bulletproof apart from the D6s the early 6cyls had lemon motors and when they fixed that the first gen powershifts where weak, you will see them for sale cheap in comparrison to other heaver units, and thats why".
So i ended up with a D7. True or not it seems to be what people take as 'gospel' here.

[Old Magnet]

chumduffy,

My exposure to the early D330's and D333's (A series) was in a position responsible for Company Equipment owned by others in support of manufacturing and contracting. Applications were landfill operations, waste disposal, water reclamation, waste water disposal, pipeline work, site work using assorted brands of dozers, loaders, graders, cranes plus standby and emergency generators.
I was the one that prepaired the budgets, justified and purchased the equipment, managed the maintenance staff, and was accountable for equipment availability. To me those early units were a lot of grief with major engine issues of cracked castings, failed water pumps,spun bearings usually amounting to destroyed crankshafts and blocks. Not what I wanted to see on the shop floor. They were dogs with issues that other brands did not have. At least not the same.

At the time I had a pretty good network of plant contacts, and they were having the same issues.

That was a lot of years ago and I had pretty much forgotten about it until about the early 90's when participating or reading about these old issues once again on the Bulletin Board or from email contacts.

As far as machines I work on.....they are my own....Three 7U D4's, One D6 9U, a Cletrac AG4, a Case 530 CK backhoe loader and a Ford 860.

Correction:
Thats two 7U D4's and one 6U just to keep the record straight.

At this point I'd just as soon say those engine were all just dandy and forget about it again!!!!!