Rings don't seat real easy on the hard Cat cylinders, even new ones. Cat put out a service bulliten many, many years ago recommending BonAmi scouring powder dusted into the air intake to break the glaze and help seat rings. That's all I'm going to say on that; I'll leave it to people (I'm sure we have some!) who have had experience with the process.

No, Tom, I won't make it to the Richmond show. I didn't even make it to Brooks this year. When your idea of steady employment is a string of odd jobs and you have a kid in college, you don't walk off until the jobs run out!

Best to you,

Jack

Jack I know that Cat did recommend using the Bon Ami 50 yrs. ago but they came out with improved piston rings & pistons too & then they published again not to use it with these newer parts.I used lots of it back in the 50s at the dealer & yes it did work but then had to stop it after the later bulletin came out. I suppose a few people use it yet but it,s not worth the chance of damaging things in there. It does create a problem with the Gen. set if you can,t get & keep a good heavy steady load on it.With older engines it still could have the older parts that the Bon Ami wouldn,t hurt but then again a guy doesn,t know if the later rings etc. are in it now from an overhaul.

Thanks for clearing the BonAmi question up, SJ. I suspected there was more to it than I know about. That's why I was very willing to shut up when I did.

Dad sold Cat ag tractors up to the early 50's. I remember the shop crew talking about BonAmi. I suppose they used it. I never saw it first hand.

You got any other "magic tricks" for Tom's wet stacker?

Jack

Jack, the first thing is to make sure the thermostat is good or even install a new one so it,s running up to operating temp. If bad comes to worse the only other thing is to remove the pistons & get a ball hone & break the glaze on the liner walls & install new ring groups.Those D311s aren,t very easy to get the pistons out as the rod is bigger than the liner so I,d keep trying the full load process as the last resort.

I see the combine has the diamond tread tires, a while back there was a question on either the RedPower or ACME board wondering what the advantages of these tires were over bar type tires.
Thanks
Art