Looking at a new boat with cat d343's

[sandspur1966]

I am an old 2 stroke DD guy and know little to nothing about the different model cats. I know many of you guys have heavy equipment experience with big cat diesels.

These are d-343's rated at 460 hp with high hours.

Interested in general opinions on them, durability, ease of maintenance, cost of in frame rebuild etc.

 

[jim rosenthal]

Shawn, look on boatdiesel.com. If I'm thinking of the right engine, these were very good, but haven't been built for many years now. Are they big inline sixes?

 

[jim rosenthal]

I decided to look myself; I could not find much on D343s. I think overall they were good diesels, but have been out of production for decades. How many parts are available I don't know. A Cat dealer ought to be able to tell you. Condition, and a thorough engine survey, ought to give you some guidance.

 

[rmatt]

They were a very good engine. Six cyl inline 5.4 bore.They were the predecessor to the 3406. I think they were discontinued in the late seventies, early eighties.

 

[Salty Dame]

They used to be the workhorse of the Southeast Alaska seine fleet and a lot of smaller tugs had /have them. What kind of boat are you looking at. Not a Hat I'm guessing.

 

[jim rosenthal]

I did find a little on them in the way of CAT data sheets from back then. Nothing much else. It must be a big boat. They weight 6000 pounds each, with Twin Disc gears included. 15 liters each, or something like that. BIG kitties.

 

[sandspur1966]

You guys are amazing... i ask about an obscure engine and you pretty much deduced the exact boat...
Not a hatt... Burger

Big.... 80

Year 1976

 

[saltshaker]

Those are big engines for that HP rating. How high are the hours and how do they run? I know nothing about them but given their displacement to HP ratio and the fact that they're in a Burger, if they've been well maintained they may be OK providing parts are available. If they need majors, it might make sense to look at repower options. There are some pretty good deals on remans and good take outs.

 

[dsharp]

They used to run those engines in shrimp boats for years. You couldn't hardly kill them.

 

[geofish]

They used to run those engines in shrimp boats for years. You couldn't hardly kill them.

Those were and still are great engines, I had them in several fishing boats but they were rated at about 365 HP. Ran forever, never failed wish I had a boat big enough to carry them. Very sooty on start up. I traveled the world on single engine boats up to 85 ft with those engines and to this day I miss them. Buy it!

 

[Glory]

Cat used thoes engines in track machines like the D8, a dozer with a blade in the 13 or 14' area, and likely near 75,000#. I've seen these engines with 20,000 house on them in that application.

Is it in a Roamer?

JM

 

[rmatt]

Cat D8H- D8K dozers had D342 engines 5.75 bore also a very good engine.

 

[SeaEric]

There is a pretty nice 64' Burger Cruiser 1972 for sale in Norwalk. She was repowered by a former owner with Cat 3406's. The asking price is attractive.

 

[Robby]

Get the engine S/Ns and take them to Cat.They can give you a history.I just did that with my Cats.Found out my 3216s were 2000 models and they have 1200hrs on them.Less than a hundred a year.

 

[sandspur1966]

There is a pretty nice 64' Burger Cruiser 1972 for sale in Norwalk. She was repowered by a former owner with Cat 3406's. The asking price is attractive.

Thanks, looks like a nice boat but the 64 is too close to my 58 to deal with the hassle of a sale and purchase.

The boat i'm looking at has the D 343's and the gear is tuned for a 12 knt cruise at 1750 rpm with right around 9000 hrs. The price reflects them needing an in frame with a price offset of 30k a side.

Early in the process so I have not had surveys or done the research with Poole on the real cost of a rebuild.

Also has Sperry stabs which I have no experience with either. I have used their commercial equipment on tugs so appreciate the brand.

 

[geofish]

We used our 343's very hard ruuning 24/ 7 for 20-30 days at a time, We would pull the heads every year and see that the cylinders were still perfect and put the heads back on year after year. Do a bore scope and drop a couple bearings for starters that should tell you what you need to Know. I like my 8v92 TI enginges but they are no match for those cats We run a 300 foot boat in Alaska and it has a 353 e-generator, has never failed to start.

Another engine I loved was the DD 6110 does any have one their boat?

 

[SeaEric]

Another engine I loved was the DD 6110 does any have one their boat?

I sold an 83' Broward 1958 (wood) that was powered with a pair of original (rebuilt) 6-110's. They purred, and still are.

 

[jim rosenthal]

I have never been on a boat with 6-110s, but I saw a set out of the boat years ago in Chesapeake, VA. They made 6-71s look like desk models. Very durable, low-stress engines that didn't make huge hp but tons of torque and would run for decades. There are probably a bunch of them still out there chugging along.

 

[sandspur1966]

I delivered an old (1927) steel yacht to St Vincent that had 6-110's. They were dry stack, keel cooled, air-started and had more than 20,000 hours. At WOT the stack belched enough soot and smoke that it looked like we were burning coal but they were unbelievably reliable.

That whole trip, aside from oil, the only thing that went sideways was one of the air starters. The boat had these old bakelite vanes in stock, wrapped in oil paper and dated to the 40's (this was in the late 80's) the starter could be repaired, in place in 20 minutes. Pull the end cap, clean out the old piece parts of the broken vanes, slide in the new ones and easy-peasy back in business.

25 years later it would not surprise me if they were still running without rebuild.

 

[geofish]

I really liked the sound of 6110s, kinda purred in my opinion but they were big!