Catapillar C9 engine 500hp

[Canopy Locked]

I have no experience with these bigger engines and so would be gratful for some thoughts from those who have.

Q. If one was looking at buying a boat with a C9, are there any known issues or major service items that one would look for?

Q. Would a C9 that had 3500 hrs on it in 6 years, be considered to have high engine hours? What sort of life time might one reasonably expect? (assume operated IAW scheduled maintenance)

Q. The engine is matched to a Twin Disc gear box - any known issues to look for?

Q. If one had a choice which would be the preferred engine for reliability (fuel consumption is secondary)


A Catapillar C9 500 Hp with 3500 hrs or Volvo tamd63p 400hp with 1000 hours

As I say, I've no experience of these bigger engines so would be grateful for any thoughts and observations from those who know!

Rob

 

[Latestarter1]

I have no experience with these bigger engines and so would be gratful for some thoughts from those who have.

Q. If one was looking at buying a boat with a C9, are there any known issues or major service items that one would look for?

Q. Would a C9 that had 3500 hrs on it in 6 years, be considered to have high engine hours? What sort of life time might one reasonably expect? (assume operated IAW scheduled maintenance)

Q. The engine is matched to a Twin Disc gear box - any known issues to look for?

Q. If one had a choice which would be the preferred engine for reliability (fuel consumption is secondary)


A Catapillar C9 500 Hp with 3500 hrs or Volvo tamd63p 400hp with 1000 hours

As I say, I've no experience of these bigger engines so would be grateful for any thoughts and observations from those who know!

Rob

Hi Rob,

C9 510 excellent motor. 503 SAE HP @ 2,500 rpm and is Caterpillar D rating 'Intermittent Duty - For vessels operating at rated load and rated speed up to 16 percent of the time, or 2 hours out of 12, (up to 50 percent load factor). Typical applications could include but are not limited to vessels such as offshore patrol boats, customs boats, police boats, some fishing boats, fireboats, or harbor tugs. Typical operation ranges from 1000 to 3000 hours per year.'

3,500 hours in 6 years is nowt. CAT publish a total fuel burn figure in U.S. gallons for life to overhaul calculations, for a 'D' rated engine I would expect this would equate to at at least 18,000 hours.

Some isolated injector issues, however CAT are real good at looking after you outside warranty if it their problem. Only weak point is seawater aftercooler, oil sample will give you the heads up on that score. And of course that darn Sherwood raw water pump.

Twin Disc with very few exceptions also 'solid'.

Volvo Penta 63p 400 rating never heard of it.........Highest rating I am aware of is 370, which is all smoke and windows, actually 355 proper horsepower.

 

[oGaryo]

I know nothing of this engine but a quick search using Latestarter's first paragraph found this PDF which looks useful:

http://marine.cat.com/cda/files/889622/7/LEDM3457-15%20final%20LR.pdf

 

[Canopy Locked]

Many thanks Paul.. that's most helpful

BR
Rob

 

[stuartwineberg]

I am sure Volvopaul will arrive soon with comments on the Volvo engine but many of the threads here comment on the special service tools that Cats need and more or less require you to have servicing done by a Cat agent

 

[volvopaul]

I am sure Volvopaul will arrive soon with comments on the Volvo engine but many of the threads here comment on the special service tools that Cats need and more or less require you to have servicing done by a Cat agent

Stuart, I would never doubt latestarter s info on cat engines, the C9 engine sounds a great bet, as I'm not that impressed with some of the older cat motors, the 63 p is a favourite of mine but didn't realise it was a 355hp motor in true terms.

 

[Latestarter1]

Stuart, I would never doubt latestarter s info on cat engines, the C9 engine sounds a great bet, as I'm not that impressed with some of the older cat motors, the 63 p is a favourite of mine but didn't realise it was a 355hp motor in true terms.

63P was last roll of the dice before Volvo engineering ethics group nailed runaway VP marketing folks. If you look at spec sheet prime curve of 370 hp is with totally unrealistic 25 C test fuel, second curve is with 40 C test fuel which comes down to a published 360 hp, however this is metric hp, but not clear from spec sheet. VP got real with their data once D4/D6 came along and honest 40 C test fuel power numbers prevail.

Volvo were first to start the silly game, but to their credit were also one of the first in the move back to publishing honest power numbers. CAT always published honest horsepower, also with introduction of electronic engines, went a stage further, athough spec is plus/minus 5% only engines making nominal to +5% seem to find their way through hot test, making low power complaints very rare.