Cat's Vs Volvo

[Moose]

Cat\'s Vs Volvo

What do you think of the volvo TAMD61 P compared to the equivilent Caterpillar?
Is there anything wrong with a 9 year old Phantom 38?
Thanks and good night!























P.S I will tell you about the F36 later

 

[ToMo]

Re: Cat\'s Vs Volvo

Yes....it's too big, its too quick, its too noisy in the marina;
and I haven't got one!
TôMö

 

[ArthurWood]

Re: Cat\'s Vs Volvo

Beware of Cat 3116s. They've had a lot of probs in the US, but have replaced many, even out of wty.

 

[c_j]

Re: Cat\'s Vs Volvo

ToMo, your dogs a bit pixellated, is it OK?

If I had the choice I would go Cats I think.

CJ
chris@stone.uk.com

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

Re: Cat\'s Vs Volvo

Do you mean 61A or 63P? In any case these are supposedly one of the better Volvos. I also heard Cat had early probs with 3116 and 3126 engines but these should be sorted by now. Cat service supposed to be good. Personally I wouldnt have a problem with either. P38 also a good choice

 

[tcm]

Re: Cat\'s Vs Volvo

i had the 3126's (i think!) in a targa 48, 2x 426hp. Never faltered. There was some "rework" done by factory, three yrs ago. But individual horror/noHorror stories aren't much use, imho....

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

Re: Cat\'s Vs Volvo

Anecdotal stories are just about the only way you're going to hear about probs. The engine manufacturers wont admit to endemic probs and the mags wont publish stories because the manufacturers advertise
The fact is in early '90's Cat introduced a new range of 6 cylinder motors not only for marine use but across their range of products eg excavators, bulldozers etc. There were stories about early failures of marine engines and also, I happen to know, in the construction products.

 

[kimhollamby]

Re: Cat\'s Vs Volvo

Actually Mike, mags are often not able to report endemic faults for a whole bunch of reasons that have nothing to do with advertising and everything to do with affected owners getting settlements of their problems.

The difference between reflecting anecdote in a publication and researching issues to the point where they are proven is another handicap. If we happen to be on the spot when something fails it is a lot more straightforward for us, witness the whole saga we published back in 1999. Even then it took about six months for all the facts to emerge.

But I think it is a major flaw that there appears to be no effective recall system when endemic faults materialise (and that I believe is a criticism of most if not all engine builders). It's not much comfort to later discover that a fault was known about if you blow a turbo or drop a valve spring half way across the Channel.

Associate Publisher ybw.com websites kim_hollamby@ipcmedia.com

 

[tcm]

Re: re Cat\'s Rework

Ah, re the Cat 3216 or whatever number...caterpillar did announce the REWORK program, and (somehow) traced each of the first 20-30 targa 48's in '98 and informaed local cat service centres, who did quite a bit of work, head off whatever it was, all free.

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

Re: Cat\'s Vs Volvo

Apologies, Kim. I dont know what came over me suggesting that editorial integrity could possibly be in any way impeached by the imperatives of the advertising budget. Consider my wrists well and truly slapped

 

[kimhollamby]

Re: re Cat\'s Rework

Good, rare example. Also some recalls do get done on the sly, by dealers when boats are put in for service. But that does rely on owners using main dealers etc etc.

Of course, I'm only after the cash for all those lovely recall ads we are missing out on

Associate Publisher ybw.com websites kim_hollamby@ipcmedia.com

 

[tcm]

Re: re Cat\'s Rework

um, yes, never seen one of those for boats, but they always make the national news for cars.

 

[kimhollamby]

Re: re Cat\'s Rework

Did happen once, many moons ago, when the receiver for Cruisers International at Corby walked through the factory door and found a few letters of complaint from owners of the 267 Vee Express complaining quite unreasonably about the tendency for the bottom to drop out of their boats - literally. Their answer was to formulate an ad that quite said something along the lines of "watch out, your 267s may, or may not, have a fault.

Editorial teams often don't see ads before they are published but I happened across that one (the shriek from the ad production manager was a clue) and a merry time was had by all after that trying to blackmail American minority shareholders into setting up a fix fund. In fairness they finally did and most 267s were modified as a result.

Associate Publisher ybw.com websites kim_hollamby@ipcmedia.com

 

[Guest]

Re: Cat\'s Vs Volvo

Where's this Phantom 38, presume it's got cats in at Universal Marina on the hamble, it was advertised at 97K but a misprint, now 137 I think, well anyway, theres nothing to split engines but Volvo has a better parts back up more room for price negotiation, cat only has one main dealer called Finnings a Canadian company they own all the dealers in this country, I use them in my business and theres not much chance of discount it's all one price to joe public or a main firm, at least you can shop around for the best volvo price, as already said 3116 not very good, has had injection problems, has seperate pumps and special injectors that are cat parts only unlike volvo who use Bosch systems and can be repaired virtually at any dealer, prices are as bad or good as eachother depending on which side of the coin you want to look at it, PM me if you need anymore info.

Paul js.

 

[ToMo]

Re: Cat\'s Vs Volvo

It's an American Airedale!....and the TransAt does funny things sometimes, why do you think some of the Raggies behave the way they do........present company excepted naturally!!...ok Claymore?

 

[chippie]

Re: Cat\'s Vs Volvo

Paul, what sort of reputation/common problems do the 3208 cats have?
Thanks in advance.

 

[kimhollamby]

Re: Cat\'s Vs Volvo

375hp 3208 a classic engine, relatively unstressed and will go on all day. Early 435 3208s broke crankshafts but would imagine any affected engines solved now. V8 configuration can make for tight engineroom, width wise although there can be a bit more space at front.

Sadly 3208 a victim of latest emission regs, so it's out of the range now.

Associate Publisher ybw.com websites kim_hollamby@ipcmedia.com

 

[ArthurWood]

Re: 3208s

Highly thought of in the US.
Emission, what's that? It's a diesel innit and they can chuck out as much muck as they like in 'oil land.'

 

[Guest]

Re: Cat\'s Vs Volvo

As Kim says a classic engine, mine was a b******d we had one good one which never had a spanner on it in 1500 hours the other one spent more time in pieces, the faults were down to the loss of water and the net results after, included replacing both exhaust manifolds at 1750 qiud each, then the timing advance unit broke up causing smoking and no power, this is acommon problem on the 375 and has been redesigned cost about650 quid, new gears req etc, the things that annoy me about cat is they use their own terminolgy so it takes a lot of sorting out when it comes to repairs, and as I have mentioned before the dealers are not very helpfull to the private engineering sector.

Parts prices are not good either, apart from that and minor niggling things then I got on with them quite well, are you thinking of buying these engines in a boat then?,

Paul js., PM me if you want any more.

 

[kimhollamby]

Re: 3208s

Actually, may be on the water but think some of the US regs governing use on land have been big driving forces towards electronic management, higher fuel injection pressure et al. Certainly that was the message from Cummins when I visited them in the Carolinas a few years back.

Associate Publisher ybw.com websites kim_hollamby@ipcmedia.com