Rebuilding The CAT 3208 Diesel S B International（重建猫3208柴油 S B国际）.pdfVIP

Rebuilding The CAT 3208 Diesel By Roy Berndt Since information from Caterpillar is always held very tight within the family it was very hard to get an accurate history of how the relationship all came about, so if I’m a bit off in my timeline, forgive me. I assure you, it won’t affect the content of this article. The bottom line is, Ford had a truck line with mammoth 477 and 534 cid gasoline engines and realized it needed a diesel for its fleet vehicles if they wanted to stay in the game. Somewhere in the late 1960s or early ’70s Caterpillar seemed to have an interest in getting into the medium duty fleet truck engine business, or Ford coerced them into it – opinions vary as to which is the most likely scenario. The point is, Ford had the trucks and Cat had the engines. From 1968-1974 The Ford 6000 series trucks used the Caterpillar 1140 150 hp and 1145 175 hp diesel engines. In that same time, the 7000 and 8000 series had the Cat 1150 200 hp diesel. These early renditions were considered inexpensive “throw away” engines. There were very few oversize or undersize parts available, at least from the OEM. Obviously those were different times and certainly part of a much more vibrant economy, however the entrepreneurial spirit of engine remanufacturers and the automotive aftermarket never accepted the “disposable engine” mentality and so the story continued. The 1160 was in the 8000 series Ford back in 1968 as well but became a lot more popular in 1970-1974. Then in 1975 the 3208 showed up in 7000 and 8000 series trucks and in the ’80s gained phenomenal popularity. There was hardly a city fleet anywhere in the country that did not have a Ford with a 3208. Whether in city tractor trailers or garbage trucks they were everywhere. They also gained popularity in marine applications, power plants, school buses and construction equipment: if it needed a medium duty diesel engine, the 3208 was the one. Ford and Caterpillar hit a home run with this