Cat 350 Question

[KandT]

I had a Cat 350 in my Vectra.  It just never seemed to have much power and quite honestly I didn't see what all the big deal about a DP was.  The other day I was reading about the Cats and the article said that the ACERT they used for emissions compliance was not super reliable and had many problems.  Well one of the issues was lower power.  Now my CAT ran like that for 12,000 miles with fairly good reliability but just never had much go.  Even completely empty with no gear in it or water and not towing anything there are hills around Pennsylvania I could barely maintain 37 MPH on.Anybody else with that engine have any input?  The reason I am asking is I dont think I would buy a DP again (at least not for the power).I know it is very difficult to diagnose this now but boy was that DP a dog.  I dont know if the only symptom could be partial power or if it would be complete failure.

 

[John Canfield]

Is your quoted post a mistake? I can fix it for you if you want.

 

[KandT]

Yes I just wanted it to be a normal post. :-\

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

Hill climbing mostly boils down to the weight/hp ratio, though the Cat C7 350 is also fairly modest in torque so keeping optimum rpms is important to performance.  The power rule of thumb that RV makers seem to use is roughly 100 lbs/hp, but that only produces barely adequate performance on steeper grades.  You need to get under the 100 lb/hp mark if you want strong performance on hills.

It's also possible yours had somewhat dirty air or fuel filters and a turbo that was not working up to par. Any of those will rub performance, often in subtle ways.

You may find this blog interesting:
http://forum.dieselrvclub.org/index.php/topic,7182.0.html

 

[Back2PA]

Yes I just wanted it to be a normal post. :-\

I fixed it

 

[KandT]

Hill climbing mostly boils down to the weight/hp ratio, though the Cat C7 350 is also fairly modest in torque so keeping optimum rpms is important to performance.  The power rule of thumb that RV makers seem to use is roughly 100 lbs/hp, but that only produces barely adequate performance on steeper grades.  You need to get under the 100 lb/hp mark if you want strong performance on hills.

It's also possible yours had somewhat dirty air or fuel filters and a turbo that was not working up to par. Any of those will rub performance, often in subtle ways.

You may find this blog interesting:
http://forum.dieselrvclub.org/index.php/topic,7182.0.html

Thanks Gary - I read the whole thread and am absolutely convinced my Cat wasn't running correctly.  Gives me a renewed faith in getting another diesel.  I would probably go with Cummins since they are still in the over the road business.  Nothing against Cat but since they stopped making those engines that kinda tells me something. 

 

[Back2PA]

  Nothing against Cat but since they stopped making those engines that kinda tells me something.

Caterpillar chose to exit the over-the-road market due to emissions requirements.


I was satisfied with my C7 Cat 350 in my last rig. Didn't set the world on fire but my rig weighed about 30K if I recall, and I was towing a 7500# truck.