The Cat 3176 Diesel Engine. A flawed, but REVOLUTIONARY design. Know Your Engine.

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A local construction company had a fleet of Kenworths with the first 3176 engines. They hauled trash to their landfill in special built semi trailers. They had so many issues. CAT did free rebuilds on almost all of them. I think some got 2 free rebuilds. CAT ended up putting brand new engines in several of them. This company ran 100% CAT equipment, so they needed to keep them happy. The 3208 startled as a collaborative effort between Ford and CAT. They were designated as an 1160 and were painted Ford blue. They were later painted yellow, and I think I have seen a few painted white.

I bought a new KW in 1990 with a 3176, after most of the sensors failed in the first 6 months i had few problems after that. One thing I watched carefully was the coolant makeup due to the combination of aluminum and cast iron in the bloke...I saw many others have devastating problems because of the lack of maintenance of the coolant. All in all i got good service and excellent fuel mileage from this engine. My next two Cats were the venerable 3406-E 550's and thats a success story all in its own. Retired now and given the crap thats out there these days im not missing the business one bit.

So I have the 3126. In a 1998 Pete 330 retrofit 14 whl dumptruck. Running Class 8 @ 61,000lbs GVW. Yep. Thanks to positive input from Josh and a very competent and FEARLESS local mechanic we run it hard every day in the desert metropolitan market. Bought 1.5 years ago from a reputable builder (was a trade in) but the cups failed on the fourth day in service . Rather than the Cat kit with new cups and special tool, I was offered the option of going with the Cat reman head which seemed a valid upgrade. Now running HARD every day with zero issues. ------- Note to all: The HEUI system DEMANDS clean engine oil for top efficiency and engine (HEUI pump) life. It MUST be changed every 250 hours REGARDLESS of the miles (or 5,000mi). That's once a month for us. Cat filter/Rotella. 709,000mi/33,000 hrs currently and the shop says the flywheel has been machined thus far to suggest replacement at next clutch. This "may" be an indicator of (guessing) the history of the pistons/bore condition. If still original, I'll be the first long block guy on this one lol! Long story short folks, Cat rules. Cheers!

Cat ran that engine in quite a few of their machines like graders and excavators…I ran them a lot and don’t really remember having much trouble with them but as with pretty much all cat engines, they seemed to work better and were more reliable in construction/industrial environments!..even the 3208’s worked great in the equipment and marine applications…not so much in the trucks…I started in the business in the mid 90’s so I started work at a time when all these engines converged and I could see how they all performed in comparison to each other…to this day I would have to say the 3306 was probably the best for its time and was a very capable engine…only issue I would say about it was it was hard on fuel…when the C9 came out, it pretty much blew the old 3306 and 3176 out of the water in terms of performance and fuel efficiency!..cheers

I worked for a company in the 1990s which had a fleet of Kenworths. The dealership had convinced them into buying a T-450 tractor with a 3176E and nine speed. It was a short wheel base twin screw tractor. The only thing they liked about it was the fuel mileage. Driving it took getting used to as it seemed to have a delay between the hot foot and ECM. Even the Jake seemed delayed. It actually pulled really well. But it also had a top speed of 63 mph @1950. One day it caught fire on I95. The cooling fan clutch malfunctioned and ignited the plastic fan ablaze. I was told that i should have let the truck burn to the ground. White it was in the shop being repaired,they ordered a T800 with a 3406 E. I always have thought that the 450 was speced poorly for the application we were using it for. The 3176 was at least as reliable as the earlier N14 electronic wise in my opinion. I don't remember it just shutting down on us for no reason. It always started even in the dead of winter. If i remember right it was getting nine mpg average.

Hey Josh, thanks to your video about the Cat million mile club I just got some cool stuff from Cat for joining. I have over 2.3 million miles on my 6NZ

I had one in my first semi,93 Pete 378 . I had very good luck with it, great milage and no problems. I put 600000 miles on it without ever going to the shop. Sold it at 826000 miles still running great.

Me and my dad still run one 1994 3176 in a t6 tandem with 6in stacks its got to be the best sounding cat out there the jakes are only for noise but they sure sound amazing

Hearing these guys talk about pages of updates and recalls brings me back to 2008 when the SDP’s hit the scene. A local shop just closed up and at the auction was an ECAP and timing probe tool group kit

If it had more time in the development stage, customers would have liked it more. By the time the 3176B (9CK) came out, the 2YG and 7LG, had hurt the engines reputation.

My only experience with the 3176 is when a truck had pulled in with a miss. We hooked the computer to it and it blamed cylinder one. Turns out there were no issues with that cylinder, but it was still missing. I asked my foreman "what if it's reading the cylinders backwards and it's really number six?" He agreed, and after further diagnosis it was confirmed to be number six.

I worked in a Fleet environment in The late 90s early 2000s they had a good amount of these engines , We had okay, success. We were a light load Fleet. We did have some fuel leakage from the ECM's on the earlier models And occasionally the aluminum spacer plate would create some problems, The last time I put hands-on one internally was probably around 2008 I can't believe there's many left on the road.

I've worked on a handful of 3176B's, and never thought they were all that bad. My only complaint is that it seemed like every one that I worked on came in for a cam/broken follower

I also worked on the 3176 when it first came out. They were never meant to be used as over the road long haul. They were designed to be used in vocational applications to replace the 3306 and 3208. The 3176 was lighter by weight and could have more horsepower. The 3208 was always a throw away engine that rarely ever lasted into high mileage or hours. Customers always tried to use the 3176 like a baby 3406. That NEVER worked out well. We were always getting updates by mail weekly. We also would have meetings about every two or three months at the Cat dealership by satellite with Cat Headquarters 3406E and 3176 engineering teams. I would walk away with a stack of recalls and diagrams. Biggest problems I had was they had a aluminum spacer block between the block and cylinder head. The spacer block could not handle the influx temperatures between metals at start up and cool down. Head gasket nightmare!! Also the spacer block would get pitted due to incorrect coolant DCA mix. You had to remove the spacer block to replace the injector cups. Head bolts/block thread recall was a nightmare. I believe they were first all metric bolt/ thread engine released by CAT. I remember replacing flywheel housings due to customers trying to use the truck for the wrong application. So much for saving weight. I think there was a aftermarket company that made steel housings. You had to be extremely careful when removing the fuel lines off the ECM. If they broke you would half to replace ECM and swap the PM, re calibrate engine sensors add customer parameters. I recall replacing and installing new updated chips in the ECAP about once a month. LOL just found my master 7LG shop rebuild manual. Think I may have to go back into therapy after reliving these nightmares LOL. Well at least they didn't have a PEEC system.

I worked for a company that bought a bunch of them. All had 10 boxes. I thought they were gutless. (Came out of a 3406b into one) I am a cat man. It pulled to me like a Detroit 60 series. Which i have never found to pull at all. I later drove one for a couple of days with a rtlo13b swap and it did ok. What does a Detroit and a green banana have in common? They both can't wait to turn yellow!!!

Had good luck from ours in a 93 intl. Experienced the ECM fuel leak issue though. What comes to mind when 3176 is mentioned is like the 3208, they have a unique sound and once you hear it, you can pick em out a mile away

Looking forward to video of you back on the tools 🛠️

I purchased a c 13 with the kcb designation. I pulled the trigger because you said it was your favorite. Good little engine so far

Heck of a learning curve going to electronic controlled engines..Many early engines were not good.. The 3406 PEEC in a Freightliner was a disaster..but in a K W or Pete worked much better..wiring problems? The 3306 Cat was a fanrastic engine. Lasted forever and had very good power for a small two valve engine 627E scrapers had them and they did a heck if a job