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C32 aftercoolers early design. Problem?

Discussion in 'Engines' started by Pascal, Jul 25, 2016.

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  1. Pascal

    Pascal Senior Member

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    does anyone have any experience with aftercooler issues on some of the earlier C32 aftercoolers? Cat specialist who did the survey says the early designs is prone to failure and I am getting conflicting info on whether Cat provide some of the parts when upgrading to the new designs. Some dealers claim they do, others that they used to while.


    Engines are 2009 1650hp with 1300hrs, clean survey and oil analysis.
  2. K1W1

    K1W1 Senior Member

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  3. Pascal

    Pascal Senior Member

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    Thanks I had seen that. Wondering if anyone here are first hand experience with the problem. So far I haven't really seen many reports of problem
  4. ESSRTEE8

    ESSRTEE8 Member

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    A boat 3 down from me on the dock had a failure.

    Brought the boat to Pier66 for winter, docked on his last day of warranty. Went down 3 weeks later, fired up engine destroying it.

    CAT gave him very hard time with it. They settled something like 50-50.
  5. Capt J

    Capt J Senior Member

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    I was told CAT is now recommending aftercoolers be replaced every 7 years on C 18s and C32's, not sure on the validity of it, but was told by Smith and Wick.
  6. Maxwell

    Maxwell Senior Member

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    Does this apply to the C12 engines as well? Any idea if it matters if the boat has been fresh or salt water?

    Max
  7. K1W1

    K1W1 Senior Member

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    On my last boat we cleaned and pressure tested the C 18 charge air coolers every 1000hrs. If our engines were keel cooled they would be done at 3000hrs.

    The new C18s have new style coolers. I am yet to run them and find out how often they need cleaning and testing
  8. Capt J

    Capt J Senior Member

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    I don't know, Charlie Smith told me this when I had a 2007 MY surveyed a year ago by him with C 18's. He stated CAT is now recommending that if the aftercoolers are 7 years old to replace them with the new style. I would call your local dealer and ask them. If I remember correctly, I think the entire job including new after coolers and labor on a set of C 18's was $12k ( much larger engines than your C12s). But it's been a year and that number might be wrong.
  9. Hall Engine

    Hall Engine New Member

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    5 to 7 is correct. Keep your zincs and bonding systems serviced.
  10. bayoubud

    bayoubud Senior Member

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    My service manual dated 1/5/2015 for 3406E and c15 says clean and test aftercoolers every two years or 1000 hrs. whichever occurs first. Was told to replace every 6 years. A lot of Cat coolers were cleaned and pressure tested and ran much longer time than the new recommended replacement period. Also, heard they recommended the new 6 year replacement period because of warranty claims. Most boats we looked at over the years with Cats did not have the aftercoolers serviced every 2 years, but at 1000hrs over much longer periods than 2 years, which may have caused more failures.
  11. Capt J

    Capt J Senior Member

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    Not cleaning them doesn’t shorten their life. It does sometimes spot an early failure before it’s catastrophic for the motor. I had one fail as early as on a 2 year old C32 and require a major. I know of several that have leaked and caused majors.
  12. Pascal

    Pascal Senior Member

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    To follow up on my original post, we ended up having the aftercoolers replaced right after closing back in aug 2016. It came to about $34k for both C32 but it was worth the peace of mind. We ve put close to 1500 hours on the engines since then (almost 3 years). Great engines. Replaced impellers at around 1100 hours 2 years (they looked new) and only issue was an ECU failure, new one was about $2200... not too bad.
  13. f3504x4ps

    f3504x4ps Member

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    Great information. Thabks for sharing
  14. bayoubud

    bayoubud Senior Member

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    Like Hall Engine said, keep an eye on electrolysis or corrosion problems.