I have a CAT-12 road grader (serial number 8T14140) that needs a new D318 engine (original engine is complete but seized up). I recently acquired a running D318G generator engine (serial number 53B330).

Question: is it feasible to remove/delete the turbo from the 53B engine – to reduce the horsepower back down to where it should be? The original 8T engine made about 100 horsepower, and this genset engine makes 150. I’m worried I’ll damage the grader’s driveline if I don’t convert the D318G engine over to run without the turbo.

My plan would be to swap the fuel injection, governor, intake, exhaust, bellhousing, clutch, pony motor, and fuel pump – from the old 8T engine onto the 53B engine – essentially deleting the turbo. Will this work effectively? Is there a better path forward? I looked up the part numbers for the piston/cylinder kits, and there appears to be no difference between the turbo vs non-turbo D318 pistons (trying to verify I won’t have compression issues if I remove the turbo). At a minimum I must swap the bellhousing & clutch from the 8T engine onto the 53B engine, otherwise it will not bolt up against the CAT-12 transmission. I believe my grader is a dry-clutch, but I’m not 100 percent sure.

I've attached pictures of my grader, and the genset engine.

Please advise?

8T14140 is a dry clutch but when I look up the basic engine block part number the #12 is a 1H5655 and the 53B is a 6H5648.
Can't say if everything will interchange or not.

Has anyone successfully bolted D318 turbocharger components onto a non-turbo D318 engine? I've seen the topic brought up on previous threads, but it's always been a hypothetical question. My thinking is that if it's possible to convert a non-turbo D318 into a turbocharged engine (via bolting on OEM turbo parts), then the process "should" work in the opposite direction.

First thought -- have you determined why the engine is "locked up"? Was it running at the time of failure or parked non-op?

So many possilbe reasons, but I think it would be a first step before dismantling both units.
CTS

The coffee can was left off the exhaust by the previous owner and the engine filled with rainwater. It may have also suffered freeze-crack damage (Eastern Washington State gets very cold in winter) - but it remains unknown whether or not there's any freeze-crack damage also. The engine currently will not bar-over.

The grader was then donated to community college (diesel department), where the injectors were pulled, presumably to soak cylinders in oil. The school started making preparations to pull the engine for overhaul (evident by the fact various accessories are only finger tight - coolant piping, fan, exhaust, etc). Then the collage gave up on the project. They sold the grader at auction, fully disclosing that the engine was seized. Unfortunately, they did not include the missing injectors. Below is a picture of the injector hole. I tried to stick a camera down into the cylinders (to see how bad the cylinder walls are) but I cannot get the camera past the injector chambers.

I do like the idea of leaving the turbo on it, and simply limiting the fuel rack travel. It would also mean I cannot run the pony motor (the turbo sits right where the pony motor should be). And that's not a big deal to convert over to electric start. I can always install a block heater to assist with cold weather starting.

However, the genset bellhousing has a dedicated boss for attaching the 24-volt starter. My grader's bellhousing (which I'll need to swap over) doesn't appear to have an electric starter mount.

For me I would leave turbo fitted as not to disturb the set up. im sure OM or someone will chime in with location etc to drill hole in bell housing to fit electric starter as there has been a lot of machines changed over to electric with drawings of the location, most graders get plenty of wheel spin so maybe the difference in the engine power will be minimal effect or stress?

I just went out and took another look at my grader's bellhousing. The cast material to bolt on a starter is there, but no holes.

Assuming the flywheel ring-gear (diameter & location) the same between the CAT-12 and the Genset, I could template and machine the required holes into the CAT-12 bellhousing. It would be nice if I could use the existing genset starter (the less parts I have to buy the better).