Caterpillar 3208 engine

The 3208 was a 636 cu. in. 210-225 hp.8v diesel. It did not have piston liners and it had a nick name "through-a-way". Very populer in the seventy and eightys. Yes they were in big farm tractors like white/oliver. I think they were called 1160's though, which was the mostley the same engine, a little less hp. 150 If I recall. Caterpillar put them in the 225 excavator. There were some other manufactors how put them in industrial equipment also like Tampo rollers. Ford used a million of them in there mid size truck the Louisville model untill they came out with there own engine, a turbo charged inline 6 diesel. I do not know exactly when Cat discontinued the 3208 but I do know it liked it's fuel and did not meet the new upcomming emisions regs.

They put out 225 HP at the top settings too and there wasn,t too much difference in them and the 3208 except the fuel housing and front cover and a few other things so the basic block etc. was the same design om both.Some people did call them a throw away engine but they were far from that as we rebuilt dozens of them at the dealer.Cat also sold rebuilt ones (exchange) from the factory.

Xtreme i think you mean throw away, thats what they were known as in the uk, reason being they had no easily replaceable liners, wet, however they have proved to be anything but !! we have had block trouble with one of the 4 cyl versions the 3204 but thats unusual. Regarding the V8 i have seen them fitted in the Nordstom 6x6 dumptruck which i believe became the RDX avelling barford trucks.
Regards Gordon.

On the mileage - it must depend on the application - one of my trucks had a 3208 and always gets 9.7- 9.8 mpg and that includes Boom and idling time- it runs at 32,000 lbs

For automotive applications, 250hp turbo units were available and a 300 hp turbo with aftercooler was made for fire trucks that used the max hp for short periods of time. The better engines had a roller follower cam. I built an 1160 engine that I bored .30 over and put aftermarket three ring pistons in. It has over 400,000 miles and still runs fine.Rolled in new mains and rod bearings at 250,000 miles. I used the rig to pull a Sno-Cat-GVW 19,500. Also runs twin turbos to normalize for the altitude. Uses a spicer seven speed with overdrive. 2000 rpm= 75mph. firpitch

The 3208 started life as the 1100 series light-to-medium-duty truck and bus engine in 1967, when it appeared in Ford trucks. Ford actually commissioned Caterpillar to build them a lightweight diesel engine, that could compete with the big truck gassers of the 60's, but with better fuel economy.

Caterpillar produced the 1100 series V8, in a parent block, single compression ring, and single oil ring configuration. This was termed "low-friction" design. Early models had an in-line fuel pump, later models had a V-configuration fuel pump. Caterpillar sold these engines to many other OEM's, such as other truck builders besides Ford, farm tractor builders, and for marine, genset, firepump and industrial use. It was used in compactors, pavers and forklifts.

The industrial 3100 series followed, with improved design .. then the 3208 appeared around 1973, with more improvements, such as a turbocharged version. The greatest improvement was the major redesign of the 3208 that happened in 1981. Many parts were strengthened, oil pump and water pump were enlarged, conrods and wrist pin bearing were improved, three ring pistons were fitted. The engine was fitted to Cat construction equipement (225 excavator and 613 scraper).

The marine 3208's went out to 425HP, and proved quite reliable, with many boat owners still using them. The 3208 ceased production in 1999, when it reached the stage where it could not meet the new emission laws that were introduced in the early 21st century.

Many owners and users had a very poor opinion of the 1100/3100/3208 engines .. but they were designed as a light-to-medium duty engine, rated at 70,000 lbs maximum GVW or GCW in trucks, and they were put into applications where they were overloaded, and which resulted in spectacular engine failures. The most common cause of engine failure was broken conrods caused by excessive wrist pin bearing wear. Once a conrod let go at around 3000 RPM, the damage was usually extensive, and nearly always resulted in the engine becoming scrap.

[quote="OzDozer"]

Once a conrod let go at around 3000 RPM, the damage was usually extensive, and nearly always resulted in the engine becoming scrap.[/quote]

3100/3208's were famous for that in New Holland combines. One guy here said he heard the engine start to lug down, looked back & all he could see was a cloud of oil, antifreeze, smoke & iron...it tossed a rod & chunks of block clear out on the ground, there was nothing usable left.

the 3160, 3150 and 3145 engines were built at the same time as the 1160, 1150 and 1145, the 3100's being industrial and marine and the 1100 as a truck engine. They all had in line fuel injection pumps, the 3208 arrived in the mid 70's with a V fuel pump and all the same capacity instead of being 'stroked' for different capacities.
Wear life varies drastically with horsepower and can only be understood by accepting that wear occurs in direct proportion to the amount of fuel burned. That's why the 425hp, worked hard will only work around 3,000 hours to overhaul.
I've learned quite a bit about these over the years and looked at a pair of 375hp units only today, which will probably be coming out for overhaul at only 1700 hrs in 12 years, they've started to breath heavily, probably overheated a bit a sometime and the rings have reverted to mild steel. Once done they should give the owner at least another 12 years of life.