C32 aftercoolers early design. Problem?

Some bedtime reading: https://forums.cat.com/t5/Cat-Products/C32-Aftercooler-Failures/td-p/3630

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.

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.

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

Max

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

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.

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

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.

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.

Great information. Thabks for sharing

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