Hello all: What is your recommendation for CAT C18 marine engine overhaul intervals as my client want to increase the time than the CAT manuals (OEM) he wants to do Top end overhaul at 10,000 hours and major at 20,000 hours but I see this to long period for this type of engines?
I don't think anybody is going to blindly tell you, it is O K just to extend the MFG service intervals. But, One idea: Cat also uses fuel consumption as a service clock. This makes a lot of sense, the less horse power you make, the less fuel you consume and amazingly, the less wear on your engines. Slow down,,, your engines may live longer. Find this fuel clock routine from Cat. It may be the only safe way to extend the service clock by hours.
The manuals for the cats I ve tun (3412Es and C32s) have all service intervals in hours or fuel used which ever comes first. the best tool to extend major service intervals is regular oil analysis. And the obvious like watching for smoke, performance etc
CAT is favoring fuel burned over hours when figuring rebuild times these days. That being said, there's nothing stopping your client from doing what he wants to do, just as there is nothing stopping the engine from grenading doing that as well. It's a risk, how much risk does your client want to take, and is he prepared to do a major or replace the engine completely if it blows. One caveat- if you're talking about generators running non stop, constant speed and doing tons of hours running for days on end, you may be able to get away with extending periods.
