Silly question, what color are Cat engines

My CAT C-18’s are white. I’ve seen both colors, just a matter of preference when you order them.

Later Cats are white.

Still looking at that Carver? Can you send a web ad?

In my old lady, also 3116 powered but of 1995 vintage, they were yellow.
My understanding is that up to the mid/late 90s yellow was standard, and white available on request.
Later on, white became standard - and rightly so: of all possible colours, yellow is the worst for leaks spotting!

Was the early 3116 naturals? Yellow?
Detroit went white (Penske) when turbo charged and was green natural.
All white per MTU later.

Nope, they were already turbocharged.
Little I knew back then about good or bad engines, and their not so brilliant reputation among Cats.
BTW, that was actually unnecessary power in a 53' pure displacement trawler, which in fact always ran anywhere between 1500 and 1800 rpm, and probably saw their max rated speed of 2800 for 10 minutes over their whole life...
Which in hindsight, might well be the reason why overall I can't complain about them, which on that installation proved to be remarkably reliable.

PS: coming to think of it now, I never heard of natural 3116s, are you sure they even existed?
I'm aware of a heavy duty version, detuned to 200hp or so at 2400rpm, but that was also turbo charged.
I did come across natural 3208s, but they were totally different beasts, of course.

Other than a white paint job, Not to much (any) positives come from that name in my history. Sorry you had to type it.
If so, I may have to paint my Detroits back to green, blue, red, anything NOT to do with that name.
Yep, I'm still pissed..

I picked oil.

My C12 CAT's are white. I found some spray paint at Home Depot/Lowes that is a very close match to the Caterpillar white and it holds up well with the engine temps with the exception of the aftercoolers.



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Same paint I use on my Detroits. I use the quart cans, thined it a bit.
Originally years ago, used an air-less sprayer to paint everything, now days I brush it on for touch ups.
I do hate that aerosol-overhaul look.