3208T Head Gaskets

[lhorstmyer]

Can anyone help me understand the range of costs for replacing the Head Gasket on the Cat 3208Ts? I have one estimate and it seems very high at $3600. thanks for any thoughts. LH

[CB35]

The gasket kit runs around $250 bucks. The rest is labor! I have done 2 3208 Cat engines with help from a friend and diesel mechanic. Some things I would do differently. I would send the heads out to be rebuilt or at least new valve guides. My heads were really good; but new guides are cheap. I would install 16 new injectors. I just bought 16 stanadynes from $64.69 each. No core charge and brand new. You will have the old injectors out anyway so it is only $1035.00 in parts with zero additional labor. Stupid not to do. I really got some bad advice on the injectors "look just fine". If your price included rebuilt heads and new injectors then it is a great price. There is a lot of labor and the heads weigh 150 pounds each. Labor: Drain antifreeze, remove thermal rap, remove manifolds, and elbows, remove intake system, remove injector lines, remove valve covers, remove rocker arms, all pushrods, remove injectors, remove heads, scape all surfaces to remove every bit of old material, clean everything with brake cleaner, repaint everything nice Cat yellow. Install new head gaskets and torque the bolts to spec. I think the last torque pull was something like 120 pounds or may 150. Install new injectors, then the push rods making sure no lifter jumped out of place, then rocker arms, set valve lash, check fuel timing, valve covers, reinstall manifolds, elbows, thermal rap, install the injector lines and bleed air. Then fire her up and hope there are no bad sounds. Run the piss out of it for at least 30 minutes. Then drop the oil, filters and reinstall fresh oil and filters. It is a big job with some heavy lifting requiring two people for a lot of the work. I forgot you just don't take out a few bolts and the heads come off in your hand. Cat has got some tricky little things they call sleeves. They are little steel pipes with o-rings and clips. You have to figure how to get the clip off; then push the tube into the head or into the exhanger so the heads will come off. Then you have to get these little buggers back in place without runining the newly installed o-rings. Counting the kits, degreaser, rags, lunches and a couple of beers leaves about $3200 dollars for labor. Don't know what the rate is; but I got to figure at least $100 an hour. That leaves 32 hours to do the job not counting the helper. A skilled 3208 Cat man and helper would need at least two days and probably three everything. So figure 24 hours to do the job for one motor. Got to figure the helper is worth $50 and hour. Looks about right to me. It is a big involved job in my estimation having done it twice. By the way if one head let go better figure doing all four. Sorry for the bad news; but you better do it all now. I did one motor in the spring. With the idea of doing the other motor over the winter. Well it let go coming back from the Rendezvous about 4 months later. You can save time and money by doing everything now. Just my 2 cents.

[lhorstmyer]

Great feedback. Thank you! It looks like I do not have a very detailed estimate and will have to have it clarified further. The estimate was just two figures, one for labor ($2720) and parts ($1098). The project continues!! LH LH

[lhorstmyer]

Well, now we need to find exhaust parts. Looking for Exhaust Elbow 8N546 and Manifold 1W6586. Anyone have a good source? Thanks... LH