The 1693 was a monster that would make a million miles without issues if it had decent maintenance, although the 1693 was heavy as hell, and we used to call them the 5000 dollar wonder.Įverything seemed to cost 5 grand, a head? 5 grand, and injection pump? 5 grand, etc etc. that is not to say that they could not be used in specificĪpplications to good effect, just mostly in trucks they were a 100k mile engine and then exchange the little joker.ģ406 was probably their most successful truck engine, before that In my opinion the 3208 was a throw away engine by design, bore type block and all. I pretty much like for my diesels to be Cummins, IH/Navistar, or Deere. If the truck has run and does run decent once it has been started I am thinking my first check would be the lift pump.ĬAT engines are pretty decent when they are newer or have been well taken care of but once they get to that stage of life when they are needing constant attention they can be a pain. Of course there are other things that can give you problems, such as a rusted fuel line, collapsed fuel line hose, injector pump going bad, skipped timing, and/or pump timing has been fiddled with, etc. That might also be the cause of your hunting.

If that makes the truck start better, chances are the check valve in the lift pump is bad or its just wore out. Make sure you push the pump back down and screw it down snug, seems I have had problems with that in the past too. Next time you go to start it, pump the thing up till you are sure you have fuel pressure to the injector pump and then give it a try at starting. You will notice there is a little round knob on it that you can unscrew until you can pull the knob up about 1 1/2 inches or so. On a 3208 IIRC its on the drivers side of the engine. You might also be having a drainback problem on your lift pump or intermediate pump. The 1st thing to check is fuel filters and if they have not been changed in awhile might as well get it done.

3208 cat marine engine