You should have asked me last year, I had a friggin list.

Dang near every Cat and Detroit, and some Cummins. Model number, arrangement, number of cylinders, bore and stroke, governor type, years of production, etc. D398 was a V12 Cat, the one I worked on had a Woodward governor. 3600 series engines were pretty much electronically controlled. Then, for Detroit, we had a bunch of Gray Marine engines from 53's, up to the Detroit 12V149, and everything in between. Series 50 and 60 as well.

I had the list up until last August. All my pre-app school notes were taking up space in my storage, and I didn't want to move it, so out they went.

 

Which PREFIX do you mean?

855" is the Cubic Inch Displacement
NTC is the Cummins designation of the block
V903 was a V8 Diesel used mostly in large farm tractors.

Old Detroits had a simple designations.
1st number was the # of cylinders (6-## or 8-##)
If theres was a "V" it was a V6, V8, V12, V16
The # after that is the Cubic Inch Displacement of EACH Cylinder
Example, "8V92TTA 475 Silver Tip"
8 Cylinders
V Block
92 C.I.D. per cylinder
T Turbocharged
TT Twin Turbo's
A Aftercooler
475 Horsepower rating
Silvertip was the model designation for those injectors

 

Adding to the Cummins notes from Autoglass.

NTC always meant 855 cubic inches.
N is the block, made up in 2 cylinder configurations, so the heads are modular. 3 of these together made a 6 cylinder engine. Obviously, the blocks are cast as 6 cylinders, but, there are V12 engine blocks in the N series. These are 1710 cubic inches.

T is the designation for turbocharged.

C is the designation for charge cooled, on engines prefixed with NTC, the turbo air is water cooled.

Then, getting into more charge cooling, they had NTA, which is still 855, turbocharged, but with an air to air after cooler. Way more efficient this way, not cooling the turbo air with already hot water, but essentially having it's own "radiator" in front of the coolant radiator.

After Cummins came out with the air to air after cooler, Detroit and Cat started doing the same. The trickledown to pickups about the same time the 7.3 Powerstroke came out.

 

that is what i wasnt sure about, the NTC/NTA...thanx!

Autoglass, that info is great! happen to know what the breakdown for the CAT engines are. for example...
3
4 - series number
0
6 - number of cylinders

the rest i dont know about.

 

No sorry,
Was in Vocational School in the last 2 High School years. We did a lot of old Louisville Transit bus retro work. Mostly was 6V71 with a V drive trans. Most of the Greyhound bus's are 8V92TTA's but are now running 60 Series Detroit's. Did so many old 6V & 8V's I could do them in my sleep! Then I went to a College in Nashville,Tn. and Graduated in 8/1980. But when I got thru College, NOBODY wanted a "BOOK" mechanic. So, instead of turning wrenches, I turned wheels.
22 years Trucking, 1980 - 2002. Now I work with Autoglass!

Nashville Auto - Diesel College
I recommend going there if you want to learn the "Business".

 

3 engine
4 series number (what you got) tells you what the bore and stroke is
06 number of cylinders.

You could go this way with most bigger Cat engines. 32, 34, 35 and 3600 series.

For smaller engines, there is a different system.

3 engine.
11 total displacement of one cylinder in liters.
6 number of cylinders.

That would make a Cat 3116 6.6 liters displacement. Then theres a 3126, which is the same 7.2 liter that was put into the Dodge Power Wagon concept from about 8 years ago. There's a 3176, 3196, etc.

Then, to make things more complicated, the 3406A through E, was 14.6 liters. 3406A, B and C were the same block. Changed for 3406E, but same bore and stroke. The next obvious step was 3406F, but someone decided to call it a C15, rounding the 14.6 up. Then they came out with a C16. Same block. I'm not sure if they made any internal changes to the bore or stroke, but everything external is the same as the 3406E and the C15.

Cat was developing a 3406D, but the E model developed faster, and that's the one they ran with. D pretty much never got off the drawing board.

 

wow, CAT has thier stuff messed up LOL.

i still dont understand how they break down thier engines...so lemme see for the 3176...1.7 x 6 = 10.2L...is that right? but if that is the way then the 3406 doesnt work out right.

 

Yeah, the 3406 has a 5.4 x 6.5 bore and stroke. The 3408, even though still in the 3400 series has a 5.4 x 6.0 bore and stroke. Even Cat doesn't follow their own rules.

In the last couple years, they changed the rules again, so most of their mobile engines start with a "C". A 3196 is 11.4 liters, but depending on the weather, you could call it a C11, or C12. You might even call the most recent one a C13. I'm pretty sure there's a C10 too.

I don't pay much attention to that stuff anymore. I just get whatever is in the trade magazines, and using deductive reasoning, can figure out what is what.

Like Cummins B and C models, Paccar bought a bunch for their light duty Pete's and Kenworths, renaming the B5.9 the PX6 I think, and the C8.3 the PX8. Like Dodge putting their stamp on the valve cover, Paccar did the same thing.

 

As much as I like Caterpillar engines their model designation system is more than a bit confusing.

I can help a bit here. C16 engines are 15.8 liter as opposed to C15's 14.6 liter. Bore is definitely bigger but I think the stroke is the same.I had some of these apart with liner problems when I worked at the dealer.Rest of the internals are the same.

3406 also had a few more models. Starting with the 3406B they also offered their first electronic models.They were called programable electronic engine controls or commonly refered to as PEEC.In simple terms they used a mechanical injection pump with an electronic governer and timing advance.It must have looked good on paper but in reality a royal PITA.If you ran an early version a gallon or so low on oil or pulled a steep hill at governed speed they would often blow the timing advance apart.This was just one of the many problems they had.There were both 3406B PEEC and 3406C PEEC engines.If you ever hear the term " pecker head Cat" this is what they are talking about.

3406E was the first full electronicly controlled 3400 series engine hence the "E" designation.

The major difference between 3406B and 3406C is the "C's" used wider con rod bearings.Cat had a lot of problems with unexplainable rod bearing failures in highway truck engines.

The serial number prefix means a lot with the 3406, C15 and C16 engines.For example if you want to build a hot 3406B you should look for a serial number that starts with 7FB or 4MG however if you have a 3ZJ your dream of a fire breather could well go up in smoke.

3176 was Cat's first engine design done with a CAD ( computer aided design) system.They were a nightmare. They were replaced by the C10.Same displacement minus the worst of the problems.C12 is a bored out version of the C10. C11 and C13 are upgraded versions to meet emission standards.

 

i did not know that, weird thing...my 75 shop manual lists both the CAT v8 and Ford v-8 deezil as seperate engines.