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400 HP Cat any problems?

Yahoo Message Number: 12875
I would be intereted in hearing from any late model owners with the 400 Cat and ACERT technology. Have you had any overheating problems? Sufficient power? How is your MPG ( not that economy is something all that important)? Any other tidbits to share? Thanks

Re: 400 HP Cat any problems?

Reply #1 –
Yahoo Message Number: 12925
Hi

I took delivery of a new 2005 Inspire 40' in July. Mileage is now up to 7.3 MPG.I'm a little disappointed in the power.I've driven alot of different trucks and all I can say is this 400 Cat feels weak.I did have Cat reprogram the throttle sending unit and that did make it much more driveable when not using cruise control. It still doesn't feel as responsive as the 2004 Inspire with the 350 Cummins that I test drove.I happened to see the work sheet from the Cat dealer that performed the work and it said a "low boost" message was still stored so that could be part of the problem. By the way, Cat wanted $500 to reprogram the throttle sending unit because they said nothing wrong showed up in the computer. They finally acknowledged there was a problem and took care of it.

400 HP Cat any problems, plus temperatures.

Reply #2 –
Yahoo Message Number: 12984
The question was of Caterpillar C9 problems, so here goes...
My Cat C9 leaks oil from a sender installed by CC. It has delayed power when run above 2000' altitude. 397 HP indicated @ 9000', but up to 14 seconds delayed. Cat distributor charged me $363, found no reason for leak & no reason for delayed power.

Oil pressure 20 to 30 PSI until CC oil was replaced with Caterpillar oil @ 1772 miles. Since then oil pressure in 49 to 55 PSI @ 2100 RPM. Cat specifies 47 PSI @ 2100.

Some times, when leaving a rest area, the Cat stumbles, but recovers after a check for water in fuel. No water has been found. No trouble codes set.
The fan used to whine loudly for up to a minute on long hills. After the first 3000 miles on the Cat & Allison, the fan has not been heard. Is it generating less heat after first 3000 miles? Has the fan controller learned to vary fan speed without using maximum fan speed? We have learned to ignore the CC gauges except tachometer & speedometer.
Silverleaf says Silverleaf exactly indicates what Cat sends Silverleaf & Cat sensors are very accurate. All temperatures below are per Silverleaf & may differ from CC gauges over 50 degrees F.
My Cat C9 runs 200 to 205 degrees or down to 175 if coasting. Allison usually 4 to 8 degrees above Cat. Allison never over 222 degrees in any situation.

Least fuel use was 7 M/G with tail wind @ 62 M/H per Cat. Low was 5.7 M/G towing a long 3/4 ton pickup. We always buy less fuel than Cat reports as used.

The Cat lies! Silverleaf & Cat always report more fuel use than I buy. I typically buy about 80 gallons, about 3 gallons less than reported burned by Silverleaf. Each fuel purchase is one to four gallons less than Silverleaf indicated as used. The Onan uses part of the fuel I buy. We have run Onan over 120 hours, but can't account for any fuel it has used.
Our first 14 days on road included only 4 night in campgrounds, so the Onan has done plenty of work in charging battery, heating, cooling & powering the Splendide.

After 6300 miles, we are happy with Cat & Allison. Reliability matters much more than some oil leaked or some high M/G claimed in another coach. 2 more M/G would not reduce my coach expenses 15%.
The oil leak will cost less than $20 for me to fix, when I get time.

Eric & Terry Elliott
5 Inspire 51321
 

Re: 400 HP Cat any problems, plus temperatures.

Reply #3 –
Yahoo Message Number: 13005
Eric,

The Silverleaf on our 05 Magna, C!3 does not read correctly for MPG either. In our case we always take at least 10 gallons more then the Silverleaf says and on the C13 that is common. At 2 seminars with silverleaf I brought up this problem and they said there is a problem with the communications between the SL and the Engine. The silverrleaf people are working on this and should have an upgrade sometime in the future. But who knows when. We have 2 problems with electronics, one on the SL mpg and the other on the Universal Remote. Neither one work properly. Sometimes it is not fun being on the cutting edge of tecknology

Bill G. 2005 Magna #6425