The Shocking Truth Behind the Cat 3208 - Why Farmers Hated It

CHAPTERS:
00:35 The Rise: A Farmer’s Dream Engine
02:38 The Specs: What Powered the 3208
05:06 Tractor Applications
06:46 The Fall: Why Farmers Turned Against It
08:41 Real Stories: Voices from the Farm
10:28 The Divide: Was It Really That Bad?
12:11 Did Cat Hide the Truth?
14:09 What Replaced the 3208?
15:53 Collector’s Corner
17:40 The Legacy: What the 3208 Left Behind

It was loud. It was powerful. And it was never meant to be in a tractor. The Cat 3208 V8 diesel had farmers excited—until they learned the truth.
The Caterpillar 3208 was a diesel engine so flawed that farmers cursed its name, and so divisive that even Caterpillar couldn’t bury the complaints. Was it really a 'throwaway' engine? And what made it so controversial? Today, we’re uncovering the shocking truth behind the Cat 3208 – the engine farmers loved to hate.

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[tomfogerson]

Several out and out falsehoods here. I'm not aware of any Ford tractor that used the 3208. The larger Massey Ferguson and the Ford 4 wheel drive tractors used the 903 Cummins engine. Also, the 3208 did NOT have split cylinder heads, which is clearly shown in the video. Cant understand why someone would make a video with so much easily refutable misinformation.

[buelowexcavating]

I have two 3208 engines in my 1983 rigs. great engine, reliable, good started and it usually runs about 40 hours ever week.

[stanrocks]

Last time I checked the 3 3208 cats I've worked only had 2 heads per engine

[keithralfs]

I sailed as an Engineer on coastal ships with 3208s as generators - showing 45, 000hours without major overhauls, but with regular routine oil changes etc

[webefree]

Drove a GMC 10 Wheel Dump that had the 3208 Natural Aspirated, it had a 13spd wit OD, got to 11th gear in seconds and I was doing 30MPH....WOW!
Ran it Hard and never had a Major problem in 1988!!

[fixerman]

I was a fleet manager with eight 3208 Cats powering refuse trucks in the early eighties. Never had any problems with those engines at all. Extremely reliable!

[grabro]

Ran one in an early 80's Ford Louisville water truck hooked to an Alison auto box, nothing wrong with it and was still running in the late 90's. They never were a heavy duty motor.

[mikeskidmore]

I bought a new 3208 Cat 250 HP Turbo to repower a 6 wheel drive truck I spread lime with . I ran it 12, 000 hours then replaced with a Jasper rebuilt version with sleeves and two ring pistons 265 HP.. I have 3 other 3208 Cats too. One in a Ford 7000 with only 55, 000 miles on it and one in an old Ford 700 Naturally aspirated that starts and runs like a new engine.
They made a 300 HP version for fire trucks with an Intercooler or aftercooler.. Any Power rating higher than that is Probably in a boat with water intercooling ..
Oh they make over 2, 000 Horsepower in pulling tractors and have been in National Championship winning Tractors .
A lot of the failures were caused by poor maintenance.

[fredyanner]

In 1990 I bought a like new 1978 Ford F-7000 Dump Truck for my paving business with the original Ford Blue Cat 3208 still in it with 78, 000 miles. One of the best Trucks I've ever owned as my many drivers could not kill this truck or engine. This truck has since been retired to a farm after my 25 years using it, and the Cat 3208 Engine still runs strong!

[Artic.fam]

My uncle had a 3208 in his 2255 Oliver, it was his biggest and favorite on the farm in west central Minnesota

[PatOBrien-osqd]

i have a 3208 in a new Holland 1880 harvester still going over 50 years old trouble free

[carolinemcnabb]

I've loved mine for the last 28 years I own and operate at least 25 diesels of all brands the 3208 is the best cold starter of the bunch By the way I live in Fairbanks AK I think a lot of people expected too much out of them

[edpetrocelli]

I went to caterpillar school in 1977, they said it was a interim truck disposable engine right from the get go. $6500 brand new no core charge, thats why it didn`t have a core charge cause it cost about $1000/hole to overhaul an in-line diesel at that time. That being said the owners of the 3208`s began to bore them and run them again so cat put a core charge on them and then they got unpopular because they were being run past their intended life time and they usually burned a pin hole in the cylinder from (cavitation) causing coolant loss and overheating especially if ya didn`t put the additive in the antifreeze or didn`t use CAT antifreeze when servicing. I saw that alot in the older engines in the late 80`s and 90`s. Personally as a mechanic I liked them, simple easy to work on and they rarely leaked 636CID very torquey, another of my faves on small diesel motors was DT 466. The diesel truck races were cool also fun, KT cummins and Detroit 12V 92`s on a circle track in Orlando

[OtisDavies-cvze]

The biggest thing with farmers is maintenance. Most farmers are not big on doing maintenance. I have over 30 years in the industry and the 3208 is a great engine. In a over the road engine, I have seen miles well over 700, 000 miles and with no issues. In agriculture, they were great pump engines, I worked on them in the oil fields. As I said, most farmers are not big on maintenance and run it until it drops

[hammerslammer]

Massey didnt use it in the 4880 either...😂 they used em in the little guys but never the big ones.. this whole video is about half true.. 😂

[concernedamerican]

I had my first experience with the 3208 while working for a Case/New Holland dealership dealership from '76-85, in the New Holland 1500 & TR70's the 3208 was the best thing since sliced bread! These engines made these combines really sing! My only complaint was trying to lift the cylinder head off next to the grain tank, I have 3 blown lumbar discs to prove that just because I could lift it doesn't mean I should! These were the days before boom trucks. Throw away! NO! We would pull the engine down and "dry sleeve" a bad hole!

[davebarnhart]

Have a 3208 in my White 2-180 .
Love it!

[vicpetrishak]

Had one in a truck, backed up quickly and hit the brakes real hard, it slid out of the truck bed onto the scrapyard ground !

[Sillyturner]

I was involve in ag tractor manufacturing in the 1980’s and some of the stories I hear was CAT had the attitude if these engines could be used in heavy construction equipment they could sure stand up to simple farm conditions. What they didn’t take into consideration was that construction environments were intermittent loaded conditions. Tests later showed that farming pulled up to 105% of rated power for hours on end with no letup and those engines could just not stand up to those kind of conditions.

[darrensteuber]

The 3208 began as the 1160 CAT, aka Ford/Cat to be used in Medium duty Ford trucks. The early 1160 engines were painted Ford blue. If I remember correctly, 325 hp was the maximum hp for truck applications. Anything higher than that was likely a marine application.