Cat 310 valve replacement

[jlouis23603]

Hey guys,

I have 4 cat 310 pumps. All are working fine. However the prior owner of the wash has no idea when the seals and valves have been replaced. I noticed some the seals look bad and I pulled the valve on one pump and it seen better days. I figured I’d service all the pumps. But my question is what’s the recommended time frame of valve replacement? How about seal replacement? I tried searching and couldn’t find anything. Is every 3 months too much or not enough? I’m all about preventative maintenance

 

[Randy]

If it's not broke don't fix it!! The only time I open up the pump is if it is pulsating real bad or it the pressure is low. As long as it works we don't touch it. We change the oil once a year. We have Cat 310 pumps that were made in 1982 and they are still going strong.

 

[PaulLovesJamie]

I agree with Randy in principle, but...
Cat recommends preventive maintenance replacement of seals every 2000 hours of use, valves after 4000 hours of use. My experience has been that if it goes to double that, I start seeing problems.
I have hour meters on all my bays, and part of my month end procedure is to record the hours - so in a spreadsheet it is pathetically easy to see how many hours each pump has run. Bottom line is that I plan a replacement around 3000 & 6000 hours of use, otherwise I'm soon going to start to see performance/reliability issues, then its no longer preventative maint, its repairs.
Thats my plan anyway.

 

[Greg Pack]

I salute you guys that do preventative maintenance. Put me in the camp of no preventative maintenance done, except the occasional oil change when I'm struggling to find something for an employee to do to stay busy. I'm pretty sure most of the valves in my 23 year old pumps are the originals. I don't have hour meters on the pumps but I probably get five years out of a seal kit on average if I had to guess unless something unplanned happens like a hose freeze up .

 

[jlouis23603]

Thanks guys. I went ahead and changed the valves in one pump that had low pressure and it corrected the issue. When I inspected the other valves they were missing o-rings and the white plastic retainer were cracked in most of them.

I do like the idea of the hour meters. I will have to look into that. Right now i'm keeping a spreadsheet of all maintenance done.

 

[I.B. Washincars]

The white plastic piece is supposed to be split. If you had missing o-rings on the valves, you can count on the head being washed out, and you will be back in there soon. What did the o-ring mating surfaces look like?

 

[Randy]

Thanks guys. I went ahead and changed the valves in one pump that had low pressure and it corrected the issue. When I inspected the other valves they were missing o-rings and the white plastic retainer were cracked in most of them.

I do like the idea of the hour meters. I will have to look into that. Right now i'm keeping a spreadsheet of all maintenance done.

Did you inspect/check the head valve bores or the head High pressure seal sitting surfaces for head wash out? You can buy the individual parts to repair the pump valves. I just rebuilt a set of valves so I could have a spare set, new cages, white retainer and "O" rings. For about $8.25 you can rebuild each valve, that's a lot less expensive than spending $76.25 for a set of 3 valves.

 

[jlouis23603]

The head didn’t look bad. I compared to a picture Randy posted of a washed out head. I’m going to continue to keep my eye on it.