Steiger Bearcat 2

[plowhand]

A Steiger caught my eye with the 3208 Cat engine looking for opinions on entire tractor.

 

[caterpillar guy]

The 3208 was a throw away engine. The early models were not sleeved. As for the tractor they were pretty good heavy tractors. Check the uni balls in the hinge joints if they are shot you will need to pull it apart to fix them at the hinge. We have not done that on ours yet. One needs it. Look at the ends of the steering cylinders for the balls at the end being worn out .

 

[plowhand]

Which model is one of the better ones without spending an arm or a leg?

 

[jon f mn]

The 3208 was called a throw away engine because the early ones had no sleeves so it was expensive to overhaul one and usually a better value to just buy a new short block or complete engine. That said, they were a decent engine for a V-8 as long as you didn't push them too hard. In the later trucks they turbo charged them and pushed them over 300hp and they wouldn't take that. They liked to be at the 180-220 hp ratings and ran a long time like that. Don't expect them to pull like an in-line six tho.

 

[SETX]

I had a second hand Steiger Panther for many years....1990 till 2015. The tractor was work horse. Pulled a 38? sunflower disc like it wasn?t even there.
Easy to work on.

 

[caterpillar guy]

Look for a cougar or a panther. The ST models are a 10 spd with a high low range the Pt's are an automatic trans or something like that. Then there are some with the Cummins engine and some with a Cat. I prefer the Cat. Just a personal thing.
If you go to tractor data .com there is a bit of history on the tractors and some of the nomenclature is there for which engine is in them and how to tell them apart by the letter number arrangements. Ours are old 70's models with the ST270 listing on them. I would go with one with the 3406 engine if I was buying not wanting to do a lot of changing around.
We bought a Cougar st270 with the 3306 engine shot in it. And put a 3406 in it. Pulls a 30 ft sunflower disc and doesn't even know it is back there along with one of those Unverferth egg beaters behind it. We usually pull it just 3rd in high range. Last fall I shifted up one gear to 4th high range it just rolled along with it just the same as in 3rd.

 

[rlp in Co.]

Why would it be a throw away engine? It's probably a lot cheaper to bore a block than it is to buy sleeves. Last block that I had bored was only $8 a hole.

 

[Bob]

(quoted from post at 09:04:47 01/25/20) The 3208 was a throw away engine. The early models were not sleeved. As for the tractor they were pretty good heavy tractors. Check the uni balls in the hinge joints if they are shot you will need to pull it apart to fix them at the hinge. We have not done that on ours yet. One needs it. Look at the ends of the steering cylinders for the balls at the end being worn out .

"The 3208 was a throw away engine. The early models were not sleeved."

I didn't think they were EVER sleeved during the production run, the NEW engines, that is, not the re-mans?

And, they weren't "thrown away", the were bored and sleeved and put back to work.

That being said, I own two of them, in trucks.

 

[caterpillar guy]

I doubt you could bore a block for 8.00 a hole today. I think most of those engines were worn beyond the limits to not have to sleeve when they were shot. The block was to thin to bore without getting into the water jackets I think I heard something about back in the day. The later ones had sleeves in so resleeving was possible on them. Also was like a Detroit no lugging with out consequences. Just didn't have the torque for it.
The inline 6 engines would pull better with few problems. Though I have heard the 3306 didn't stand up well in those tractors. I would believe it is due to it being pushed to it's upper limits to make the 260-270 hp where the 3406 was set to run from 280-460hp easily. With some I am sure running close to 600hp.

 

[oliverkid]

In marine applications they were pushing them to 400 horse with a roller valve train and they were surviving just fine. 3208?s are plenty dependable. The people that call them throw away motors are the people that think they can run them like a big in line 6 and lug them all day long. You can?t, you need to buzz them and let the rpms do the work like any other V8. They are governed at 26-2800 rpm for a reason, marine motors can spin even faster. Start pulling them down and you need to down shift. Even CAT recommends if you want them to give long.life between rebuilds you need to roll new bearing inserts in the bottom end every 1000-1500 hours, more so on the turboed engines but still important on the NA?s. To the people that like to throw out the ?they are sleeveless and expensive to rebuild? argument I love to pull out the fact that the 5.9 Cummins is sleeveless and not to cheap to work on either but nobody calls them a throw away motor.

 

[Fordfarmer]

The ones with the Allison automatic were PTA's. PT's and ST's were both 10 speed (or 20, with the optional 2 speed drop box). The P or S designated a Cummins or Caterpillar engine.

 

[Bob]

(quoted from post at 13:42:49 01/25/20) In marine applications they were pushing them to 400 horse with a roller valve train and they were surviving just fine. 3208?s are plenty dependable. The people that call them throw away motors are the people that think they can run them like a big in line 6 and lug them all day long. You can?t, you need to buzz them and let the rpms do the work like any other V8. They are governed at 26-2800 rpm for a reason, marine motors can spin even faster. Start pulling them down and you need to down shift. Even CAT recommends if you want them to give long.life between rebuilds you need to roll new bearing inserts in the bottom end every 1000-1500 hours, more so on the turboed engines but still important on the NA?s. To the people that like to throw out the ?they are sleeveless and expensive to rebuild? argument I love to pull out the fact that the 5.9 Cummins is sleeveless and not to cheap to work on either but nobody calls them a throw away motor.

EXCELLENT post and points, "oliverkid".

Your last sentence is GREAT, not to mention the fact that 5.9's, for a time, had a habit of cracking blocks!

 

[Tom OConnor]

I would keep on looking. I had the first ST 325 that came in to the State of Michigan and had many problems with it. The engine was a 3406 and was great but the tractor had a dry clutch which was always problematic along with a very weak hydraulic system, air conditioning system, banded duals rather than axle mounted and failures in the planetary hubs.

 

[ztrmowers]

I had a steiger cougar love that unit ,trying to find one back for old time sake

 

[SVcummins]

I know where one of those is I?ll make you a good
deal on it