One tough 2120

Neighbor bought a '98 2120 a few years back with 1600 hours. He said it always had some blowby, but got to the point where oil would stream from the breather hose. I drove it for a short ways, and the poor thing could hardly handle high range. We tore into it, and found the intake passages coated with oily dust. Pulled the engine apart all the way, and found piston rings worn more than I've ever seen before - the end gap must have been close to 1/4". The picture compares an old ring to a new ring. I can't believe it had enough compression to even run.
I never realized before quite how expensive Shibaura parts were either. Oversize pistons, rings, rod and main bearings, gasket set, two injectors, aftermarket water pump, aftermarket clutch and a few other parts were over $3500. Machine shop work to bore it out, resurface the flywheel and a valve job/head planing was $600 or so.
I inspected the air filter hosuing extra well for any cracks, but none were found. Since it came from a chicken farm originally, I assumed the air filter must have clogged & split at one time while cleaning the coops. When I went to put the new filter element in, I asked him for the wing nut that holds the filter down. He told me there was only ever one wingnut for the cover, none for the element itself! Someone must have forgotten the wingnut at some point, so for years the filter was free to slide back and forth in the housing and not really filter much at all. I think that was the worst point of the whole project for him - knowing a missing wingnut cost him over $4000. It runs like a champ now.

Good job!! It should be worth $8,000 to $10,000 now.

That"s about what he has in it now, as he bought it cheap fortunately.

That might be what it's "worth" but it will take twice or three times that to replace it with a new one, and in my opinion the 2120 us a great tractor, far better than a brand new Boomer. I bet that rebuild outlasts a model year 2012 tractor, assuming that the air filter stays in place.

After many trips to the dealer for parts, he had his eye on a used Workmaster parked out front but soon forgot about it when he heard the asking price. They also had a 2120 that they were asking around $14k and it sold so they do hold their value quite well.
I"m sure that air cleaner nut will be checked and doubled checked from now on!