ford 3000 troubles

tnbridges · Aug 14, 2014

I think I may have head gasket troubles, but there is no water in the oil. It starts up and runs good until it has run for about 20 minutes or so. It starts sputtering and wanting to quit when the motor gets hot. Can somebody give me some pointers on what may be wrong. HELP,please

Sean in PA · Aug 14, 2014

Head gasket would be the last thing I would suspect for those symptoms.

I assume that it a gas engine?

If so, you should check for a good spark first. When it starts sputtering, pull a spark plug wire and hold it near a good clean ground point. It should produce a bright blue-white spark that will jump at least a 1/4" gap.

If the spark is good, then check your fuel delivery. See if pulling out the choke helps with the sputtering. If the choke helps, then it's not getting enough fuel, which could be a number of things, including gunk in the tank blocking the screen on top of the shutoff valve, or a plugged vent in the gas cap.

tnbridges · Aug 14, 2014

It is gasoline. It has a new carberator, spark plugs, points and condenser. I thought it could be trash in the tank, but I haven't thought about the gas cap. I will check that. I was focusing more about the problem being in the engine. Thanks for your advice.

Sean in PA · Aug 15, 2014

New spark plugs, points and condenser don't guarantee a good spark. Could be the coil is starting to go bad, as they will sometimes only manifest problems when they're hot until they go completely bad. Check the actual spark when the tractor is acting up.

Texas! · Aug 15, 2014

Condensers have been known to be defective right out of the box- especially the chinese ones sold at TSC and other places. Your symptons are indicative of a bad condenser.

souNdguy · Aug 15, 2014

if it is burning the points ( open ). or showing complete loss of spark and a short condition.

tnbridges · Aug 16, 2014

I'm still leaning towards head gasket. I have tried all posted advice and still having troubles. What are the symptoms of head gasket trouble? Is the first post I made, not consist of symptoms?

Texasmark1 · Aug 16, 2014

I have had other engines with coil problems only when hot.
Ought to know the failure mechanism but don't. Best guess is
that over time the insulation (varnish) on adjacent wires cracks
or rubs off and bare windings are exposed. The heat makes
them expand and once touching they are a "shorted turn" which
kills the coils ability to produce adequate output voltage.

If you suspect a condenser, just take it off for a test. If it's off it
can't kill your spark. I would think that it would short if it's your
smoking gun. If open it wouldn't do anything but cause
premature pitting of your points and if they were that bad you
wouldn't have to wait till the engine got hot for a failure. Then
decide what you need to do. On getting a bad one out of the
box these days, I don't know how you get around that one nor
do I know the failure mechanism.

Mark

tnbridges · Aug 16, 2014

Does the negative side of the coil go to the distributor wires? And is there 2 wires?

showcrop · Aug 17, 2014

(quoted from post at 05:30:34 08/16/14) I'm still leaning towards head gasket. I have tried all posted advice and still having troubles. What are the symptoms of head gasket trouble? Is the first post I made, not consist of symptoms?

The most prominent indication of a blown head gasket is coolant gushing out of the radiator pressure relief. Another is oil in coolant or coolant in oil. Another is bubbling at the head-block interface. Another is rough running-missing which is due to compression loss. This can be verified with a compression test which would show low compression on adjacent cylinders. As everyone else is saying there are numerous other much more likely causes, and it is good trouble shooting practice to eliminate the more likely and easier to remedy causes first. Trouble shooting eliminates the more likely causes systematically with known tests.

Ed in MS · Aug 25, 2014

Check spark plug boots for cracks. Mine had fire jumping from plug to cyl head, only happened after it got warm. I wrapped the boots with tape to see if it helped, and so far so good. Will replace the wires later....Good Luck

ford 3000 troubles

tnbridges

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Sean in PA

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tnbridges

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Sean in PA

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Texas!

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souNdguy

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tnbridges

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Texasmark1

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tnbridges

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showcrop

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Ed in MS

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