CIH 1660 - sorry to leave you hanging!

Dave H (MI)

Well-known Member
So much good advice, but the winner in that category is John_PA who suggested that I table the whole business over Christmas, enjoy all the good food and relax. I followed this advice to the letter and I hope everyone had as good a Christmas as we had here! So I have not even logged on to these forums since the 23rd. I want to thank Al Baker for his kind offer. Probably gonna take you up on that, but don't expect to leave here without getting something for your time. Just getting back into things so let me get my act together and I'll be in touch.

I have been over the combine in the interim. I have looked all over the engine and found no external issues. No fluids leaking anywhere on the engine of any obvious nature. Turbo has been examined. There is no evidence of oil leakage there. I have pulled oil from the case, nothing but good oil. No obvious coolant leaks, no discoloration from water...just oil. I refilled the oil and it only took two gallons to fill. Engine started fine. Ran it for about ten minutes then shut her down and let it cool for a bit before rechecking the oil. Still full. In line gauge used and it shows good oil pressure. Topped off hydro, raised head and moved unit off field. No problems with operation, power, etc. Not going to do the oil test at this time, will wait until new oil has been in there a few weeks.

Combine is now in a secure location, out of the way, on property I own. It is not needed again for most of a year. Corn is done. I am well aware that there is still a problem and will keep looking until I find it. I have detailed notes from the comments made by people who I felt had something positive to offer and I am working thru them as time and weather permit. We have had a meeting here and have decided before Spring to have it taken in and completely gone over and repaired as needed. It will pay me back eventually. I have plenty enough experience to know that.

Can't remember where I left the corn...forum-wise that is, but it has all been picked and delivered to the elevator. Moisture varied from load to load but ended up being in the mid to upper 20's. So drying cost came down. Price per bushel rose a little. End result for corn was that I ended up just a hair over the break-even point. Given bad weather, inexperience and a general tendency to do the wrong thing at the right time, I am happy with that result. Overall farm results for the year are much better. Rents are good, hay was a record. Even with the rad repair we are solidly in the black.

Been working on stringing some video together of the corn harvest. Looking pretty good but I want to work on it a little more. Hope you all have a Happy New Year! The weather is already better! Thanks again for all your many helpful comments over the year!
 
Glad you had a great Christmas! It sounds like you have a great plan for going forward, and while I was a Ford/New Holland tech, Ford car/truck tech, and bodyman for all of my professional adult life; I don't have any experience at all with the Case IH combines. Without that, it is hard to picture the set-up and offer any real solid advice except eating cookies and sitting on the couch while someone else takes a look at it. So it sounds like you have that covered.

I read your other post somewhere that said you were a CPA. I'm sure you are better suited to sit this one out and let a professional knuckle buster handle it just for the fact that you are about to get really busy starting immediately, I'm sure. April 15th down south where I am (near Pittsburgh, PA LOL), is the planting date for oats. Any free time you have, you are going to spend getting tillage done for oats.

Time for you is going to FLY from now until then!

Just curious, while I am thinking of it... Do you have a spraying plan for your oats? I used to use a lot of 2,4-d on oats, but found out that putting more than a 1/2 pint per acre is really bad for them, and at that rate, it doesn't do much good. I switched to using Widematch + Banvel(Dicamba). I also use Quilt fungicide which really helps on oats. If you ever see a bin full of grey looking oats that got combined late, you will appreciate Quilt (Syngenta, I think) fungicide. It makes the straw brighter, and keeping the ragweed and thistle at bay with the herbicidal maniacs (Widematch an Banvel) makes one of those picture perfect fields of "amber waves of grain."


Good luck to you, and Happy New Year!
 
Just had a thought. Do you have any enemies or someone who wanted to do some harm to the machine? It is possible that someone could have vacuumed the oil out of the crankcase just to mess with you??

That's if you can't find where the oil disappeared to.
 
I wondered about that after the fact. I also wonder what kind of drain it has. The 9500 has a petcock with a hose attached and running down the side. If that was opened (by someone) you may not realize it.
 
I'm wrapping up the video tonight. Have to work tomorrow early in the day and then afternoon I have a traditional family dinner I prepare every New Years. Feeding frenzy whilst the Christmas tunes get a final spin. If I can get the thing up on YouTube I will post a link NYD or shortly thereafter.
 
Funny you should mention it. I DO NOT have a plan for oats. I can handle the tillage and planting but the spraying routine is unfamiliar. I'll save that info and probably post a question down the road to see how many contradicting responses I get! LOL!

I have located a nice grain head though. Fella really wants me to buy the combine attached to it also. I asked some questions and realized that I knew his machine well. It is an IH 1420. Up until last summer it was sitting on a dealer lot and I considered buying it. Was the first combine I ever drove. I passed it by then and now.

Already starting to get busy here. A lot of my tax clients have high end returns. We do a fair amount of last minute planning and question answering. I am really looking forward to tax season this year. Riding a desk never seemed so relaxing before. Might be a more normal season also. Last year I spent every morning clearing snow from the walks before I could start my appointment schedule. Won't miss that and won't miss the resulting flood when I get out there to turn ground. I have a lot of ground to turn this year...none of the fall tillage is done. Tenant packed it in and did not do his and my field turned to mud after the corn came off. AND, we are putting up the building in January supposedly! Doubt I'll get to see it until it is done. :(
 
It is a very good thought. The 1660 has the hose and petcock arrangement. First thing out my mind when I tried to use it was that it would be real easy to steal oil out of it. We have one bad neighbor. Lives across the road and was a beneficiary of the estate that sold me the land. Feels we "stole" the land, even though we were the only ones to make an offer on it in the ten years it was for sale. I made an offer at market price which was less than half of current listing. The estate thought about it for a year and then came back to me and took it. I paid them cash and they hit the stores! Motor homes, tractors, ATV's...you name it. Now they resent the hell out of me. MAYBE, just maybe, if they had not started the bidding at $1.2 million they might have sold the place for more. But ten years on the market and several price reductions later it was a dead property. Don't think they did it, though. But it DID occur to me.

Combine did not run out of oil. It was just very low, very cold, and coming out very slow.
 
Hey john, do you have any experience with the 60 series new Holland tractors, 8160,8260, etc..? Got a problem with mine that can't seem to be figured out.
 
I have been reading about your progress since the beginning and it has been fun. I am glad to see that other folks have these kinds of issues besides me. What I wanted to say is have you checked your air breathers? Plugged air filters will make that motor burn oil.
 
No, I haven't. But I will get on that next time I am out there. Weather is a little raw at the moment and breezy. Not my first choice for climbing on a combine! Supposed to have it indoors within a few weeks, but all the contractors took a powder over the holidays...bless them...so did I! Thanks for the help!
 
Sure, that's easy enough. Called Jansen's CIH and Alderman's CIH, the former owner of the machine and even asked the guy who sold me the corn head! All gave us the same answer...Shell Rotella. Can't say for sure what the weight of that is but we bought what was suggested and what was already in the combine. All the jugs are out at the farm and I don't care to guess on weight. Sure enough I will guess wrong and someone will take me to task for it.

To be totally honest, I was not the person making those calls, did not buy the oil and did not personally put it in. I have been getting ready for my "other busy season". All I did was go out and operate the machine for them and go over the engine and listen to it run after they got the oil in it. I listened to the story, glanced at the jugs, read the dipstick and then did my part. It took 2 gallons of oil to fill the machine to the top of the full area on the stick.

I am afraid my farming days are over for a couple months. I have one more trip planned to bring a small tractor home for snow plowing and to knock down a couple more dead ash trees. After that I have to leave it for a while. :(
 

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