165 Cont. Smoking & Misfire

I found what I thought was a good deal on a MF 165 with continental motor and loader. When I looked at it, motor ran fine with no smoke or misfire. Drove it home about 1 mile and parked it to start shining her up. It had sat for months at a time without being ran. Previous owner used it to move around small bales for his horses on rare occasion is all. Not being a mechanic of any kind, it got neglected and sat out in the weather for years.

I began using engine degreaser and brake cleaner to blast off years of oil and hydraulic fluid leaks. Decided I needed to get it closer to a water hydrant so I attempted to move it but killed the battery trying. Charged the battery but starter just didn't have the torque to turn it over so I pulled it and cleaned it out. Brushes looked shot but hoped a good cleaning would get me by.. It worked. But then I noticed it ran rough like it was down a cylinder. Pulled each plug wire listening for an rpm change and found #2 and maybe #1 weren't firing and saw lots of smoke out the pipe. At first I thought I flooded it and fouled the plugs so I picked up some new AL 3116 and attempted it again. No fire on 2 again and plug was wet with oil. Pulled all plugs and 1 is also wet with oil. I have not done a compression test yet but what gave out? Am I looking at a rebuild here or does this possibly sound like a stuck oil ring? Could I have washed the cylinder walls down with fuel causing this to happen? If I have to rebuild this thing my wife will kill me...

If you were also using water to wash off the engine degreaser while cleaning around the distributor you more than likely got some water inside the distributor cap, or some where the wires go into the distributor cap. Take the distributor cap off, and look for any moisture under the cap, and make sure it's all dry inside the distributor. Any moisture in there will cause problems.

Misfire started before the rinse. My problem isn't spark... It's oil fouled plugs

I would do a compression test on each cylinder, one dry test, and one wet test. If the rings are bad you will get more compression on the wet compression test than the dry test.

Check your air cleaner and see if it's full of water.

You say it sat around a lot so good chance it has sticking rings and maybe valves. Me I would put a 1/4 cup of ATF in the cylinders and let ti sit a few days and see if that frees up sticking rings etc.

(quoted from post at 10:45:02 04/04/16) You say it sat around a lot so good chance it has sticking rings and maybe valves. Me I would put a 1/4 cup of ATF in the cylinders and let ti sit a few days and see if that frees up sticking rings etc.

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It sat but never smoked or misfired while I checked it out or drove it home. I thought about trying some ATF or MMO on it. Plan on picking up a compression check gauge today but I'm thinking compression is fine. Hard to imagine what happened to cause this condition so suddenly when not even a hint of smoke before.

I believe I may have found the cause of my oil soaked cylinders. The carb overflowed into the motor which thinned the oil to water like viscosity. Think there is irreparable damage done? I haven't changed the oil a yet since I can't start it till I get the starter fixed anyway. Plan on that tomorrow. I've already fixed the fuel issue by installing a quarter turn ball valve between the sediment bowl and carb. Shut off valve leaked when shut so I left it cracked which filled the crankcase with fuel.

If you just ran it for very short periods of time (which it sounds like) I think it should be ok.

I would also fix the float/needle issue so it does not overflow.

(quoted from post at 06:12:30 04/05/16) I would also fix the float/needle issue so it does not overflow.

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I plan on it. Was looking over the carb and noticed it has no main mix adjustment. Is that normal? Pulled the screw where it should have been and found a jet screwed in it but no way of changing fuel delivery.

According to the parts book it should either have.
Part number 194603M92 Carburetor (Marvel -Schebler)
or 194996M93 Carburetor (Zenith)

They both show to have to adjustment for the main mix.

Finally got around to checking compression and found 140 in 3 &4 but 1 & 2 won't move the needle on the gauge at all. I need to figure out of it's the valves or the rings. It surprises me that a carb overflowing could cause this. Is there any hope to gain compression without a rebuild?

In my experience, if it ran one mile to your house without a problem, then it had no problems till you started poking around with it. You drowned everything washing it, you choked it to death, and I will bet all 4 cylinders do have good compression. Get yourself a pair of owner's and repair manuals and read them. THEN start touching the machine. And if you have mechanically inclined friends and relatives, invite them over to check it out, and get some advice and hints- and maybe warnings. Don't break anything that ain't already broke. These are 'nearly' unbreakable 'nearly' indestructible, very reliable machines. Just take the time to learn about it first. This is too expensive and dangerous to be treated wrong.

LOL all I did was spray degreaser on it and hose it down. In fact it never touched water till the day after it started smoking. So if this is caused by something I did then please enlighten me. It didn't seem to run great when I bought it but didn't smoke. Now it still runs poor and smokes like a chimney.

Do a "wet" compression test on it. Squirt, or pour about 2 ounces of whatever motor oil you have handy into the cylinder through the spark plug hole (the oil needs to get between the piston, and cylinder wall so it will help seal piston rings up), and then put your compression gauge on, and see how much different the reading is from you first "dry" test. If the compression comes up a lot on the "wet" test the piston rings are not sealing properly.

(quoted from post at 19:46:21 04/06/16) Do a "wet" compression test on it. Squirt, or pour about 2 ounces of whatever motor oil you have handy into the cylinder through the spark plug hole (the oil needs to get between the piston, and cylinder wall so it will help seal piston rings up), and then put your compression gauge on, and see how much different the reading is from you first "dry" test. If the compression comes up a lot on the "wet" test the piston rings are not sealing properly.

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I poured in some MMO but didn't see a dramatic change. Actually let it set for at least 20 hrs that way. Something interesting did happen when I decide to pull all the plugs and run the starter for at least 50 good cycles. I began to feel compression building with my thumb over the spark plug hole on the bad cylinders. They felt just as strong as the good cylinders. When I tested the compression again, the needle shot up to 100psi but couldn't hold it. I kind of wonder if all I need to do is seat the rings again using this method until I can get the compression to hold.

(quoted from post at 20:01:27 04/06/16) I poured in some MMO but didn't see a dramatic change. Actually let it set for at least 20 hrs that way. Something interesting did happen when I decide to pull all the plugs and run the starter for at least 50 good cycles. I began to feel compression building with my thumb over the spark plug hole on the bad cylinders. They felt just as strong as the good cylinders. When I tested the compression again, the needle shot up to 100psi but couldn't hold it. I kind of wonder if all I need to do is seat the rings again using this method until I can get the compression to hold.

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It's worth a shot, chances are the rings maybe stuck in those two cylinders. I'd keep trying the MMO trick a few more times, it may free them back up.

Problem solved. tore into it and found stuck valves on 1 & 2. Now all cylinders have 160 psi compression. I don't believe I even washed out the seal with gas. It just made more sense when I believed the tractor was mechanically sound when I bought it. These valves must have been stuck for a long time.

Is the continental an interference motor? The #2 valve was stuck in the open position. Seems to have great compression.

It only has a compression ratio of 7.1:1 so 160 psi is pretty good. If it was a "interference" engine it would have bent the valves. With such low a compression ratio, and probably not much valve lift I'd say its a "non-interference" engine.