1855 Oliver

Okay, I need some advice and/or opinions. I recently bought a low houred 1855 Oliver. It has a shade over 2000 hrs on it. I figured it had already had the engine updates done it on it. Imagine my surprise, when I use a flashlight in the oil fill hole and see 6 pt rod bolts. According to the serial number tractor was built late in '74. Drawbar and hitch arms show no wear...so I'm assuming it was used for PTO work. ( The guy I bought it from got it at an auction..so no history on it). My question is....can I get by with just replacing the rod bolts?? I really don't want to tear it down to do wrist pin bushings. Tractor will be used for cutting and rolling hay. Didn't really need an 1855...was actually looking for a 1755, but finding one that isn't wore slap out...is getting hard to do. Thanks
 
Seems 310's go one way or the other without the updates. They will either run forever (few and far between), or they will grenade themselves whenever they feel like it. I know of a 1955 with almost 5000 hours on it that hasnt had a single update done to it and the motor has never been apart, and it spent most of its life doing heavy field work. That being said, I know the good head gaskets are no longer available from AGCO and Clevite quit making the engine bearings, and that info is straight from Brad Maibach. He is working on getting the problem rectified and last I talked to him he was making headway on getting the stuff back into production but until that time comes its probably best to avoid cracking the engine open unless its absolutely necessary. He does offer a custom cut head gasket with separate fire rings but he makes no guarantees with it. It seems to be alright because im running one in my 1950T right now and its holding good. With all that, the rod bolts are probably the only thing you may be able to change at this point.
 
Lubbock gasket will make a good head gasket for any tractor engine,haven't used them in a few years but they did a really good job on a Cockshutt 50 gasket for me.
 
Well Oliver issued a bulletin on items to check on those tractors for longer engine life before any of these updates. I would suggest as a starting point you check all the items covered in that bulletin. I would also get an oil sample taken and send it in to see if you have high metal particles in the oil or anything else that should not be in the oil. Questions, my e-mail should be open. J.
 
I would be careful as to what kind of oil you are planning to use. The old premium diesel oils had a lot of the ZDDP chemical installed. The new modern lube oils are made for modern engines only. The ZDDP additive is available almost everywhere and if you have a flat tappet engine, you're killing it with a modern lube.
 
Now that is something that I've never heard. I run Mobil 15W40 in everything here....never heard of needing an additive.
 
Yeah...I'm guessing this is one of the good ones....2000 hrs and no updates....and no hole in the block. Would like to keep the block vent free....without a complete rebuild right now.
 
I just hope I haven't hurt my many old diesels by jumping on the band wagon too late. Oil companies have been stripping ZDDP from their products for years. Mobil is definitely a premium lube and may still have sufficient quanity to get by for now.

Below is a link to thousands of articles relating to this issue. Valvolene does have a special lube for classic cars but I don't think it's rated for diesel use.
Diesel lube and ZDDP
 
Ok, just from experience here... We have both an 1855 and 1755. Bought the 1855 new in '73. Dad and grandpa promptly blew it up as it didn't have a cooler block. Replaced with a 1955 cooler block. Since then, it has been overhauled at least twice, is the highest houred tractor on the farm and gets the most hours each year. It still has 6 point bolts, no wrist pin changes, gets plain old 15w-40 diesel oil in it, and works just fine. I did have to tighten the head down last summer as the head gasket had gone out a couple years ago and the guy I had change it didn't tighten it to the latest spec. The head gasket issue is workable if you use the torque settings specified in the Oliver shop manual, not the I&T manual.

This tractor used to do a lot of field work and planted every acre, along with mowing most acres, all hay acres, etc. Now, it mows all acres, pulls 350 bushel gravity wagons in the fall, does some lighter tillage work. Mowing with a 15' batwing mower on this thing works it pretty hard on the first mowing of the spring.

The 1755, although a different animal, also has 6 point bolts, no wrist pin bushing changes, was overhauled 8 years ago, uses plain old 15w-40 diesel oil, and is just fine. It mows, pulls the same wagons, and does other utility work.

We probably would have done the bolt and wrist pin changes had we known anything when they were last opened up. But, experience shows that both still work just fine.

Do what you want and it's your money, but if you have a cooler block, I'd start by changing the fluids and running it. Using it for hay work isn't pulling 5 bottoms in heavy clay, so I think you will be fine. Lugging it with too large a plow will possibly cause problems, especially if it doesn't have an oil cooler. But, like I said, it isn't my tractor or my money.
 
That's just it....I don't have the money to throw at it, if I don't have to. Like you, I also have a 1755, that I used to work the snot out of it. It wasn't updated to the new rod bolts and wrist pin bushings until last fall when I rebuilt it for the first time. Until a few years ago I hadn't even heard of these updates...and I've been running Olivers here for 25 years. This is my first 1855 and I guess it is one of the good ones, seeing as how it has lived this long without flying apart. Just needed opinions on how to keep it that way...without breaking the bank.
 
Sounds to me like you have decent experience with one, so you understand what you can and cannot do with it. Until I started reading this forum, I never heard such a thing as changing rod bolts and wrist pin bushings. I don't doubt it is good advice, but I wouldn't open an engine up to do it. Matter of fact, I changed the oil pan gasket on my 1755 last winter, considered changing the bolts, but after thinking about it, I decided against it. I talked to several old timers locally who worked at the dealer and they never changed them.

By now, over 40 years later, I'd guess those that were going to blow for no reason have. So, with it being a haying tractor, I'd just run it. Or, to put it another way, if I bought one with 2000 hours, I'd change the oil, give a good look at that oil, and try it out.

Suffice it to say I'm not nearly as scared of a 310 as a lot of people are. They have treated us pretty darn well. And, while the 1855 isn't a primary fieldwork tractor these days, we still depend on it to perform and it does.
 

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