Head gasket / head / block / or other ???

nrowles

Member
Any help here would be appreciated. I have a 1980 Ford 1500. 20 hp diesel.
Just bought the machine. It actually appeared to be in excellent shape for age.
Hour gauge says 050 so I'm assuming it has 1050 hrs. Other than goofin around
the house I went to use it this morning on our lot. After about an hour of constant
use I noticed smoke coming out the valve cover breather tube.

So here are the symptoms I am seeing now. Smoke and small amount oil coming
out valve cover breather tube. Faint white smoke coming out exhaust. I don't
think it's blue smoke. As soon as started there are bubbles in radiator. No oil in
radiator. No coolant in oil. Runs as I think it should. I didn't notice any change or
loss of power when this happened. Didn't notice if machine got hot. Light may
not work.

I was originally thinking head gasket but would oil come out the breather tube if
head gasket? I would think that has something to do with cylinder, walls, or
piston. I think I may actually be hoping for head gasket here and not multiple
issues.
 
Could very well be a head gasket. The bubbles in the coolant and the white smoke out the exhaust would indicate the gasket leaking into the water jacket.

The smoke out the breather could be steam, but it could also indicate the gasket is venting into the crankcase via the oil drain back/pushrod area. That would explain the oil being pushed out because of pressurization of the crankcase.

With that low hours, and no other performance problems, head gasket would be a logical diagnosis. If it has glow plugs, you could remove them, let it sit with pressure on the radiator, crank it through and see if coolant comes out a cylinder. You might also see some condensation building under the oil cap, dipstick tube, etc.
 


Shop manual vs repair manual. I can get a much smaller shop manual cover 13 tractors for the same price as a 680 page repair manual on CD covering 6 tractor models. This seems like a no brainer to go with repair manual right? I can just print it out myself at work and put in binder.
 
This tractor has an oil bath filter. Any chance some oil got sucked in engine and is causing exhaust smoke and oil coming out breather tube? This may be a stupid question as I don't fully understand the mechanics.
 
If the oil bath was over filled it could have inhaled some of it. But it would have given a period of blue/white smoke until it was all burned away.

Another cause for oil out the breather could be over filled crankcase. Check the level. Over filled can be caused by several sources other than accidentally overfilling. A leaking injector pump, lift pump, engine driven hydraulic pumps, all can leak into the crankcase and overfill it.
 

We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today.

Back
Top