IH 354 coolant in crankcase

woodsarmoury

New User
I have a 70's era 354 (gas) tractor that is getting coolant inthe oil (oil turns an off-white color). I suspected it was the head gasket. Pulled the head expecting to find an obvious blow out but everything looked good. Took the gasket and head to local Case dealer and service guy said gasket looked fine. I confirmed this at another local independent shop. No sign of coolant burning in combustion chamber, or blowing past gasket.

Both suggested cylinder sleeves or sleeve seals. Now at this point Im way out of my element. Went home pulled pan to inspect inside crank case. No "obvious" signs of damage to sleeves when viewed from top or bottom of engine. Problem is I dont know what to look for.

Question: If we rule out worst case scenario being a cracked block or head... Is there any other way for coolant to get into oil?
Am I missing something simple? Some have suggested maybe fuel is getting into oil?
I dont want to pull out pistons and sleeves before I check everything else first.

Any help would be great.

Check out the video. https://youtu.be/RB7L6tBgAEA
 
I thought someone wit more IH experience would have answered by now, so here goes...

Since there was no obvious head gasket problem, (and they can be really hard to see sometimes), likely there is a cylinder liner oring seal leaking.

That would involve removing the pistons, pulling the liners, cleaning the block sealing surface and the liners thoroughly, reinstalling with new orings.

I've never done that engine, so don't know if the liners just sit in, or are a press fit.

You could put it back and see if the gasket fixed it, but chances are if it is an oring leak, removing the head may have disturbed it even more.

That looks to be a very clean tractor, would be a shame to let it die. Maybe someone will come on and tell how difficult the liners are to remove. Might post on the IH board below.

If you do decide to go in deeper, a shop manual would be a valuable investment.
 

Thanks Steve

I do have a shop manual which has come in handy. The manual makes it sound like sleeves just drop in place (but it has a tendency to over simplify things).

Hope to hear a few more opinions, my real concern is that its something simple... I dont wanna tear down the engine further unless I have too.
 
ivor from uk here and I used to work at main IH dealer 40 years ago but no gas engines only diesel but the same problem occurred fairly often and it was caused by liner corrosion and sometimes by running engine without coolant
you cannot do it now you have removed head but you should have removed sump and pressureised cooling system and then you could see if liner seal is leaking but perhaps you can still do it by filling cooling system in block and looking underneath.. I would advise if only one liner seal is leaking but renew all four but if there is any sign of corrosion in liners to renew them, but in case you reuse liners do put mark on liner so they are fitted in same position finally how often is coolant renewed because if it is not changed for a long time the antifreeze turns into acid attacking liners
 

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