Its be four months since I finished the engine rebuild, rear rim rebuild and whatever else needed attention at the time. I had many
problems along the way which were a combination of nnalert, (many problems with parts quality and availability), and this being my first
sleeved engine.
I was given the tractor and loader (D17-IV with 400 loader) from my dad when they moved off the farm. It was purchased second had and seen
a few different mechanics over the years. I found many things. Undersized cables and wires in key circuits, coil with internal resister
while still having original resister in place, worn distributor bushings etc,, timing curve problems, overheating connections in the
starting circuit and on and on. It never did run and start right since the last rebuild when they put the 170 pistons in it he always said.
After I got it and was using it to pull logs up out of a sharp valley I started messing with the timing and found either it could be set so
it would start and run good but ping, or it would not ping but start very poorly, act like it was a cold engine all the time, sputter and
die when taking off. It would run on also in one of the scenarios. The advanced example I suppose. With the loader frame in the way it
had always been timed by ear I suppose. Thats how I was doing it as well. I sent the distributor to The Brillman Company and they rebuilt
the distributor and installed electronic ignition. I also bought their hot coil to go with it. It was like a completely different
tractor. Excellent!! But I think all the years of running with the timing off dammaged the engine. #1 was knocking, and the engine was
starting to smoke, so I went in to fix it. # 1 wrist pin was binding up and piston was scored badly and starting to crack. Others were
scored in various degrees. The #1 rod was different part number than the rest of the rods and was 62 grams lighter than the other three.
I bought a matching rod and had all the rods rebuilt. Problems i had along the way were many. First shipment of parts, starter ring gear
and new steering wheel, shipped in same box without packing. Guess what the white steering wheel looked like next to those sharp teeth.
After accepting that I would have to return the wheel I did a ring test on the ring gear. It sounded like I was striking lead compared to
the nice ring that I got from the original. My first rebuild kit was the I think the last agco high compression(170 pistons) in existance.
The pistons and sleeves were out of spec so that the clearances were to great. Sent them back and payed about $250 restocking fee. in the
mean time I bought wrist pins for it since the ones in the kit were starting to rust. One of the wrist pins had a much smaller ID making
it heavier, or larger ID making it lighter, which ever it was,That cost me extra shippiing and I didnt use them. After much searching I
ended up buying a kit with Flat top pistons. for a WD With all my components the static CR came out to be 8.62. Everything was right on
in that kit from a different vendor. But, The orings had huge flat spots on them like they had been sanded on a belt sander. They sent
some spares but the quality was just poor and they were .010 under the what I think to be normal .125. I ordered orings from agco. Looked
great but .010 over .125. I forced a couple sleeves in and found that it compressed the sleeves enough that I had to hone the bottoms of
the sleeves. After alot of messing around I decided to get two more sleeves and reorder orings from another vendor. These came in on the
money and the surface texture was what I am used to seeing on other equipment. Installation went well but i still honed a little at the
bottom on two cylinders. Maybe I should have honed the block but it was already over spec. I diddnt like measuring with feeler gauges so
I bougnt a bore gauge. I wont use feelers for piston clearance ever again. Just didnt like the false drag that I got using a flat gauge
in a curved gap. Quite a few other pains with parts came along but worked through them. Engine does have more power now and no pinging so
far but generally use at least 91 octane. Compression test shows 175-180 psi. Thats with WD pistons. Not sure where others are getting
the ratios they are stating but 8.62 is what I calculated and the compression PSI backs that up as far as I can tell. One problem,,, now
it jumps out of high on the power direct. It never did this before. Doesnt matter if its on a heavy pull or just going down hill on the
gravel road. Any thoughts? Again thanks for all your help with my questions last summer. I learned alot going through the whole
operation. I also did some things with my rear wheels to keep them from slipping and coming loose. A learning experiance overall.
problems along the way which were a combination of nnalert, (many problems with parts quality and availability), and this being my first
sleeved engine.
I was given the tractor and loader (D17-IV with 400 loader) from my dad when they moved off the farm. It was purchased second had and seen
a few different mechanics over the years. I found many things. Undersized cables and wires in key circuits, coil with internal resister
while still having original resister in place, worn distributor bushings etc,, timing curve problems, overheating connections in the
starting circuit and on and on. It never did run and start right since the last rebuild when they put the 170 pistons in it he always said.
After I got it and was using it to pull logs up out of a sharp valley I started messing with the timing and found either it could be set so
it would start and run good but ping, or it would not ping but start very poorly, act like it was a cold engine all the time, sputter and
die when taking off. It would run on also in one of the scenarios. The advanced example I suppose. With the loader frame in the way it
had always been timed by ear I suppose. Thats how I was doing it as well. I sent the distributor to The Brillman Company and they rebuilt
the distributor and installed electronic ignition. I also bought their hot coil to go with it. It was like a completely different
tractor. Excellent!! But I think all the years of running with the timing off dammaged the engine. #1 was knocking, and the engine was
starting to smoke, so I went in to fix it. # 1 wrist pin was binding up and piston was scored badly and starting to crack. Others were
scored in various degrees. The #1 rod was different part number than the rest of the rods and was 62 grams lighter than the other three.
I bought a matching rod and had all the rods rebuilt. Problems i had along the way were many. First shipment of parts, starter ring gear
and new steering wheel, shipped in same box without packing. Guess what the white steering wheel looked like next to those sharp teeth.
After accepting that I would have to return the wheel I did a ring test on the ring gear. It sounded like I was striking lead compared to
the nice ring that I got from the original. My first rebuild kit was the I think the last agco high compression(170 pistons) in existance.
The pistons and sleeves were out of spec so that the clearances were to great. Sent them back and payed about $250 restocking fee. in the
mean time I bought wrist pins for it since the ones in the kit were starting to rust. One of the wrist pins had a much smaller ID making
it heavier, or larger ID making it lighter, which ever it was,That cost me extra shippiing and I didnt use them. After much searching I
ended up buying a kit with Flat top pistons. for a WD With all my components the static CR came out to be 8.62. Everything was right on
in that kit from a different vendor. But, The orings had huge flat spots on them like they had been sanded on a belt sander. They sent
some spares but the quality was just poor and they were .010 under the what I think to be normal .125. I ordered orings from agco. Looked
great but .010 over .125. I forced a couple sleeves in and found that it compressed the sleeves enough that I had to hone the bottoms of
the sleeves. After alot of messing around I decided to get two more sleeves and reorder orings from another vendor. These came in on the
money and the surface texture was what I am used to seeing on other equipment. Installation went well but i still honed a little at the
bottom on two cylinders. Maybe I should have honed the block but it was already over spec. I diddnt like measuring with feeler gauges so
I bougnt a bore gauge. I wont use feelers for piston clearance ever again. Just didnt like the false drag that I got using a flat gauge
in a curved gap. Quite a few other pains with parts came along but worked through them. Engine does have more power now and no pinging so
far but generally use at least 91 octane. Compression test shows 175-180 psi. Thats with WD pistons. Not sure where others are getting
the ratios they are stating but 8.62 is what I calculated and the compression PSI backs that up as far as I can tell. One problem,,, now
it jumps out of high on the power direct. It never did this before. Doesnt matter if its on a heavy pull or just going down hill on the
gravel road. Any thoughts? Again thanks for all your help with my questions last summer. I learned alot going through the whole
operation. I also did some things with my rear wheels to keep them from slipping and coming loose. A learning experiance overall.
