D436 engine

2800h D436 (1440 combine):

engine starts cold super easy, with very little smoke after running 3-5 seconds. not sure when the oil was last changed, but, while hot, engine oil seemed on the thin side, was black, and smelled a little like fuel. had some smoke/vapor out the dipstick/filler tube, but it also hasn't been run hot under load for a couple of seasons. there was no coolant-oil sludge under the head of the dipstick. how does the injection pump typically leak fuel into these engines? and, what is the coolant filter for? i've never noticed that on IH engines before, but i haven't been around them much.

The coolant filter introduces an additive to the coolant to prevent cavitation of coolant against the wet sleeves in the engine. Cavitation wears holes in the sleeves and causes the engine to dump the coolant into the oil pan.

I have never pulled a dipstick and not had the oil smell a little like fuel. It's fuel. It's stinky. It gets past the rings and into the oil on any engine.

Oil gets thin when hot too. What's important is what it says on a good dependable oil pressure gauge when hot at idle.

So basically nothing in your post is cause for alarm in my book.

thanks BE, glad to hear my description seems normal.

the the coolant filter is really an additive supplier? the additive in diesel engine coolant isn't enough?

yeah, i think the age of the oil is probably a factor in the smell/color. some fuel certainly gets past rings on a cold engine. just seemed thinner and stinkier than other
diesel engines that i'm very familiar with. oil test would be the only way to know.

Is the engine oil OVER the full mark? The Ambac M100 pumps can have several internal fuel leaks over time, but if oil level is good I'd just watch it awhile before tearing it apart.

For the coolant there are test strips you can use to test the coolant for the proper additive so it doesn't have a problem with cavitation. We test each fall work that and do freeze tests. Cheaper than engine blocks and solves the cavitation. I use a regular antifreeze tester for the freeze point and compare it to the strip. This is done on each tractor even the old diesels with dry sleeves. Yes I don't need to do it on them but I do it as part of the routine testing program. With the number of tractors we have that gives a test about every 50-100 hours per tractor average with the bigger ones being closer to the 50 hour figure. There is also the additive you can buy to just ad to the radiator directly. This is the method we use. I have one of those filters the engine will vibrate so the bracket breaks off and has been replaced a couple times so I just capped the lines and ad directly with no problems in 22 years and 1,000,000 miles later. For the fuel in oil issue. Idling will let a lot of fuel by the rings with incomplete combustion of the fuel, washing the cylinders down from lack of oil. One of the reasons for if idling it be done about 1000 RPM

thanks, DT! it's not overfull. just going to change it and see what happens. probably will send in a sample after 5-10h.

that's what i was thinking. i always use the precharged coolant on other diesels.

(quoted from post at 13:22:58 09/12/22) the the coolant filter is really an additive supplier? the additive in diesel engine coolant isn't enough?

Click to expand...

When the filters were designed there was no such thing as "diesel engine coolant" with the additive already mixed in. You had bog standard green glycol, and that was it.

thanks. i'm too young to know that.

i was getting curious whether that addition was IH innovation for beating engine life average over the industry, or a response to engine design/liner material flaws that were more susceptible to cavitation than other makes.