3600 No Start Issue - Need Help

wqsg243

New User
Ok, you guys & girls are my last hope.

I have a Ford 3600 diesel, not sure of the exact year. Its in relatively good shape for its age. Not abused. It ran fine last fall when I put it away in the barn. Didn't run it all winter (I live in New York).

Turned over and stuttered briefly like it was going to start this spring but wouldn't start. I think I smoked the starter and or solenoid fooling around cranking it. So, new battery and new starter and solenoid.

Installed the new parts today. The tractor cranks over real good but WILL NOT FIRE. Bled the fuel system all the way to the injectors. Good fuel coming out, no bubbles. I even tried a healthy dose of ether in the intake manifold and it wouldn't even sputter or cough. Just spins over. No new or major oil leaks that I can see. Engine oil looks fine (color and volume) on the dipstick.

I'm dying thinking about having to buy a new tractor right now. Is there any hope for this old girl? Anything else I should be checking or doing? I'm stumped. The only other thing I can imagine is a loss of compression. Which I am most likely not going to be able to fix without hauling it to a garage $$$$. I have so much work to do and I need this thing running.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
 
If it ran fine when you parked it, it didn't lose any compression sitting over the winter. That's a pretty safe bet.

That said, it should spit or cough if you hit it with ether - that has me a little puzzled. Is there any way you can upload a very short
video of what it sounds like while cranking?

Is there any smoke coming out of the stack while cranking? How much fuel is coming out past the injectors? Is it a healthy stream that spits
a few inches, or just a trickle?
 

Like Bern not trying to do anything with ether puzzles me, makes me thing it's not getting any air and didn't pull any of the ether into the cylinders.
Pull the air filter out and check it's condition, there's a inner filter as well, with the filter out give it a "light" shot of ether and see what it does.
I can not stress "light shot" enough when spraying ether without the filter to dissipate it some.
As fast as you can push the spray button and let of, just a wisp of ether in the intake should get you some type of reaction.
 
(reply to post at 21:23:33 05/12/20) [/quot

It could be a little low on compression yet able to run well once started. Even though you say it spins, it could be just a little too slow to be able to fire. Even though it has a new battery I would try a charger or booster cables while cranking.
 

is the mushroom protection cover on the air intake pipe? If not, I'm betting rat got into the air intake and made a home.

It should be making white smoke while cranking if its getting fuel and air.... at the very least. Is it cranking at a normal speed??
 
Short video of it cranking over with a shot of ether.
[video play=false:654c4848f0]https://www.yesterdaystractors.com/cvvideos/cvvideo4529.mov[/video:654c4848f0]
 
(quoted from post at 07:02:41 05/13/20) Short video of it cranking over with a shot of ether.
[video play=false:e4ee3c08c3]https://www.yesterdaystractors.com/cvvideos/cvvideo4529.mov[/video:e4ee3c08c3]

Sounds like too slow to develop adequate compression to me.
 


try putting the booster cables direct to the starter and see if it turns faster. That eliminates a lot of possible problems between battery and starter.
 
It can't make smoke if it doesn't have
air.
Remove the rubber boot that connects the
air filter pipe to the intake manifold.
Don't just loosen it, take it out of the
tractor completely. That should eliminate
an air intake problem.
 
stuck intake valve? I can hear the 'shush' and see the ether being ejected from the hose. At this point I'd pull the valve cover and take a look at things.
 
Just wanted to update everyone and maybe get a little more help. I finally got the tractor home, cleaned up and in my garage where I can work on it. So far, I have just pulled the valve cover and turned the engine over while looking at the valve springs. But I really don't know what I'm looking for. Would you help me out and take a look at the video of the engine turning over and let me know if you guys see anything "out of order"? Keep in mind I have not charged the battery lately.

Thank you so much.

Link to the video:

https://youtu.be/pZsO1UmaBas
 
Any help on this would be greatly appreciated, cause I'm baffled. Here is where I'm at with this tractor:

Removed intake and exhaust manifolds and valve cover. Evidence of a mouse nest that may have been sucked up through the intake.

I hooked up a compression tester to the fuel injector holes and here is what I got - cyl 1 100psi, cyl 2 150psi and cyl 3 150psi.

Does anyone have a clue what might be going on here? I'm not sure what to do next, other than pull the head.

Thank you in advance.
 

Not sure what the issue is but compression is way to low, diesels should have compression over 350 psi with new engines having 450-500+
Have you checked the valve lash to see if there's proper clearance.
 
(quoted from post at 12:12:29 06/04/20) Any help on this would be greatly appreciated, cause I'm baffled. Here is where I'm at with this tractor:

Removed intake and exhaust manifolds and valve cover. Evidence of a mouse nest that may have been sucked up through the intake.

I hooked up a compression tester to the fuel injector holes and here is what I got - cyl 1 100psi, cyl 2 150psi and cyl 3 150psi.

Does anyone have a clue what might be going on here? I'm not sure what to do next, other than pull the head.

Thank you in advance.


Go back and read the suggestions that you have. You have good ones and you should not ignore them.
 
I appreciate all the suggestions. They are all valid points and I have made every attempt to follow all roads that were suggested.

With help from a friend who knows more about tractors than I do, we pulled the timing gear cover tonight. It would appear as though the timing has jumped. Would anyone else agree?

The gear in the center of the photo has several teeth that are ground up.

mvphoto55946.jpg
 
Timing marks on all gears will only line up properly once for every two revolutions of the crank shaft. Can't tell from your picture whether they will or not. You need to turn the crankshaft slowly by hand and go through two complete revolutions to see if they might all line up at some point.
 
I see the wear toward the rear of the teeth on that cam shaft drive gear (the central one that transfers the motion of the crank shaft gear to the cam shaft gear), but it doesn't look bad enough for any of the gears to have jumped out of timing.
 

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