Doing an in-frame/rebuild on a 1973 4230

(quoted from post at 12:25:00 10/04/22) Tractor is a 4230, sycro-range gear box, 158 loader, with 4 post roll guard station that's been owned by us for 30 years or so.

I'm essentially doing an in-frame on it due to a liner seal failure from having just tap water in the cooling system that turned to rust water. It's last in-frame was 11 years ago and it's only got a few hundred hours on it since then as it's primarly used for discing fire breaks along fence lines/county roads, setting out hay, shredding when needed, and brush control work.

I'm not a tractor/heavy diesel mechanic, but do all my own mechanical work as a hobbyist on my mopar's (except for auto gearbox rebuilds or setting up differential gears) and this project seems pretty straight forward.

My Uncle was using it to do some shredding and it abruptly starting blowing steam out the breather tube which had us thinking it *may* be as simple as a head gasket, even though it turned out to be a liner seal. Immediately after it happened, we drained the oil & coolant, filled it up with fresh oil, and only ran it enough to drive it on and off the trailer and back it in the barn where it sits.

I've already got the head off and at the machine shop and the oil pain dropped. Next up is I'm going to remove the radiator and remove the pistons & liners and pull a main cap to check what size bearings are in there to prepare for ordering a rebuild kit.

I've got a few questions though.

Will I have to remove the diesel injection pump? If so, is timing it a straight forward process?

Once everything is set out on the table and we can clean/inspect all the parts, would there be any reason NOT to just order a full in-frame kit and put new pistons/liners/bearings in it?

The engine serial number plate is gone; how do I go about identifying the block information to make sure when I order parts I get the correct parts?

Is the Reliance Hyper-formance kit the one to get, or standard pistons & liners?
Use the Headgasket with the Reliance kit, or buy John Deere/Felpro headgasket?

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(quoted from post at 12:52:10 10/04/22) Welcome to YT
There's no need to R&R inj pump just to perform an in-frame engine overhaul. According to JD parts there's only 1 type cylinder liner/piston kit which is part # RE23160.

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(quoted from post at 13:23:24 10/04/22)

(quoted from post at 12:25:00 10/04/22) Tractor is a 4230, sycro-range gear box, 158 loader, with 4 post roll guard station that's been owned by us for 30 years or so.

I'm essentially doing an in-frame on it due to a liner seal failure from having just tap water in the cooling system that turned to rust water. It's last in-frame was 11 years ago and it's only got a few hundred hours on it since then as it's primarly used for discing fire breaks along fence lines/county roads, setting out hay, shredding when needed, and brush control work.

I'm not a tractor/heavy diesel mechanic, but do all my own mechanical work as a hobbyist on my mopar's (except for auto gearbox rebuilds or setting up differential gears) and this project seems pretty straight forward.

My Uncle was using it to do some shredding and it abruptly starting blowing steam out the breather tube which had us thinking it *may* be as simple as a head gasket, even though it turned out to be a liner seal. Immediately after it happened, we drained the oil & coolant, filled it up with fresh oil, and only ran it enough to drive it on and off the trailer and back it in the barn where it sits.

I've already got the head off and at the machine shop and the oil pain dropped. Next up is I'm going to remove the radiator and remove the pistons & liners and pull a main cap to check what size bearings are in there to prepare for ordering a rebuild kit.

I've got a few questions though.

Will I have to remove the diesel injection pump? If so, is timing it a straight forward process?

Once everything is set out on the table and we can clean/inspect all the parts, would there be any reason NOT to just order a full in-frame kit and put new pistons/liners/bearings in it?

The engine serial number plate is gone; how do I go about identifying the block information to make sure when I order parts I get the correct parts?

Is the Reliance Hyper-formance kit the one to get, or standard pistons & liners?
Use the Headgasket with the Reliance kit, or buy John Deere/Felpro headgasket?

Click to expand...

Unless you have too much money on your account, uou do not need to change sleeves for just a failed seal.
You should rather spend the time to measure wear and see parts thzt are wirn and need repair.
If it was me, I would only put new liners, rings, and seals. No.need to trash patts that have only few hundreds hours. And reinstall the o rings on the sleeve with loctite 5923 if the bore is not perfect.

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(quoted from post at 16:41:33 10/04/22

That's one way of looking at it....but after seeing how rusty the water in the block is, I'm not optimistic that the liner sealing surfaces will be good.

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(quoted from post at 04:44:31 10/05/22) I have a Reliance hi compression kit in my 4230 and really like it. Starts good in cold weather. I would have the injectors checked while they
are out. The thing I dislike about an inframe overhaul is it so hard to get everything clean. We wrap the crankshaft with rags before cleaning
the block. Get a die grinder with a wire brush so you can get the oring grooves in the block clean. If you go with a reliance or any
aftermarket kit buy a Deere head gasket. Some shops even use Deere orings on the sleeves. Also be sure to use break in oil and we add a bottle
of Lucas Break In Additive. Tom

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(quoted from post at 14:35:16 10/07/22)
did some more work on the tractor today...I got everything out of the way and prepped to pull the pistons and liners tomorrow.

I spent an hour chatting with the tractor mechanic that did the last in-frame overhaul. I asked him questions, he asked me questions and seems to give advice based on thinking I've gotten this far correctly.

He too seems to think wait until everything is set out and cleaned up on a table to decide on wehther or not to buy a full in-frame kit, or just re-seal everything up.

I did figure out that the block casting # is R59850 so that should help me get the correct parts.

I cleaned up one of the pistons and it's a Clevite with numbers NRE41869 and 2242739 on them, unfortunately doing an internet search doesn't get me far with them.

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