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Further misadventures of the 39 H

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Frank M.

02-03-2003 18:38:02




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Since I had a few days off, and the weather was nice, I decided I'd mess around with the tractor. Saturday morning I mixed a little Marvel Mystery oil in 2 1/2 gallons of gas and poured it in. Put in a pair of new Autolite 388s and fired it up. Only had to turn it 4 or 5 times, much better than with the Champions. I drove it down to store to show it off to my co-workers, about a mile and a half. Afterwards I started back home, and about 5 blocks from the house she started bucking and snorting. Finally died 2 blocks from home. Neighbor came by and pulled me the rest of the way.
I checked fuel flow, yep plenty of fuel. Pulled the plugs, lots of black carbon. I cleaned them and put them back in. Started on the 2nd revolution. I had noticed the temp gauge had never moved so I put a piece of cardboard over the radiator and went out around the neighborhood some more. Temp got up to 190, and water was coming out the overflow. Today I went out with it again, and, once again after a couple of hours running I fouled the plugs. This time the left side was dry but the right was wet. Ok looks like I need to lean it out a little. Right? I'm also wondering if my mag is hot enough. I keep reading about a fat blue spark but mine has a puny yellow spark. Sure seems hot enough when you get against the plug wire though. BTW it's a Wico X and it was checked out by a JD mechanic before I put it on. It had new points and condenser installed at that time.
Lets see if I can answer my own question. Get a hotter mag and lean out the carb. Any other advice?
Thanks in advance.
Frank M.

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Clooney

02-04-2003 03:47:44




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 Re: Further misadventures of the 39 H in reply to Frank M., 02-03-2003 18:38:02  
Frank, you have some good suggestions below, start by making sure the plug wires are indeed metal core [if carbon core that mag just can't get the job done].
~That yellow spark has to get improved, if the wires are carbon core that could be the problem, if the wires are solid core then pull the mag & clean all the rust from the internal magnetic rotor & coil iron core, clean all the internal wire connections, clean or replace the points & re-set the points to .015". If you still have a weak spark, suspect the coil, or weak rotor magnetism [the Wico X is pretty good at retaining rotor magnetism though]. Then go to the hottest spark plug like Champion D-23 or equivalent & use 2 gaskets on the spark plugs. ~Go real easy on that marvel mystery oil as it doesn�t ignite all that easily & will promote plug fouling. I would rather see you use a good 2-cycle oil as it is designed to burn & not foul spark plugs. Once you get the engine to run without fouling plugs you can switch back to mystery oil if you want but for now you don�t to use anything that will add to your plug fouling problem.
~The suggestion to check the air cleaner is a valid point & if the wire mesh is plugged with crud or there is water in the bowl you will foul plugs at a frightening rate.
~Give it a compression test to see if the compression is adequate [low compression will effect engine power & carb metering]
~Maybe you have stuck oil rings on the pistons that is allowing the plugs to oil foul [see hot plugs with 2 gaskets above]
~ If you can try to put it to work for a while, working it will help loosen the rings & burn the deposits out of the combustion chamber.
~Leaning the carb out might not help & if the problem is caused by oil fouling or a weak ignition, a lean mixture will ignite harder & could cause the fouling to increase. Just set the carb until it runs good & pulls clean under load.

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Frank M.

02-04-2003 05:03:17




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 Re: Re: Further misadventures of the 39 H in reply to Clooney, 02-04-2003 03:47:44  
Thanks for the advice. This engine has been bored out .090 with new pistons and rings.Prob'ly not even 10 hours total run time yet. The plug wires are metal. Bought them new when I started on this project. I've cleaned out the air filter pretty well I think. I soaked it in gasoline a whole afternoon, sprayed 3 cans of brake cleaner through it, then later on, I rigged it up to the pump on my parts washer and let the solvent flow through it for several hours. I know a guy that works on mags. I'll take it to him to see if he thinks it's weak.
Thanks to all for the advice
Frank M.

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John Van Valkenburgh

02-03-2003 22:55:57




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 Re: Further misadventures of the 39 H in reply to Frank M., 02-03-2003 18:38:02  
Gonna weigh in on the side of improving your ignition. I've been running the same Champion D23 plugs in my 50 since last fall with no problems. Yes they have some carbon fouling but it still fired okay. Now having said that, I installed an electronic ignition with a new (and presumably hotter coil) last weekend. Right away I noticed that the tractor runs much better when cold. Still running the same plugs (although I did open them up to .050 since I have a hotter spark).

I'm betting the plugs will be a little cleaner next time I check them, but my point is that you really should have the fat blue spark or she will foul most any plug eventually.

Best of luck,
John

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will

02-03-2003 21:45:04




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 Re: Further misadventures of the 39 H in reply to Frank M., 02-03-2003 18:38:02  
part of your problem could be the autolite plugs. Just because the new plugs made the tractor fire better doesent make them superior to Champion. Any new plug should have made it fire better than an old plug. JD does recomend Champion for a reason. I once bought some bosch plugs simply because the parts house was out of D-19s. It was only about two weeks before one plug did'nt fire at all. I replaced them with champions, and had no problem until last week when my gas must have had a small amount of moisture in it in 0 degree weather causing my carb float to stick (freeze) open. You can imagine what the plugs looked like. Your mixture could b a little rich, but I think you will find the most satisfaction with Chapion.

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Will P

02-03-2003 20:35:04




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 Re: Further misadventures of the 39 H in reply to Frank M., 02-03-2003 18:38:02  
What about the wires? Make sure they are metal core. Don't use carbon core automobile wires.

Will P



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Frank M.

02-04-2003 04:46:21




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 Re: Re: Further misadventures of the 39 H in reply to Will P, 02-03-2003 20:35:04  
They are metal core wires, bought new 2 years ago when I started on this project. Thanks for the reply.



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Chris

02-03-2003 19:09:44




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 Re: Further misadventures of the 39 H in reply to Frank M., 02-03-2003 18:38:02  
It probably would not hurt to lean it a bit BUT. That spark has got to be BLUE and jump a 3/16 gap. Get that spark right a get it up to temp and i think youll almost quit fouling plugs. Thanks



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