Just dissasembled my 550 diesel head, how does it look?

This is on an Oliver or White industrial 550 backhoe. The engine mysteriously siezed up after its first start up and just as mysteriously unseized when i had it apart. Anyway i dissasembled and clean the head and valves while i had it apart. i pressure washed the head and cleaned valves and seats with laquer thinner.

The pictures are in order starting with the cylinder closest to the transmission and moving forward. The intake valve seats all looked fine to me but the exhaust valves all looked pretty rough. I dont have a whole lot of experience which valve jobs, i just take it to my machine shop so i dont know what good is exactly. It's probably fine although i think the burning on the 1st cylinder is a little strange. I included a picture of the injector for that cylinder since it looked like it was possibly leaking. The rest of the injectors didnt have the large holes this one does. The pistons and cylinders walls look perfect in all cylinders. I also forgot to get a pic of the one valve after i cleaned it.

Burning of cylinder 1



Exhaust seat cylinder 1 (rear of engine against transmission)



Exhaust valve cylinder 1



Intake seat cylinder 1



Intake valve cylinder 1



Exhaust seat cylinder 2



Exhaust valve cylidner 2




intake seat cylinder 2



intake valve cylinder 2



Exhaust seat cylinder 3



Exhaust valve cylinder 3



Intake seat cylinder 3



intake valve cylinder 3



exhaust seat cylinder 4 (front of engine)



exhaust valve cylinder 4



intake seat cylinder 4



intake valve cylinder 4



cylinder head side





cylinder head bottom



Possible leaky injector (injector on burned cylinder)

Also, when you installed the new headgasket do you use copper headgasket spray? I have some, the I&T manual doesnt say anything about it but it was a copper gasket on the block side.

Shawn,
Glad you decided to save that great machine!
I'm like you I don't know a lot about engine heads, I take mine to a good machine shop that I trust. I always love those internal engine pictures. Hope you get it figured out.

I didn't use any thing on the head gasket in my Super 55 diesel. You should get the valves and seats refinished., The engine will start a lot easier if the seats and valves are set to the proper depth in the head. I had mine done at a local machine shop that does a lot of diesel work. It starts easier now than when my Dad bought the tractor new in 1955.

First of all does it turn over now? Have you drained the pan and have taken an oil sample to have it tested? Next your tractor is late enough it has the factory intake seats. Next the back cylinder has gotten water in it (your burnt look) What is the valve recession now. It will need exhaust seats and keep them (Seat O. D. as narrow as you can. Once the head is surfaced see what your intake recession is and report back.

(quoted from post at 15:55:29 03/06/11) First of all does it turn over now? Have you drained the pan and have taken an oil sample to have it tested? Next your tractor is late enough it has the factory intake seats. Next the back cylinder has gotten water in it (your burnt look) What is the valve recession now. It will need exhaust seats and keep them (Seat O. D. as narrow as you can. Once the head is surfaced see what your intake recession is and report back.

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Yeah it turns over perfectly fine and freely. I believe that the starter locked itself into the flywheel when i went to restart it with the added strain of having compression from the rings heating up. once i freed it up by yanking it in gear without a head i was able to easily turn it over by hand. Then I hooked the batteries and ran the starter for about 20 seconds. It turned very slowly then locked up again. I forced the fan blade by hand it i heard the start drive disengage this time and it was spinning freely again.

Oh i didn't even think about water getting in it. The cylinder and piston looked perfectly fine though.

I didnt get a chance to drop the pan its been pouring rain all day so i didnt feel like laying the mud.

Do you think it will run with the exhaust valves as they are now? I am looking at a $23 head gasket to put it back together and buying a new starter. I will give my machine shop a call to see how much they'd charge to mill the head re-cut the exhaust seats. I am thinking it might not really be worth that much to me right now with a baby on the way. If i can get it running, see if there are any other problems i may sell it (with pictures of internals of course) or choose to fully fix it.

Also, can i pressure wash the inside of the block and rods, coolant ports, etc when i drop the pan to clean it up a little? I would of course immediately refill it with oil and make sure oil covers everything before cranking it over.

My main goal it is to get it running and stay running. I want to be able to test every hydraulic lever, transmission gear, power steering, etc. I dont mine spending another $23 on a headgasket when i am looking at $200-$300 in head work plus whatever other else it needs. I'd be more apt to spend the money if i know it's worth fixing. If i hadnt found out Friday i was going to be a dad i would have no problem spending the money on the head and fixing everything else but now it's up in the air if I'm going to keep it.

Also, my valve stems only had seals on the intake side, is that normal? The valve sets looked like they were made of steel so i should be able to sit this whole head in a caustic/alkaline solution without risk of damager other than to the valve seals right?

Well i got a valve job on the head. Im not sure whats up with the exhaust valves i dont think he was able to fully cut the seats but it looks like they will work fine. He also installed some valve seals and milled the head as well as jet tanking it.



















i should be throwing it all back together this weekend if the weather is good