headgasket (or worse)?

Hey folks, (tractor details in info block on modern view)
Same tractor that had all the past problems with oil leaks, etc.
Tractor seems fine now as far as oil/hydraulic oil. No slobbering or other leaks. Still loosing coolant. Starts like a champ after about 5 seconds of glowplugs but sputters a little and pumps out white smoke for the first minute or so then all is well til the next cold (or after setting an hour or so) start. No oil in water or water in oil, but could it be that my headgasket is leaking between the water jacket and cylinder a little?Or, since it's not building pressure in the cooling system (that I know of) could it be something more serious (if so, what?) ?

Thanks for any tips,

Dave

The indicators you have described are consistamt with a head gasket leak. The coolant is able to get into the cylinder on a one way trip that is seeping through a tiny pinhole or flat surface leak. The rate is so slow that the combustion pressure, and compression have little time to force there way into the water jacket. Byt while shut off, the coolant pressure, and time combine to let a thimble full of coolant into the cylinder. This causes the white exhaust till it burns off, and then the engine runs pretty well. That coolant loss is not a miricle dissapearance, it is real. Smelling the white exhaust can also be an indicator. Coolant smells sweet and destinctive. If you pulled the injectors out, put a pressure tester on the radiator and pumped it up to the cap pressure rating, and waited 24 hours, the cylinder with a leak would spit coolant out the injector hole when first cranked. Best of luck, Jim

Usually when you lose coolant at the head gasket you're going to be dealing with a pressurized system when it gets warm...
How much coolant exactly are you losing? Does it go down to a certain level and stay there or keep dropping?
If it's continously losing coolant the first thing I'd look for is a slight weep at the water pump. A hot engine can evaporate a small leak and you never see a trace other than a green streak from the water pump weep hole that runs down the front cover. Next thing I'd wonder about is mabey a crack in the head around an intake port... but that should really open up and leak more when it gets hot...

The white smoke at start-up could be as simple as slightly low compression or a bad injector. It really indicates nothing more than a cold fire... which could be caused by low compression, water in the chamber or poor fuel atomization...
You really need to get a handle on how much coolant it's losing and where it's going... but I really wouldn't suspect the head gasket just yet. So long as it's not getting into the oil I wouldn't panic too much just yet.

Rod

Would not take issue with what other poster have said howevever. The old ih engine D 282 was noted for acting just like you are describing. What was going on was not a head gasket problem but the heads would develope small hair line cracks sthat would show up when cold but as soon as the engine runs a few minutes the heat closes the crack to the point the thing will clean up and run right. Have seen a lot of people spend a lot of money trying to cure the problem only to see it return.. Just the nature of the old engine.

Dave ;
I have read all the trials and tribulations you have had with your little IH tractor.
I appears to me that it never does any real work. It gets started, pulls your water wagon around in the winter and runs a mower and bailer a bit in the summer. In short it needs to be WORKED. More than likely the cylinders have glazed, reducing compression a bit. Since it is designed with precombustion chambers, they are also pron to carbon build up. Change and top off all engine fluids, and find something to work it, keeping close track of engine temp and oil pressure. Like you, it needs a workout to get it back in shape. (how's that for people skills lol). After working it and the coolant temp and OP, didn't get out of range, your good to go. Your problems were common here in CNY when a tractor was religated to Poo duty on spreaders in the winter. If every thing checks out after working it, you can pull off the air intake pipe at the intake manifold, start the tractor and throttle it up to about 1/2 and hold a spoon full of borax close enough to the intake to pull it of the spoon and into the engine. this will deglaze the cylinders. Our Case Service Rep taught me this years ago, when we had a lazy engine and had determined that the fuel delivery system had no issues. It became a common cure for new diesel tractors sold in the fall and got the spreader detail for the winter, if it didn't straighten out during spring tillage.

If it is just a small leak have you considered
stop leak? I don't know what is available in
Germany but I have had great luck with Bar's stop
leak, it's a dark thick liquid with balls in it
the size of rabbit turds. I know the correct
police will say you have to take it apart and fix
it right but how much money are you going to put
in that old tractor? I was also told by a well
respected old man that he always put a bottle in
every new piece of equipment for water pump lube
and just in case. Now many new vehicles come from
the factory with some kind of stop leak in them.

(quoted from post at 16:39:29 03/01/11) If it is just a small leak have you considered
stop leak? I don't know what is available in
Germany but I have had great luck with Bar's stop
leak, it's a dark thick liquid with balls in it
the size of rabbit turds. I know the correct
police will say you have to take it apart and fix
it right but how much money are you going to put
in that old tractor? I was also told by a well
respected old man that he always put a bottle in
every new piece of equipment for water pump lube
and just in case. Now many new vehicles come from
the factory with some kind of stop leak in them.

Click to expand...

Got a bottle of Bars in the workshop. Think that is the cure?
As far as how much I'll put into it........ A half decent replacement will cost $5000 plus and I could prolly recondition/refurb with new cylinder sets clutch, brakes, tires, and gaskets with a little paint for around 2500.

If I could just afford the downtime.

Dave

I assume you have rebuilt the engine and it still gets coolant into the (a) cylinder, right..?

I gather that you do not work it hard...

Could that also mean that you have never gotten it really Thoroughly HEATED up (Heat-Saturated), before attempting to re-torque the head..?

Might be worth looking into (along with the Bar's Leaks)..
I prefer lubricated head-bolt threads, and if a head bolt won't give, loosen it a touch and get it to move, before you consider it "Torqued"..
You will find you gain quite a bit on the bolts that way..
Good Luck..!

Ron.