affordable head gaskets?

[Niji]

I'm still making hay--although the six inches of rain last night has put a temporary stop to that. Made some beautiful hay last week, but the head gasket on my little jd 850 (Yanmar) 3 cyl. diesel went. It runs fine, but if you cut it off and then re-start when hot there's a little white smoke for a minute and you can smell the anti freeze burning. If you start it cold and leave it running, you never would know it, and the oil level and radiator level aren't visible changing yet--so I hope there's now head damage, just a gasket. I'll pull it apart soon and see, and check head and valves, etc while in there.

In the mean time, anyone know of a more affordable head gasket source than John Deere for this machine? Just the head g. is $150, and a set is $220.

 

[farmerjim]

i think if i were you i'd finish the haying and tear it down. how many hrs on the motor? while its that far torn down why not just bring the head to the machine shop and let them do it right, just to have a good piece of mind. it seems like you use that tractor for alot of the haying? running in the hot summer heat w/ a load esp a moco or baler i would personally pull the head and do the job complete, buts thats just me. you would hate to put a gasket in and then 1st cut next season in thick grass have it blow something else, and be down a tractor, esp if its your only machine. those little yanmars seem failrly straight foward and easy to work on at least my 790 seems to be.
check out yanmarpartsonline.com
or here you go
YPOHG-150 [Replaces MIU800109] - $49.25 : Yanmar Parts Online, We Know Your Yanmar!

 

[zzvyb6]

Why not just throw a can of barsleak into the radiator? Its a good sealer and may get you through the rest of the year, Any auto repair or hardware store stocks it.

 

[Niji]

Thanks for the advice. I figured I would get everything checked out while I had it down. I wasn't sure about the need for taking the head to a shop if it looked good, but I understand there can be warpage or small cracks, and I surely want to get any potential problems checked and sorted out before putting it back together. And many thanks for the parts link...that's 1/3 the price I was looking at up here to order it through the dealer.

The tractor has just over 1800 hours on it.

And I hadn't thought of barsleak for this application, but that's a fine idea. I was planning on running it anyway to finish haying since it doesn't seem very bad, and make the head gasket repair a winter project. That seems like a very easy helpful temporary patch to get me through a little better. I'll be checking the radiator and flushing it during the tear down anyway.

 

[ScottAR]

John Deere Parts

They stock some JD part#s now.