Jinma 354 white smoke no power won't rev past 800rpm

Tim Berframe · Jul 22, 2017

Jinma 354. 4 cylinder. 350 hours.

Ran for about an hour and all was smooth and normal. Running 1400rpm at normal temperature. I was working the hoe so had back to engine when noticed sudden lack of hydraulic power as engine sound changed. Turned around to see white smoke and revs dropped to 800. By the time I tucked in the hoe and got to drivers seat it was 600rpm. Throttle did nothing. Shut down

Starts up again at normal idle of 800. White smoke not enough rpm to drive attempting to do so bogged engine causing black smoke and would have stalled. Engine is smooth with no vibration or knocks just no rpm and no power. It seems like maybe not firing all cylinders

It will start and go to 800rpm and then slowly slow down to where it wants to stall. White smoke at 800. Black smoke at 600

Oil level normal. Perhaps smells like diesel? Hard to tell
Water level normal. No oil in water
No obvious gasket leaks
Pulling the stop cable shuts the engine down instantly. Not normal. Usually takes 2 or 3 seconds to kill it
Throttle linkages are fine

Given the sudden onset, should I be thinking fuel problem or compression problem?

redman135 · Jul 22, 2017

White smoke sounds like water in the cylinder. Remove the radiator cap and start the engine if posible, bubbles in the radiator mean a cracked head.
I suspect you will find the engine is hydrauliced when you go to start it. again cracked head.
If it starts ,but hesitates as it fires then runs with white smoke then again ,the signs are cracked head.
I had a similar situation(small amount white smoke) with a JD6920 but the crack was only small so I was able to finish the job and get home. It wasn't shut down until it was parked in the shed for the mechanic to fix (hay season, I didn't have time).

Spiros · Jul 22, 2017

Or head gasket.

mrmikey · Jul 22, 2017

White smoke, not water vapour, could also be a sign of overfuelled or not burnt fuel......Mike

RonMar · Jul 22, 2017

Got a mouse nest in the air filter housing/cloged air filter?

Tim Berframe · Jul 22, 2017

Well, its gone from bad to worse. I started it this morning hoping to crawl forward 20 ft onto the gravel driveway. No go. Wouldn't hold 800rpm for even a couple seconds and in the light of day, I would call the smoke dirty dark gray. It will not start now. I cranked it with the decompressor engaged and fuel shut off - it didnt belch anything out the stack. But it also didn't give me any oil pressure.

I checked the radiator - no antifreeze in sight. Drained it and got about 1.75 gallons so it lost some but not huge yet.

I can remove the head where the tractor sits now. But, if I have to split the tractor to change an oil pump, I can't do that easily in the mud where it sits. How do I test the oil sending unit and gauge?

If the oil pressure quit, what would have broke/wore out to cause my 'water in the cylinders' symptoms?

When I take off the head, are the intake and exhaust manifold gaskets re-useable?

I assume that I remove injectors and glow plugs and manifolds before unbolting the head?

I do not have a manual for the engine (they gave me one for a 3 cylinder). I will need torque sequence / torque specs and valve lash numbers. Greg_g did this in a post from several years ago - any helpful advice?

Finally, can it ever just be a gasket replacement and everything is fixed? I adjusted torque and valve lash about 50 hours ago. It had never been done before and they were 'all over the map'. I set them at that time to what someone on here suggested. It changed the characteristics of the engine power band significantly. It used to be brutally powerful at low rpm and incapable of getting up to the 2200-2400 green zone on the tach. The new settings smoothed things out at higher rpm and lost some power at low rpm. When doing this, I noticed a fair bit of blow by from the vent on the right side of the block - dont know if it was there before or if it is abnormal. BUT, it still can't get to 2400rpm. I never run above 1800 and usually at 1400. Anything above 1600 just gets louder, introduces vibration and knock and doesn't improve the implements' performance one little bit. Perhaps there has been an underlying problem since brand new?

Tim Berframe · Jul 22, 2017

No, checked that last night.

Tim Berframe · Jul 22, 2017

I just reviewed my thread from 3 years ago when it appears that QuicksandFarmer told me what was wrong. He said then that I had a leaking head gasket. I wasn't losing water or oil and it was working better after my adjustments so I put my head in the sand and didn't address it. I've only put 2.5 tanks of fuel through it since then and it appears the leaking gasket has died completely.

I hate it when I tell myself "I told you so".

quicksandfarmer · Jul 22, 2017

Head gasket isn't that bad if that's all it is. I think I have the same engine, the thing that's kind of a pain is that the water pump has to come off to get the head off. Which means coming in from the front and taking off the radiator first. Then come in from the top and take off the valve cover and rocker arms, and loosen the head bolts. You can leave the intake and exhaust manifolds on, although you may need some sort of hoist to lift the head. I did it on mine about five years ago (I'm going from memory) and I didn't have any manuals, I just started taking things off.

No oil pressure is a little worrisome. I suppose if the head gasket is completely shot the oil under pressure for the top of the engine could be leaking freely and losing all the pressure. If that were happening I'd think you'd see oil in the coolant and coolant in the water though.

These are tough engines. It's possible a new gasket will fix it. Keep us posted.

DarrellSimpson · Jul 23, 2017

The neighbor had something similar happen a few weeks ago while we were pulling out fence posts , It ended up being a fuel pressure regulator , it was just letting the fuel return to the fuel tank . He put a rebuilt pump on and it started right up and ran great .

quicksandfarmer · Jul 23, 2017

When my oil pump quit I needed to move the tractor about 20 feet into the garage and was afraid to drive it. What I did was disconnect the fuel, put it in gear, and put a 27mm socket on the crankshaft and cranked it by hand. I think I had it in 4L. It was a pretty good workout but I moved it.

quicksandfarmer · Jul 23, 2017

The oil pump goes directly to the oil filter. Take the oil filter off and spin the engine, if the oil pump is working oil will come out of the oil filter housing. It helps to have a helper as this is messy if the pump is working.

Tim Berframe · Jul 24, 2017

I had tried that and not a drop came out. The gauge moves up to zero when I turn the key on so I'm sure the sending unit and gauge are working

I'm going to try splitting it where it sits. I built a solid platform to go under the front half. I scavenged some heavy duty wheels from a floor jack and will weld a platform on wheels to carry the weight of the engine with a bottle jack built in. The back half will stay stationary and I will use come alongs to do the tugging

Tomorrow I'll build a overhead gantry so I can lift the hood, head, and block if required

I have now officially spent more time working on this miserable machine than I have working with it

quicksandfarmer · Jul 24, 2017

Be sure to read the guide here:

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/chinese-tractors/318377-jinma-splitting-guide.html

I think you have the same tractor as I do so the details should be the same.

If you have all the tools and materials it only takes about two hours to split the tractor and four to get it back together again.

Before investing too much in this engine I would make sure that head gasket and oil pump are the extent of your problems. Those two aren't particularly expensive repairs, but the last thing you want to do is spend time and money and then find out the engine has other problems. In particular, I'm trying to remember if the oil pump is driven off of the camshaft which might indicate a camshaft or timing gear failure rather than an oil pump failure -- and which might help explain your other symptoms.

I don't particularly have any advice on how to do this, but if you take off the head and the oil pan you've got the top and bottom off of the engine. I can't give any specific tips other than to turn the crankshaft and make sure that everything that is supposed to move moves and nothing that isn't supposed to move moves.

quicksandfarmer · Jul 24, 2017

Maybe take the valve cover off and turn the crankshaft and see if the valves move.

Tim Berframe · Jul 25, 2017

I called Ken at Asian Tractor Parts in Ontario to order gaskets and oil pump. I still wasn't settled on what was wrong cause two major problems at same time can't be coincidence but I couldn't figure it To his credit he didn't just sell me the pump. He suggested the same as quicksand farmer - check the valve train first

Just done that The cam shaft is broke. Cylinders 1 and 2 are strong. Cylinder 3 valves are both closed but low compression is leaking into 4. Valves on 4 are partially closed and don't move. No compression on 4

My guess is that cam broke but fuel keeps dumping into 3 and 4. Pressure builds in 3 and blew head gasket between 3 and 4. Water and unburned fuel up the stack as white smoke but engine started and ran on 2 cylinders. I'll confirm tomorrow night when I remove head

The splitting manual is very good. I was unaware of it. I need to split to get oil pan off so I can remove oil pump so I can pull cam.

While I'm this deep inside, I'm wondering if I should pull all the pistons, sleeves, rings, etc and measure specs on everything and make sure it is assembled correctly I've already done major work on the timing gears because a bolt fell out and now this.

Thanks for being a good sounding board

redman135 · Jul 25, 2017

Just a suggestion, put the nuts screws studs etc in specific containers. ie all bonnet screws and bolts in one container,all radiator stuff in another etc, this will make it easy to find the right ones AND left overs tell you a particular item is not fully fastened.

Agvg · Jul 25, 2017

But have the valves survived when the cam broke?

quicksandfarmer · Jul 25, 2017

I haven't ever had the camshaft out so you've reached the end of my expertise. I'm trying to think what even could put force on it, all I can come up with is a stuck valve or a jammed oil pump. But I would think a pushrod would bend or the oil pump would give first. Or maybe the camshaft was just defective.

If you follow the splitting guide, by the time you get the oil pan off there's only a couple of bolts holding the engine to the front half of the tractor. I suspect at that point it will be easier to take the engine all the way out to work on it -- assuming you have some way of supporting it.