KE70 engine low power?

[Ilikeurtractor]

Found today where apparently the #1 cylinder injector line is leaking back. When testing the nozzles, #2 sprays fuel immediately when cranking while #1 takes 4-5 cranks regardless of the time duration between cranks. Maybe this is part of the issue (?) Not sure if it explains things completely or not. Definately there is something off with this though..

 

[Ilikeurtractor]

Leak-back was apparently a non-issue as I can't seem to reproduce it (injectors pulse fuel immediately upon cranking now). So, still living with hard starting. The temps have warmed here some from 20 deg F to 40 deg F. Tractor starts much better but needs max. fuel setting to begin to run. Takes about 7-8 cranks at full throttle. Not the nice "crisp" start like a good running diesel, but more of a sluggish rise to running speed. I'd like to think air is the culprit but everything has been bled correctly. Still not sure if it may be low compression.

 

[Ilikeurtractor]

I guess I should put some closure to this thread as the problem has turned out to be low compression. A friend has a KE70 engine and used the same tester I did on mine. He said he was getting 350 psig on the second crank and the gauge would top out at 490 psig on the 8th crank (since this is higher than the factor spec of 455 psig I can only conclude the gauge is off which actually makes my results even worse). The other cylinder was lower, but had similar results. My engine would get about 120 psig on the second crank on both cylinders.

Going to swap out engines for a good running KE75. May rebuild this engine someday but am choosing to go down this road for now.

Thanks for all the help and suggestions. I hope I can repay the community here with my own assistance.

 

[NHmitch]

I have the KE70 engine in mine, and it is a great little engine, and tons of power. I hope that it works out for you, and hopefully a rebuild will be the cheaper of the two options. I recently had to look around quite a bit for a new plug from my new alternator on my G154, with the KE70. I found a dealer in Oregon on the web, and he deals with Mitsubishi Satoh and Suzue tractors that also have the KE70 engine in them. He knew a ton about this engine, you may want to give him a call, he has replacement parts for the KE70 engine, very nice guy.

Small Import Tractor Supply

Also, I found three places that are parting out these engines:

http://www.tractorhouse.com/list/dismantledsearch.aspx?ETID=3&Manu=ISEKI&Mdltxt=TX1300&mdlx=exact

I also found a link with all of the Iseki tractors and their engine size on one page :

http://www.det-mitsubishi.com/en/mitsubishi-diesel-motoren/toepassingen/iseki

 

[Ilikeurtractor]

I have the KE70 engine in mine, and it is a great little engine, and tons of power. I hope that it works out for you, and hopefully a rebuild will be the cheaper of the two options. ...

I have the bore/new pistons/rings job at $7-800. I have the older KE70 (serial # below 51000 so I'll need new pistons too). I paid more for a parts tractor, well parts tractor in the sense that's what it will be for although it operates fine mechanically, with a good running KE75, but having all the extra items made more sense for me.

 

[Ilikeurtractor]

Well not done yet. I compared compression results from a K3A engine in a Satoh 373 and found the results rather interesting. Take a look at the attached image. The two different test results on the KE70 were because I installed new rings on the later test. You can see a marginal improvement, but not one I was expecting. I concluded the pitons were too "out-of-round" to be able to seal again at the time. Since the K3A starts and runs good, and no lack of power comparitively, I have to conclude the KE70s problem is not compression which is what I suspected before, unless for some reason the comparison is not valid. The results my friend had are most likely due to him either not breaking the injector lines when testing, or because of the lower elevation (or both). The saga continues...

 

[Ilikeurtractor]

Continued here: Iseki TX1300 KE75 engine swap

 

[manmower]

have Mitsubishi ke70 what shoud my fuel pressure be

 

[Rod in Forfar]

Speaking of John Deere lugging down to nothing: I watched one day from my disabled Massey Harris 30 while my friend's 2 cylinder "A" towed me down a hilly road. Sometimes on steep grades it would lug down until the narrow front wheels bounced up and down with each compression stroke from the massive pistons. The front wheels were clearing the gravel by as much as a foot, but the driver had no trouble maintaining control of the tractor and its load.