CK30 HST needs engine overhaul - help?

[NLWoods]

My tractor has 840 hours on it. It has been getting progressively harder to start when cold. I took it in to the old local dealer. He said the middle cylinder tested lower than the two others. According to him it is a very expensive engine to overhaul. Anyone done it? Advice?

Thanks!

Dale

 

[ritcheyvs]

One or more bad glow plugs are a more likely cause of your hard start problem. Another likely causes valve adjustment; I can's say for sure about Kioti motors but for many Diesels valves get too tight with wear causing hard cold start (and low compression readings). Sticky (or carboned) rings will do this (low compression) too; this is often fixed by just running it hard. Compression tests are notoriously unreliable for Diesel engines. I wouldn't even consider a rebuild without a diagnosis that identified a specific cause (like a borescope showing scored cylinders, exhaust leak into coolant or crankcase, etc). How low was the low cylinder pressure? What did the other cylinders read?

Do you have reason to think the engine is damaged? Have you abused it by not changing oil or by running a bad air filter?

 

[Coyote machine]

You have some rule outs before doing anything to the engine. Hard starts cold and a 'supposedly' lower compression reading on the middle cylinder are not enough to get me convinced your engine needs an overhaul.
As said by Ritcheyvs, what readings are we looking at? How long has this issue been apparent? Do you have any smoke and if so what color and when? Cold, hot, idling, working hard?
I'd want an oil analysis done ASAP as one rule out. The results can tell what is in your oil which can show metal, coolant, etc.
Do you use diesel oil specked to your machine? Do you change both the oil AND oil filter at specified intervals?
Have you tested your glow plugs for resistance on each plug to make sure all are working? Do you use any fuel additives?
Post back answers.:thumbsup:

 

[NLWoods]

Thanks for your replies guys! A few answers. It began starting difficult 3 years ago and seems to have become progressively worse - or at least last fall it got quite bad. When cold starting it smokes quite a bit with dark smoke. After it warms up a bit you can hear the cylinder start catching and then the smoke quits. Once warmed up there are no apparent symptoms. I ran it with the mower yesterday and worked it pretty hard for 4 hours. It does not seem to have as much power, but that could be just me. I was mowing thick 6 foot tall koshia weeds. It gives a little bit of black smoke when revving under power when warmed up.

The dealer says the damage is probably because I used a compressor to blow out the air filter early in its life. I stopped the practice when he told me it could cause problems several years ago. He supposedly checked out the glow plugs and they were fine. He did not tell me the actual numbers just that the middle cylinder is 200 less than the others. I have not used any fuel additives. Guess I could try some Lucas. I have changed the oil and filter as specified in the manual.

 

[Mark Headley]

I doubt seriously even if one cylinder was a bit lower compression that it would cause overall hard starting. My crystal ball says check glow system and injection pump. Our dealer says he's seen a number of pump failures on Kioti's with untreated fuel that sit. And sit. And I second the checking the valves adjustment.

 

[ritcheyvs]

For starters, I think you should have had the valves adjusted at 800 hours. Was that done (and done correctly)? Tight valves will produce low compression readings and hard cold starts.

The first thing I'd check is glow plugs. Check the voltage at the glow plugs with the key switch in glow and in crank (should be 10-12 volts). If that's good, remove the bus bar that connects the plugs and measure the resistance of each plug; that takes a good ohm meter because the resistance is quite low (like one ohm).