Ford 1700 starting problems

[cjfling]

That's been leaking a long time, those connecting rods are very beefy,but still Id be concerned about hydrolocked damage.I think I'd pull the pan,and replace the piston that's been eaten away,and make sure the rod bearings weren't pitted from the chocolate milk oil/ coolant....if they are you'll need to pull the engine and go thru the entire thing.....whatever coolant was in there certainly was in bad shape,unless it looks like it was straight water or so weak there were no corrosion inhibitors left...looks to me like maybe previous owner was just adding water daily and avoiding dealing with the problem...I have a 1910, and have replaced the head gasket twice ,due to external coolant leaks...and once for an i frame rebuild...engine parts for these shiburu engines are very very expensive...just a single,piston can be 200.00 if you can still find one...

Parts are hard to find and expensive particularly from New Holland. $68 for 1 exhaust valve. Found some aftermarket parts at compacttractorparts.com, but they are limited for the 1700. Anyone have any other good sources? Still looking for a head.

 

[cjfling]

So I JB Welded the cracks with a very small amount of JB Weld, replaced the bad exhaust valve, painted the head and head gasket with silver, high temp paint(as told by a NH mechanic), and put it all back together. Then I tried to pull start the the tractor and were real close a few times until the engine seized as Raw Dodge predicted. Now plan to drop the oil pan and see what is going on with the pistons. I've found pistons and rings for sale online for about $250. I plan to look at the connecting rods and bearings while I'm there. Hoping that one of the rings is just cracked and causing the seized. When I had the head off there was a minor vertical groove in the side wall and now I'm wondering if a broken piece of ring caused that since it was a vertical scratch. Might not ever get this things running, but I sure am learning a lot. Stay tuned.

 

[cjfling]

So I've drained the oil and dropped the oil pan. Good news is there wasn't any water in the oil so the JB Weld is working for now. However when we get it running and hot we'll see. With the pan off I could see the oil pump, crankshaft, connecting rods, pistons, and cam shaft. Found there are roller bearings :thumbdown: on the camshaft. We decided to take the connecting rods loose to see if doings so would allow us to turn the crank manually with a socket. Got one rod loose and no go on the manual turn of the crankshaft. We couldn't quite get to the other arm so that is where we left it. We are now thinking it could be just as likely be the roller bearing than one of the pistons causing the engine to be locked. The plan now is to get that other connecting rod loose and again try to turn the crank. That would tell us for sure if it's the pistons or roller bearings. One thing we noticed was slight discoloration of the crankshaft next to where the connecting rods connect. Both were evenly discolored so I'm wondering if any other 1700 owners have noticed this on their arms? Anyone in the forums that has split their 1700 noticed that? Would this be because of an over heat or are they like that to start with? The connecting arm bearing on the one arm we got loose so far looks good, so I'm thinking it's not an over heat and is that way from the start. Either way a split looks to be in my future.

 

[Raw Dodge]

Well I didn't predict it would seize....wouldn't wish that on anyone. You don't know if you had oil pressure when you were pulling it do you? I just hope you didn't damage anything else..

 

[cjfling]

Well I didn't predict it would seize....wouldn't wish that on anyone. You don't know if you had oil pressure when you were pulling it do you? I just hope you didn't damage anything else..

Don't know about the oil pressure. Didn't think to look.