Ventrac 42oo tubo diesl driving me nuts

[muddstopper]

I have a very old, 4200 with the tubo diesel that I bought newback when they where unheard of. Not even sure of the model year I have had it so long. Anyways, a couple or three years ago the charging system stopped working. I figured it was the alternator and parked it in the shed until I had time to fool with it. Another problem also showed its ugly head with the hydraulic system. While working, the oil would foam up and run out the overfill tube. well, the time has come to try and ressurect this tractor. I pulled the alternator and had it ested and it tested good. jumped started the tractor and drove into the shop and it spilled oil all over the floor. Started trying to trouble shoot the electrical, pulled all fuses and relays, all checked good. Put them all back in, turned the switch on and then everything just died. no lights, tach, nothing, engine wouldnt turn over, nothing. It was hot and I am still recovering from a knee replacement so I said to heck with it and went back to the house. day or two later, things had cooled off so I decided to work on the machine some more. Hooked up the jump box for power, turned on the switch, nothing, turned around and got my mulitmeter and turned back and didnt touch anything but the fuel pump turned on. checked the lights hit the switch and the machine cranked. Alternator is now charging puting out 14v. How do you trouble shoot when everything is back to working???. Decided it had to be a bad ground somewhere so I ran the ground from battery to block. Checked the ground strap from block to frame. Checked all the ground wires under the dash, I actually pulled the radiator to make things easier to get to. Didnt find anything wrong. So I have now replaced the radiator thinking I would crank it up to trouble shoot the hyd problem. I cranked it up and let everything warm up then shut it off. Wham, no power to anything again. No fuel pump, no lights, wont spin over. I am now thing it might be the ignition switch but I am open to other possibilities if anyone cares to comment.

 

[BKBrown]

I don't know about the turbo diesel, but the Ventrac Web site is one place to start - Raw Dodge and Jack Wiley are good ones to ask. I have had 2 of the 4231 Gas liquid cooled and no problems - I understand that turbo diesel has had problems. sounds like some safety switch somewhere to me, but again - I don't know about that engine and the turbo. Good Luck !

 

[Raw Dodge]

I think I would check the battery terminals first,ensure they are clean and not corroded, you probably already have,then I'd check the ignition switch and main fuse,on my gas LC model it's connected to the alternator hot lead,fused there with a heavy duty inline fuse holder. Make sure all connections are solid,tug on the wires,and check fuse terminals for corrosion or lose connections.It sounds like a loose connection,or a bad switch. I remove the radiator on mine twice a year,makes cleaning it easy,and I swap the fan for the cab for winter heat.i love keeping everything in there nice and clean for cool running.

 

[muddstopper]

The battery on the machine is shot and I plan on buying a new one. I was using a jump box to test and start the machine. Terminals are clean, even removed all the ground wires and cleaned and than put back on. All fuses where meter tested. Only thing I havent checked is the hot wire from the switch to the fuse panel. I had planned on doing so, but the darn thing started working. I am leaning toward a switch problem and since the thing has quit working again, I can now check to see if I have any power coming from the switch to the fuse panel.

My other problem with the oil foaming might be the hard fix. Either the pump is sucking air, or I have a bad pump. I would think maybe water, but the foam seems to be clean oil. I have had to replace the pump before and it aint cheap. I plan on checking the suction line to the pump and changing all the fluid, which I dread since I no longer have access to a filtering system to filter the oil before putting in the machine. Any ideal as to a alternative pump beside calling ventrac??

 

[muddstopper]

Bought a few things today, filters, oil, new battery. I think I found my oil foaming problem. I went to take the suction filter off and it was barely hand tight. I could tell where oil had been running down the back side of the filter. I am thinking about just tightening the filter and topping off with oil to make sure that is indeed the problem before I change the hyd oil. A complete oil change is 16qts which is kinda expensive using synthetic.
I also bought new battery cable ends, even tho the old ones looked ok, I would rather spend $3-$4 now and eliminate a possible problem, than to have the electric problems keep popping up.

 

[muddstopper]

still scratching my head. Tighten the hyd suction filter seems to have stopped the oil foaming issue. When I fist cranked it up the other day, I drove the machine about 100ft from my barn to my shop and that was enough to get the oi foaming and pukeing out. Today, drove machine around the yard and to the barn and back about 3 or 4 times, parked back in shop and no oil so I think I have that fixed. The big problem now seems to be with the engine. Motor was running fine when I first moved from barn to shop. I changed the engine oil and filter and used some 5w30, my plans being to let the engine run with that oil for a little bit and then drain and fill with rotella 15/40. Well, the engine cranked just fine and I let it come up to 180*degree temp at about half throttle. Then got on the machine and drove it to the barn and back and by the time I got back from the barn, about 200ft total, the engine was putting out a very thick brown smoke. Engine would not rev to full throttle and would not idle down either, seemed stuck at about half throttle. I parked the machine in the shop and turned off ignition but machine kept running. After looking for a few minutes trying to figure out how to shut engine off, it finally died down and shut off. would spin over, but didnt crank back. Checked oil and level was at the add mark. My guess the piston was sucking oil up by the rings and motor was running off engine oil,instead of diesel. well, I went ahead and drained the 5/30 oil out and replaced with 15/40. By then the engine had cooled off, never got above 180f, and cranked pretty easy. I let it set there and run just above a idle again until water temps was back to 180f, then revved the throttle up and down a few times. At first, there was just a little black/brown smoke, so I decided to drive the machine around the yard a little. Abosolutely no power and the further I went, the worst the smoke got. after about 3 laps around the yard, it was smoking so bad, I couldnt hardly see where I was going so I parked it back in the shop. Turned off ignition and engine kept running. Hit travel and that was enough to kill the engine. My brain is telling me that this engine is toast and the piston rings are not sealing, but the engine ran fine before the oil change. I fail to see how just a oil change can blow a motor in such a short period of time. Filter is tight, no leaks, Dip stick showed proper level before cranking. Both air filters are new and I even took them out when I was trying to get the engine to shut off. There is also no sign of oil on the new air filters so I am pretty sure its not sucking oil from the valve cover into the breather. This smoke is a very dark brown color, suggesting oil burn, not black which would suggest a diesel problem, and there is no heavy diesel smell. Sombody give me some possible problems before I trash can the engine.

 

[prs]

My WAG would be head gasket leak or stem seals letting oil into cylinder(s) causing it to run-on with the motor oil. I don't "think" stuck or broken rings would allow pistons to pull oil up unless crank case was over filled. Not sure how the turbo bearings are oiled, but that is another area where oil could get into intake and run-on. I agree that the time factor is pretty short for the new oil to have broken free old crud causing any problems.

prs

 

[muddstopper]

I hadnt thought about the turbo, I'll have to check that out. Still, this doesnt make sense to go from running just fine, to heavy smoke doing nothing but a oil change. Something I did notice was the engine noise did change. sounded like every valve in it was rattleing and then stop, then rattle. The coming and going of the rattle was weird.

While I am leaning toward a low compression and worn rings, as the culprit. My reasoning being that once the engine is hot, it fails to crank back until it cools off. I have my doubts about these type engines being cost effective to overhaul. Still, if someone can point me toward a good source of cheap rebuild kits for this engine, I might consider a rebuild. Actually I am leaning toward the Kawasaki gas as a replacement. I just dont want to spend a tone on this tractor, it served me well for several years of extreme dirty service, now I just want it because it has a tiller attachment for my garden

 

[muddstopper]

Problem solved. Went to check the turbo impellers and found a piece of plastic wrap sucked into the turbo. I figure the plastic must of been inside the air filter when I replaced it. At any rate, if you have just changed filters and your diahatsu starts smoking really bad, pull the intake hose off the turbo and check for obstruction.

 

[prs]

Hope the seals are not ruined, but if not, where did the oil get through? You noticed the oil level dropped, right?

prs