RossCountyRam
New member
My wife's sister acquired an International 254 with her home purchase 5 years ago. It has sat in the barn since then, untouched. Wishful thinking was that it would fire right up. No luck. And with no light or power down there, getting it running in place was not going to happen, especially with my limited skill set. So I wiggled it out of the barn (thank goodness for it being gravel floor), dragged it up the hill with my truck, and loaded it up for the 140 mile trek home.
View attachment 648075
After I got it home, I tested both the battery and starter. Each came out looking good. But there is still an electrical problem as I can't get any power to the key. Cannot seem to track it down.
At this point I am doing no good, so I took the tractor to an ol timer down the road. His business is tractors, and he has been in it for 50 years. I told him I had the starter out and it's good, along with the battery, and all I needed was power to the key to see if it fires up. Didn't take him long to figure out the electrical problem, but the engine won't turnover. I heard the dreaded words, "engine is seized up." Dam, what luck.
So, all I can do is explore the options. I know there is a complete K3F engine down south I could have shipped north for a pretty penny. Or I could always part it out, the loader may bring what I have in the tractor at this point.
View attachment 648080
But I really don't have the covered space for a non-running tractor laying around in pieces. After a night of thinking about it, I decided that it made the most financial sense to swap in a running engine, even with the high cost of a replacement. BUT, I better make sure it is the engine that is seized....
I felt somewhat confident that I can tackle a lightweight teardown of the engine because of available resources such as YouTube, this site, and all the paperwork the previous owner kept in good order, so I was going to find out what exactly is seized. Hopefully the culprit is on the top end.
The first thing I did was put a wrench on the crankshaft bolt and sure enough, it doesn't budge a mm. Bummer, but I figured that would happen. Next, I drained the coolant. Then I removed the valve cover. This engine is the Mitsubishi 3 cyl diesel K3E.
View attachment 648079
From what I've read, they are good little engines that run and run. It makes no sense this one is locked up given it supposedly ran when parked and it has been out of the weather....
Now the valvetrain needed to come out to get to the head bolts.
There are 11 headbolts, and once out, I am looking at this:
Piston 3 (?) looks deceiving. That is nearest exhaust so a bit more carbon built up and I had rubbed my finger around the edges so that explains the marks. It is also close to TDC so it presents itself in a different light. In person, I see no reason any of these pistons are stuck. Everything looks good to my untrained eye. The underside of the head looks good too- gasket in good shape, carbon is pretty evenly distributed, I see no gouges, cracks, burnt looking spots...
So now my thought moves to the crankshaft and underbelly of this beast. But first let me soak the pistons in a little bit of penetrating oil and some 30W overnight. The next morning, I try and rock the crankshaft one more time and nothing happens. I figure might as well remove the starter and put a pry bar on the flywheel to double check. Low and behold, the flywheel moves easily. What the crap?!?!?!
Unbeknownst to me, the two bolts that hold the starter in place are different lengths. The bottom bolt is supposed to be the shorter one as the longer one will bottom out, ON THE FLYWHEEL. This picture shows the correct bolt in place but if you look at the flywheel, you'll see the mark the longer bolt made. This has to be the reason the engine did not turnover.
I take full responsibility for this as I am the one that removed the starter early in the game. Only thing I can do now is accept my blunder and put things back together. If I ever come across a 'seized' engine again, you can be sure I check the crankshaft AND flywheel.
As of this morning the head is cleaned up a bit, oil is drained and new filter awaits installation, and old diesel is drained. Now just waiting on gaskets and I can get this thing up and running hopefully.
Here's a picture of the fuel cap I think is interesting and also the 2 newest additions to our herd have found a spot to relax under the bucket...
Thanks for reading about my unnecessary adventure and boneheaded mistake. Stay tuned for a quick video of it running next week.
View attachment 648075After I got it home, I tested both the battery and starter. Each came out looking good. But there is still an electrical problem as I can't get any power to the key. Cannot seem to track it down.
At this point I am doing no good, so I took the tractor to an ol timer down the road. His business is tractors, and he has been in it for 50 years. I told him I had the starter out and it's good, along with the battery, and all I needed was power to the key to see if it fires up. Didn't take him long to figure out the electrical problem, but the engine won't turnover. I heard the dreaded words, "engine is seized up." Dam, what luck.
So, all I can do is explore the options. I know there is a complete K3F engine down south I could have shipped north for a pretty penny. Or I could always part it out, the loader may bring what I have in the tractor at this point.
View attachment 648080
But I really don't have the covered space for a non-running tractor laying around in pieces. After a night of thinking about it, I decided that it made the most financial sense to swap in a running engine, even with the high cost of a replacement. BUT, I better make sure it is the engine that is seized....
I felt somewhat confident that I can tackle a lightweight teardown of the engine because of available resources such as YouTube, this site, and all the paperwork the previous owner kept in good order, so I was going to find out what exactly is seized. Hopefully the culprit is on the top end.
The first thing I did was put a wrench on the crankshaft bolt and sure enough, it doesn't budge a mm. Bummer, but I figured that would happen. Next, I drained the coolant. Then I removed the valve cover. This engine is the Mitsubishi 3 cyl diesel K3E.
View attachment 648079
From what I've read, they are good little engines that run and run. It makes no sense this one is locked up given it supposedly ran when parked and it has been out of the weather....
Now the valvetrain needed to come out to get to the head bolts.
There are 11 headbolts, and once out, I am looking at this:
Piston 3 (?) looks deceiving. That is nearest exhaust so a bit more carbon built up and I had rubbed my finger around the edges so that explains the marks. It is also close to TDC so it presents itself in a different light. In person, I see no reason any of these pistons are stuck. Everything looks good to my untrained eye. The underside of the head looks good too- gasket in good shape, carbon is pretty evenly distributed, I see no gouges, cracks, burnt looking spots...
So now my thought moves to the crankshaft and underbelly of this beast. But first let me soak the pistons in a little bit of penetrating oil and some 30W overnight. The next morning, I try and rock the crankshaft one more time and nothing happens. I figure might as well remove the starter and put a pry bar on the flywheel to double check. Low and behold, the flywheel moves easily. What the crap?!?!?!
Unbeknownst to me, the two bolts that hold the starter in place are different lengths. The bottom bolt is supposed to be the shorter one as the longer one will bottom out, ON THE FLYWHEEL. This picture shows the correct bolt in place but if you look at the flywheel, you'll see the mark the longer bolt made. This has to be the reason the engine did not turnover.
I take full responsibility for this as I am the one that removed the starter early in the game. Only thing I can do now is accept my blunder and put things back together. If I ever come across a 'seized' engine again, you can be sure I check the crankshaft AND flywheel.
As of this morning the head is cleaned up a bit, oil is drained and new filter awaits installation, and old diesel is drained. Now just waiting on gaskets and I can get this thing up and running hopefully.
Here's a picture of the fuel cap I think is interesting and also the 2 newest additions to our herd have found a spot to relax under the bucket...
Thanks for reading about my unnecessary adventure and boneheaded mistake. Stay tuned for a quick video of it running next week.
