FX24D Not running

[California]

I wonder if this tractor is worth throwing more money at. It may be the rare case where starting over with something else makes more sense.

I've won most gambles buying stuff cheap to fix up - but not every time. Occasionally, endless problems become apparent as work progresses ...

 

[blackd]

CA asks "I wonder if this tractor is worth throwing more money at." He has yet to fix the 1st of his problems, so it is modest conjecture how many other problems there will be. Let's get this tractor running, then review again.

 

[mrrooj]

Okay,

i retested with some oil (it was a lot more than a few drops though, put the smallest glug i could from the quart) but they tested at #1 400 - #2 280 - #3 375 better but cylinder 2 is still an issue.

Ill get the feeler gauges and do the valve adjustment.

I havnt thrown much money at it yet, comp tester and a few sockets so far. but the potential for big bucks is there.

give me some scenarios of what else could be wrong still. Cant i get replacement parts for whats in the motor? what about a refurb motor?

in my area, ive seen similar tractors for around 7-8 K , so i feel like i still have some options before i consider dumping this tractor.

 

[blackd]

mrooj, I dropped a valve in my FX24D, which in turn trashed the piston and cracked the cylinder wall. I sold it to a machinist who welded, bored the cylinders and installed cores. He had a reworked but older tractor. Buying another used tractor is playing roulette with a new set of potential problem. I needed my tractor so had to buy a new one.

Had the engine problem occurred in the Fall, I would have fixed for Spring. I still miss my Yanmar.

 

[mrrooj]

mrooj, I dropped a valve in my FX24D, which in turn trashed the piston and cracked the cylinder wall. I sold it to a machinist who welded, bored the cylinders and installed cores. He had a reworked but older tractor. Buying another used tractor is playing roulette with a new set of potential problem. I needed my tractor so had to buy a new one.

Had the engine problem occurred in the Fall, I would have fixed for Spring. I still miss my Yanmar.

Right, so something along the lines of a rebuild kit (plus the repair on the cracks) right? like this:
buy Overhaul Rebuild Kit for Yanmar 3TNB84 Engine FX235 FF245D FX255 FX265 F265DT FX265M Tractor

are those piston sleeves already in the motor by default? or is that why you bore them out?

any ideas of a roundabout cost of having a shop do that kind of work? is it in the hundreds or thousands?

 

[winston1]

Okay,

i retested with some oil (it was a lot more than a few drops though, put the smallest glug i could from the quart) but they tested at #1 400 - #2 280 - #3 375 better but cylinder 2 is still an issue.

Ill get the feeler gauges and do the valve adjustment.

I havnt thrown much money at it yet, comp tester and a few sockets so far. but the potential for big bucks is there.

give me some scenarios of what else could be wrong still. Cant i get replacement parts for whats in the motor? what about a refurb motor?

in my area, ive seen similar tractors for around 7-8 K , so i feel like i still have some options before i consider dumping this tractor.

Your compression is still way low. If you haven't you need to check valves or at least make sure they do have "some clearance". Yes, parts are available. F24 / FX24 ENGINE: Yanmar Tractor Parts

I'm not there so I am probably missing something but if your getting a good spin and only 280psi you are facing a ring job at the least. Might be worth trying to crank it but until the injector is working properly I doubt that happens.

 

[blackd]

Mrrooj "are those piston sleeves already in the motor by default? or is that why you bore them out?" IIRC, most FX24 engines DO NOT have sleeves. That's all I know as haven't talked to the new owner for 12-15 years.

 

[CoyPatton]

Since you have not adjusted the valve lash nor have any ideal when they may have last been adjusted, I would nit get overly excited about my the compression numbers until you have everything external as right as you can get it. A valve not seating on the compression stroke could be your loss.

A decision on what to do with the tractor in my opinion is not relevant yet.
To help with this, you mentioned topping off fluids, but what are the condition (appearance and levels) of your coolant and oil after running several compression test and other periods of cranking.
I am a bit old school mechanic and like a pressure leak down test. This is charging each cylinder individually with air pressure (there are tools for this similar to a compression tester). Each cylinder needs to be on the compression stroke (valve adjustment should be done first). You pressurize the cylinder and watch for if the cylinder holds pressure. If it does not hold pressure you start looking for where you are losing air (intake, exhaust, oil, coolant or around the head and block). Takes some patience and may need some type of indicator to see flow.
Generally this gives you more information on where to look. For example if you detect air movement from the oil pan, you know the cylinder has issues (head gasket, rings, crack in cylinder wall or hole in piston). You still have work to do but you have some solid info to follow.
Others like other test.
If you have oil in your coolant, we know more also also if you have milky looking oil it gives more info. Most likely but not only for either or both of these is a blown head gasket. There can be other causes however.

 

[mrrooj]

Since you have not adjusted the valve lash nor have any ideal when they may have last been adjusted, I would nit get overly excited about my the compression numbers until you have everything external as right as you can get it. A valve not seating on the compression stroke could be your loss.

A decision on what to do with the tractor in my opinion is not relevant yet.
To help with this, you mentioned topping off fluids, but what are the condition (appearance and levels) of your coolant and oil after running several compression test and other periods of cranking.
I am a bit old school mechanic and like a pressure leak down test. This is charging each cylinder individually with air pressure (there are tools for this similar to a compression tester). Each cylinder needs to be on the compression stroke (valve adjustment should be done first). You pressurize the cylinder and watch for if the cylinder holds pressure. If it does not hold pressure you start looking for where you are losing air (intake, exhaust, oil, coolant or around the head and block). Takes some patience and may need some type of indicator to see flow.
Generally this gives you more information on where to look. For example if you detect air movement from the oil pan, you know the cylinder has issues (head gasket, rings, crack in cylinder wall or hole in piston). You still have work to do but you have some solid info to follow.
Others like other test.
If you have oil in your coolant, we know more also also if you have milky looking oil it gives more info. Most likely but not only for either or both of these is a blown head gasket. There can be other causes however.

Thanks, thats a good point about the lash, i did read up more on it yesterday and i didnt have time to run to the hardware store for feeler gauges but i did try adjusting it to get a feel for it. I grabbed a piece of 600 grit sandpaper (just because it was the thinnest thing i could find next to me) and used that as my gauge. It was easier than i thought it was going to be and just thinking like winston said "some clearance" I will do it with the appropriate gauge next.

I also cleaned that injector 3 again and found some grittyness in the needle area. It looks like maybe flecks of the black paint that are coming off of the motor. I have pressure washed and hit this thing with the air compressor but it seems like the greases is stronger than the paint at this point. So Im sure i got some paint crud around the injector nuts that dislodged when i put them on. Fired it up to take a look and i think it was spraying now but it was late and hard to watch it at the drivers seat. ill test it again today.

The condition of the fluids: The coolant looks green and clean when i look into the radiator, The oil doesnt look right to me, it doesnt look overly burnt but kinda thin and grey when i see it on the dipstick. The hydraulic fluid (which is also the transmission right?) it looks dark grayish red, consistent to what ive seen on a car.

I will look into the leakdown tests. i was hoping that the compression tool would also do that but i think it hold the guage at pressure until you release it manually.


Also i still think something is up with the starter. I forgot to mention this earlier but all of these compression test ive been doing ive noticed the connectors on the starter solenoid will smoke sometime, last night i saw a visible spark on one start. The motor turns over fairly rapidly when all injectors are out but even with just one injector in it starts to bog down, sometimes if i crank and stop it on what im guessing is a compression stroke it struggles to crank again (does that make sense) so i would like to either take the starter apart to inspect or have someone that knows rebuild it. What do you think, maybe that a big part of this compression issue too.

 

[CoyPatton]

Mine is a YM series. The preferred starting procedure especially cold is after cycling through through TS, to pull the decompression lever and run the engine to build up oil pressure and spinning RPM’s.
If your starter is weak, it could have a direct effect on getting your RPM’s up. Also factoring into to this poor cable connections. Jumper cables are know for this weakness.
The sparks and the smoking could be lots of things, but a frequent issue is a loose connection on the starter solenoid post.
Lots of things may be grouping together to cause an issue that looks like something more complicated.