445 sometimes smokes heavily when going uphill

[gary_dsc]

I had the plastic cam gear go out on my 445 at about 50 hours. Never saw the smoke though. Just refused to start one day. Other than the plastic cam problem, I never had any problems with the tractor. Traded it when it had about 800 hours.

 

[x595]

I used to own a 1999 JD 445 and I read on Weekend Freedom Machines somewhere that JD resolved the plastic cam gear to steel in 1998 ...

Later,x595

 

[littletractors]

Does anyone know for sure the date that they went to steel for the camshaft gear? Mine's an '01 and even my local dealers cannot say for sure when they made the switch. As I understand it, the date or serial number was never divulged to anyone. Probably their way of avoiding litigation or... ?

 

[tugboat-2]

WELCOME ABOARD "Littletractors" !! Did you "just" service it recently? Did you change the oil, or have you recently "ADDED" oil? Is it possible you may have overfilled the crankcase and some of that excess is dragged up while on the up-slope? Just a wild guess but sounds like a "possability" from your description. You likely already "know" this,.. but make sure the "engine" is level, side to side and fore and aft,..before you take a reading. IMPORTANT to NOT overfill for this reason.

Good luck with it!
. . tug

 

[will v]

Hi guys,

Just joined the forum and I have a 445 that has the same sort of issue.

It was smoking a bit on start up and up hills.

I was assumed it was pooling of the oil around the guides that would then leak down into the cylinders and burn on start up and then the same sort of thing going up the hills - get a little leaking due to the angle of the engine.

Well this weekend I started it up and was mowing and was getting a ton of smoke up the hill in my backyard... Shut her down and have coolant in the oil. So it is definitly a head gasket that has blown now.

I'm not sure if the oil burning issue was always a head gasket issue or if the guides are also leaking. I am going to tear it down this weekend and see what I have.

I will post up any follow up.

Also - mine is a 2000 machine that came from the factory with the metal cam gear so that is not in play on my scenario.

Will

 

[tugboat-2]

Will V : first of all WELCOME ABOARD !! secondly,..thanks for your interest and your input on this one. Interesting results of your investigation, we will be interested to know the outcome of your tear-down. Thanks.

CHEERS!
. . tug

 

[LBrown59]

Hi guys,

Just joined the forum and I have a 445 that has the same sort of issue.

It was smoking a bit on start up and up hills.

I was assumed it was pooling of the oil around the guides that would then leak down into the cylinders and burn on start up and then the same sort of thing going up the hills - get a little leaking due to the angle of the engine.

Well this weekend I started it up and was mowing and was getting a ton of smoke up the hill in my backyard... Shut her down and have coolant in the oil. So it is definitly a head gasket that has blown now.

I'm not sure if the oil burning issue was always a head gasket issue or if the guides are also leaking. I am going to tear it down this weekend and see what I have.

I will post up any follow up.

Also - mine is a 2000 machine that came from the factory with the metal cam gear so that is not in play on my scenario.

Will

Bout all the small JDs had the plastic cam back then.
I turned down a 300 series cause of that.

 

[will v]

Well, I got the engine torn down and out of the tractor.

Not to much good news. On the left cylinder I have a cracked cylinder wall. What's amazing is that both head gaskets were intack. When I pulled the heads off and saw the gaskets in good shape I was stumped. But I got in there and really inspected things and found the crack. I did have white frothy oil all over the valves on springs on that side also.

I'm a bit suprised but for the last year I was getting a little white residue coming up through crank vent into the injector housing so I think I was getting a little bit of blow by from the rings and a rebuild was in my future anyway. I didn't expect this though.

Now - I have a questions for you guys. Since I have the crack I can go in one of three directions.

1. Rebuild a new "block" with my internals. Crank looks good, I have the metal cam gear already. The only thing that concerns me is that I might start throwing the same money in a rebuild if I find a warped head or other issues when I go to build up the new block with my internals and heads

2. Repower with a new FD620 Kawasaki. About 1800.00 by my quick internet search for a new one or try to source a low hour used motor. If anyone has any leads on a low hour engine I would really appreciate it.

3. Repower with something else - I haven't done any research on this so I'm not even sure if it is possible to get a more powerful engine in this chassis or what brand.

I talked with my local dealer and they said the block is available and I am going to check on the pricing of that option on Monday.

I also have a ton of pics I took during the process of tearing it down and will post when I get the pics downloaded.

Thansk in advance for advice/suggestions/prior experience with this.

Will

 

[sargex595]

I had a 445 and noticed that it would use coolant. After a couple of trips to the dealer, it still continued. I was told that JD had a problem with some of the engines and after two years, going into the third year, the dealer received permission from JD to order me a new motor and after they installed it, I never had a problem. It never blew smoke, I just kept loosing coolant.

Curt.