CT225 head gasket?

[Gator6x4]

The block and the head were more caked up than I figured. The block took a lot of probing with various bottle brushes and gallons of water to flush it out.

As I was finding a point of acceptance with the block, I moved my attention to the head.

The head showed more wear than the hour meter suggested. The valve seats were hammered and the guides needed tightened up. Oh and they took a few passes to resurface the mating surface.

I was optimistic that the pressure test and hot tanking cleaned the cake out of the head. Not so much, I ended up pulling the freeze plugs to do my best at getting the bs out.

View attachment 782521View attachment 782522View attachment 782523View attachment 782524View attachment 782525

You are doing an exceptional job on cleaning up one great big mess someone else made.

 

[Checkoutmyjunk]

Just a small update. I started putting things back together and hit another roadblock. According to the Bobcat service manual that I bought, I need to put the engine on TDC. TDC is indicated two ways, by the timing gear set indicators under the waterpump under the timing cover or by the timing window on the flywheel housing. After searching for this window with no luck I hit the internet. Eventually I ended up back on the forum in a kioti thread that lead me to believe the window is covered by the loader bracket attached to the frame.

I got stumped again when I thought I took all the bolts out of the bracket and it was not budging. This morning I realized there is a bolt INSIDE of the mounting bracket that I failed to remove!(Number 5)

It never seems to end with this tractor! I am sure my inexperience is a factor, but geez!

 

[Checkoutmyjunk]

 

[Checkoutmyjunk]

Thought I would continue to document headgasket job

The timing markings on flywheel were not visible because of surface rust. My solution was to take a piece of red scotch brite pad and wrap it over a 3/4" socket extension, it fit perfectly through the "window". I rotated the engine by hand from the crank pulley and pushed in on the extension/pad to clean off the rust and reveal the markings. From there, adjusting the valve lash was straight forward. I put it all together and let it sit like that for a couple of weeks till last night. With the fuel lines cracked open at the fuel distributor, it primed and started quickly. I left if idle for 10 min or so then bumped it up to 2000 rpm and let it run till it warmed up. It started to just barely creep past the second dot so I shut it down because it was after 10pm and I wasn't sure if I had a air in the coolant. I popped the radiator cap off an realized the system never pressurized fully but it was warm and had not gone down. I fired it up again and ran it for a few minutes again, this time from shutting it down the temp was half way between the second dot and the red. I let it idle till the temp came back down and shut if off. It was too late to mess with it for long and my garage is heated so leaving the doors open too long is not ideal. With the cost of electric these days, you need to be mindful about stuff like that.

With the loader and the loader mount off, I discovered there is a leak that will be way easier to address now, so that's next on my list. I just need to clean all the caked up dirt and oil off everything so I can see where its coming from.

2 of the hydraulic couplers for the loader seem to leak when disconnected. if there an easy trick to fix this or should I just not worry about it since they don't leak when terminated?

 

[winston1]

Thought I would continue to document headgasket job

The timing markings on flywheel were not visible because of surface rust. My solution was to take a piece of red scotch brite pad and wrap it over a 3/4" socket extension, it fit perfectly through the "window". I rotated the engine by hand from the crank pulley and pushed in on the extension/pad to clean off the rust and reveal the markings. From there, adjusting the valve lash was straight forward. I put it all together and let it sit like that for a couple of weeks till last night. With the fuel lines cracked open at the fuel distributor, it primed and started quickly. I left if idle for 10 min or so then bumped it up to 2000 rpm and let it run till it warmed up. It started to just barely creep past the second dot so I shut it down because it was after 10pm and I wasn't sure if I had a air in the coolant. I popped the radiator cap off an realized the system never pressurized fully but it was warm and had not gone down. I fired it up again and ran it for a few minutes again, this time from shutting it down the temp was half way between the second dot and the red. I let it idle till the temp came back down and shut if off. It was too late to mess with it for long and my garage is heated so leaving the doors open too long is not ideal. With the cost of electric these days, you need to be mindful about stuff like that.

With the loader and the loader mount off, I discovered there is a leak that will be way easier to address now, so that's next on my list. I just need to clean all the caked up dirt and oil off everything so I can see where its coming from.

2 of the hydraulic couplers for the loader seem to leak when disconnected. if there an easy trick to fix this or should I just not worry about it since they don't leak when terminated?

If you don't remove the loader very much and use the tractor without it I could see no need to worry much about the couplers

 

[LS Tractor Owner]

That looks like "incompatable" antifreeze mixed together. I have seen this happen to a jeep 4.0L engine..... clogged almost the entire block!

What Happens If You Mix Different Types Of Antifreeze?

Every vehicle uses an antifreeze or coolant. Here's what happens if you mix different types of antifreeze.

fuelandfriction.com

Hope you can get enough of it out.

 

[Checkoutmyjunk]

In typical fashion, I hit another set back. I pulled the tractor out of the garage Tuesday night last week. Tonight, I hoped any air worked it’s way out of the system. When I opened the radiator cap, I was happy to see it needed topped off. It was only when I heard it running out of the back of the head did my heart sink. The rear core plug in the head was pushed completely out and wedged between the firewall and head. We did get a cold snap last night for about 6 hours and I foolishly left strait water in the engine. I’m hoping the cold snap didn’t freeze and crack anything. I was suspect about this plug when I installed it. It just went in too easy. I put a thin coat of sealant on the plug so I figured it would be okay.

Now I need to see if taking the firewall and gas tank out is more difficult than pulling the head again I don’t want to buy another round of bolts and gaskets if I don’t have to or if the block is cracked anyway.

When does this roller coaster end!

 

[Checkoutmyjunk]

 

[gstrom99]

I've always used a bit of gasket cement on freeze plugs, but I've heard of many that use epoxy or JB Weld. A straight install (using the correct tool/socket without deforming or banging it sideways any) and a good, clean surface is very important. They should be a very tight fit (like - almost too "big"). Maybe the one you used wasn't correct? But it's good that it popped out, if the water was frozen...

Anyway, this sucks, for sure. Hopefully you can get in there to fit a new one, without other damage done.

 

[Checkoutmyjunk]

I was able to find the head gasket ($65) and the head bolts ($130) at a Koti dealer about an hour from my house. I was also found that a bobcat dealer near the Kioti dealer had the core plug in stick for $4.

I am on the fence about reusing the head botls and gasket. They have about 10 minutes of run time on them and I very well could get it all back together and discover the block is cracked. On the other hand, I could snap off an already yielded bolt in the head and curse myself about being cheap when I am grabbing the drill and easy-outs.....

I question if the head actually froze, it seems odd that it went from frozen solid enough that it pushed the core plug out to completely thawed a few hours later. I know when I installed the plug, it made me uneasy how little the resistance was. I suppose the radiator would be the first thing to freeze and crack, I will know once I get it back together. I hope not, I had over 700 in the radiator recore alone! It some strange way, I would rather find out this last problem was my fault!