Ford 4610 - Oil and Fuel Do Not Mix!

[wjb-49]

Well, I thought I finally had my 4610 in good running condition ( prior history: Burned Valve, Piston Issue), but a new problem developed this week. I was mowing with a rotary cutter and thought I had run out of fuel - the fuel gauge is not very reliable and I should have fueled up before beginning mowing. I had approximately three gallons of fuel remaining in a five gallon container and poured that in the tractor, which was on a slight incline. I tried to start the tractor and it would not run. The next day a friend and I tried to start it after bleeding the fuel filters and injector pump and it almost started, but would not. A couple of days later I tried, with the help of a guy who has worked on this tractor several times, to start it and it ran briefly and then stopped. He suggested that we put more fuel in the tractor because it was on an incline and may not be getting enough fuel. After pouring another five gallons in we managed to get it to run, but it was not running very smoothly and had a terrible "skip." I drove it about 500 feet and we shut it down. We then noticed that a mixture of fuel and oil was running out around the oil dip stick - not good! My friend said the tractor had either been vandalized (it ran out of fuel near a remote wooded area) or a seal in the injector pump was leaking. In order to drive the tractor to my equipment shed we drained the contaminated oil and replaced the oil filter and put in new oil. It sounded okay driving to the equipment shed. We decided to drive the tractor later and closely monitor the oil level. That was four days ago. This morning I checked the tractor and found that fuel\oil was overflowing around the oil dip stick again with the tractor sitting in the shed. Could this be a seal in the injector pump or something more serious? Remember, we rebuilt the motor last year and it was running fine.

Thanks,
-Barry

 

[Soundguy]

umbrella seal could have gone...

 

[Soundguy]

does that have a simms pump on it? (inline? )

 

[wjb-49]

umbrella seal could have gone...

Where is the umbrella seal?

does that have a simms pump on it? (inline? )

I don't know if it has a simms pump, it is my understanding that the fuel pump is in the injector pump. Thanks.

 

[Soundguy]

um.. never mind. you need to take it to a dealer.

 

[MikeDspain]

We have a bulldozer that has had this problem several times, it's the injector pump seal. My dad just replaced the pump last year and its leaking already. Same thing as you, oil is full of diesel. That part should be relatively cheap, ours for the dozer is only $35.00 and is real easy to fix.

 

[wjb-49]

We have a bulldozer that has had this problem several times, it's the injector pump seal. My dad just replaced the pump last year and its leaking already. Same thing as you, oil is full of diesel. That part should be relatively cheap, ours for the dozer is only $35.00 and is real easy to fix.

Mike, That's what the guy who rebuilt the motor said it probably is. I did not discuss it with him and I thought replacing the seal would involve going into the injector pump and be a big (many $$$) job. I feel much better about this now that you let me know it's relatively inexpensive. Any thoughts about why this seal fails? Could it have been caused by my allowing the tractor to run out of fuel?

Thanks much!

 

[MikeDspain]

I'm not sure you even ran out of fuel, the diesel in the oil might have been the problem. On our dozer my it started to over heat big time so my dad thought he blew a hose or got a hole in the radiator, so we tore a bunch of the front end off (not the easiest job on a dozer) and couldn't find anything leaking. Well he pulled the dipstick and waahlaahh full to the top with diesel. So that's what made the motor get hot.

My guess as to why these things fail? I suppose I have a few theories, maybe the new fuels and older parts just don't mix. Or most likely, things made now a days are just China made junk compared to alot of the olden day America products. But maybe your mechanic has the real answer?

Don't get too excited just yet though about being a cheap fix, it prob is but until its confirmed it could always be a major fix. Our mechanic tested ours by taking off one of the lines (while the dozer was running) and then put his finger over the line. He said if the machine turns off then its this seal. Anyways I'm hoping for the cheapest option for you but you just never know. Keep us posted on the outcome.:thumbsup:

Our dozer is a John Deere so your New Holland/Ford might be quite different but lets stay positive.

 

[wjb-49]

. . . Our mechanic tested ours by taking off one of the lines (while the dozer was running) and then put his finger over the line. He said if the machine turns off then its this seal. Anyways I'm hoping for the cheapest option for you but you just never know. Keep us posted on the outcome.:thumbsup:

Thanks for the tip on how to test for a seal leak. Our mechanic may know this, but it never hurts to have a little knowledge for backup. I'm hoping he will have time to look at my tractor tomorrow, but tomorrow is his first day back in his shop following a long holiday weekend and that may put me at the back of the line! Will let you know what we find. Thanks.

 

[wjb-49]

Problem Solved!

We discovered we had two problems when we got into the injector pump - neither was very serious. As diagnosed by MikeDspain, the seal was bad. :thumbsup: When we removed the injector pump we also found that the shaft connecting the pump to the motor had come loose and the bolt that held the shaft had fallen into the pan below the shaft - would have been a serious situation had the bolt worked into the motor. After replacing the seal and correctly re-installing the shaft, it runs just fine!

Thanks for everyone's help!