MF 135 In Frame Rebuild Advice

[Guoseph]

William TO-35 is correct on this procedure. You can scotch the tires or block up the axles either one. You will need the transmission in neutral as you will be turning the motor over several times, so that is why you scotch or block.

Once you get ready to separate the front end you are looking at 4 bolts going into the oil pan and then two nuts (one on each side) that lock onto studs coming from the frontend section that you are going to roll out of the way. You can attach a standard engine hoist (cherry picker) to the front section to balance it and roll the front away away several feet. I like to give myself enough room to walk between the two as you will be bouncing from side to side. Oil pan will have 4 bolts going into the bell housing that will have to come out. The rest are facing up into the engine block. If that pan has never been off the motor before and it still has the original sealant from the factory you may have to take a BIG punch or bar to break the seal.

I have seen motors do this many times before. Somewhere along the way, rain water got into the pipe and seized or glazed the rings. Put a fresh set of rings in it and some rod bearings and put it back together. You will need to find yourself a hone but not the ones with the long rectangle stones on it as it will be to agressive. I recommend getting one with the small balls on the end of the wires and just giving it a slight clean up of any rust and gunk that you are going to find. A good 1/2" power drill will be good enough to do this. If you cant see any of the hone marked left over, you might and mean cautiously might hit it with a set of stones for a brief second just to put some of the cross hatching hone marks back in it for the rings to make good compression.

If you bought implements to go with this, I figure you plan on using it. Therefore, do the right thing and freshen this tractor up and get many many more good years out of it.

Yes I definitely want to use it

But the size of the project is rather daunting, before I started the research I was hoping that the cylinder block can be separated from the rest of the engine like a lot of gas car engines I've seen.

I wonder how much money I can get by selling the tractor in this condition and trying to buy one with less issues

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Actually if the tractor will start, run and do expected work it could bring a couple thousand dollars perhaps because it looks OK for the years.

If you get deep into the engine it can cost that much or more. I saw a nice looking 801 Ford the other day that I think still had factory paint job and they were asking $3200. Too business and too broke to think about trying to relive the pass.

Best of luck.

 

[CurlyDave]

Before you decide you need a rebuild, you might want to get a local mechanic to diagnose it.

If you have a trailer that moved it home, you can take it to the mechanic, or find one who will come to you.

This won't cost an arm and a leg, I am thinking $100-200, and you will have a much better idea what has to happen. No matter how you look at it, an in-frame rebuild is not as much fun as a picnic in the park, and isn't free.

 

[Guoseph]

Before you decide you need a rebuild, you might want to get a local mechanic to diagnose it.

If you have a trailer that moved it home, you can take it to the mechanic, or find one who will come to you.

This won't cost an arm and a leg, I am thinking $100-200, and you will have a much better idea what has to happen. No matter how you look at it, an in-frame rebuild is not as much fun as a picnic in the park, and isn't free.

I do wish I could get someone to take a closer look. I called the two closest MF dealers and one said they only do engine repairs at their central repair facility. The other said they won't really know what's going on until they really start digging in. With their service rates at $110 per hour, I'm thinking it ain't going to be a cheap diagnosis. As with any service engagement, I run the risk of being stuck with a tractor that's been taken apart, at which point I either suck it up and pay them for the repairs, or pay them to put my broken tractor back together.

Wish I knew some trustworthy tractor mechanics around, but I'm pretty new to the area.

 

[Guoseph]

Here is the first start of the morning, ambient temperature 37 degrees F, tractor parked outside.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Are you new to diesels?

Our 265 fires on first turn but it only has 1300 hours.

I would change the oil in it and add Archoil AR9100 and drive it.

The only way I would open up a running engine is if it was a tractor I grew up operating and wanted a piece of history.

Gas is much more simple in antique tractors used for light hobby farming.

Your tractor looks nice and sounded good to me. Diesels do smoke. You should hear see our 1983 JD start at that temp.

Wait for spring and run that sucker hard to prove or disprove it.

Based on your posts I say sell it if you can not mentally get OK with it. It is just a lot of metal but I think you may be over reacting at this point maybe.

Others may know this tractor better. Our 1976 265 MF is an awesome tractor. A 135 is an awesome tractor too typically.

 

[Guoseph]

Are you new to diesels?

Our 265 fires on first turn but it only has 1300 hours.

I would change the oil in it and add Archoil AR9100 and drive it.

The only way I would open up a running engine is if it was a tractor I grew up operating and wanted a piece of history.

Gas is much more simple in antique tractors used for light hobby farming.

Your tractor looks nice and sounded good to me. Diesels do smoke. You should hear see our 1983 JD start at that temp.

Wait for spring and run that sucker hard to prove or disprove it.

Based on your posts I say sell it if you can not mentally get OK with it. It is just a lot of metal but I think you may be over reacting at this point maybe.

Others may know this tractor better. Our 1976 265 MF is an awesome tractor. A 135 is an awesome tractor too typically.

I have a Dodge Ram 2500 with a Cummins Diesel. It makes a lot of noise but generally doesn't smoke

I'm ok with it smoking a bit and burning some oil, it is an old tractor afterall. I am ready to just use it except with this:

It'll drip a quart out of the dipstick and crankcase tube in an hour of of low load operation. If I can get the oil to stop coming out of all orifices at a steady drip when it gets warm I'd be happy. I don't really want all that Delo to end up in the field

Right now I think if I rig a chimney up to the oil filler hole and use it as a second exhaust it relieves enough pressure to keep the oil from pumping out, but that might seem like too much of a hack

I did order the Archoil, it's on it's way. Both 2300 and 9100.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

The Ford diesel drivers speak highly of AR9100.

Taking 10 seconds to start when cold could be due to a worn injector pump, dirty injectors perhaps but I never has a diesel that had an engine issue.

It must have a lot of blow by to get oil out of the dipstick and in fact it looks like the dipstick weld/crimp is broken because oil should not be able to get out there. How many quarts of oil do you put when doing a total change with filter?

Again maybe we have some that have seen this. Some blow by is normal but make sure it has the correct dipstick and see if you can borrow one to check it with. If you try to run it with the oil fill cap off what happens?

 

[Looking4new]

looks to me like you got wwwwwwwwwwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy too much oil in it.

 

[Guoseph]

looks to me like you got wwwwwwwwwwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy too much oil in it.

Actually right after I took the video I let it cool and the oil level shows below the min line. When I did the oil change I actually put in 6.0 quarts instead of 6.5 cuz I knew it was just going to make a rapid exit anyway.