MF 231 / Perkins AD3.152 Blown Head Gasket or Failed Injector?

[Travis_R]

Hello, I’m sick and disgusted and I love my tractor!

I’ve had my Massey Ferguson 231 for 12 years and it’s been an excellent tractor. The other day I was doing some work with the grader box and I noticed at engine idle it started letting out a lot of blue smoke. It’s never done this. I ALWAYS watch my gauges and the temp gauge NEVER showed hot, just normal and the gauge works. When I gave it throttle the smoke went away until i returned it to idle then it would smoke again constantly. I could also smell antifreeze and noticed it was coming from the radiator overflow after I got off and looked. Well I kept running the tractor (now I regret it like a fool, but didn’t know at the time). I ran it a few miles down to the store to fill it up with diesel. I killed the tractor at the pump. Antifreeze was on the ground under the tractor. When I started it back up the engine wanted to “lock” when spinning it over and was a little difficult to start. White smoke was blowing everywhere out the exhaust. People were staring at me. I had to go get a trailer and load it up.

What could be the problem and what could have caused it? The radiator fins are clean on the outside. I didn’t see any water in the oil but the oil was a little higher than normal on the dipstick.

Is this a common problem for the Perkins AD3.152?

Thanks

 

[Agvg]

How much coolant did you have left after the trip to the gas station? Bubbles in the radiator or high pressure? Any knocking? If the oil is black and rising, white smoke when running I would check the thermostart for leaks, if it leaks in to the manifold it will end up in the oil when not running and generate white smoke when running.

 

[Travis_R]

I’m not sure how much coolant was left after the gas station but I did add a gallon of water the next day to get it off the trailer. Cold engine, no white smoke, hard to start but it started (after wanting to lock while cranking) but no knocking noise. Couldn’t tell if there were bubbles in the radiator because water was blowing out everywhere from somewhere (from pressure and could be from radiator maybe). I hope to God it’s not a head gasket because I don’t know how to fix it. I just want to know what’s wrong and what happens to cause it.

How do I check to see if it’s leaking into the thermostart?

 

[Agvg]

If you have pressure so the coolant is push out then you have a head gasket issue. Should not be a to difficult if you know your around a wrench, parts are ridiculous cheap but do get a workshop manual. Any blow by?

 

[goeduck]

I have a couple of AD3.152 engines, about as reliable as they get. Never heard of one doing this. Has the engine been worked on?

 

[mrmikey]

(after wanting to lock while cranking)

Good way to bend a rod or the crank. Hopefully just a head gasket problem.......Mike

 

[Agvg]

I have a couple of AD3.152 engines, about as reliable as they get. Never heard of one doing this. Has the engine been worked on?

Not unusual to replace head gasket on them, particular if you run them low on coolant, not much work to replace and have done it on mine 135, but it has been run low on coolant twice and replaced the gasket twice.

 

[Travis_R]

If you have pressure so the coolant is push out then you have a head gasket issue. Should not be a to difficult if you know your around a wrench, parts are ridiculous cheap but do get a workshop manual. Any blow by?

I don’t think it has any blow by but I’m not 100% sure.

 

[Travis_R]

I have a couple of AD3.152 engines, about as reliable as they get. Never heard of one doing this. Has the engine been worked on?

As far as I know the engine hasn’t been worked on. It has about 1,460 hours on it. It’s a 1998 model and I bought it with 480 hours on it, 12 years ago. It’s been an excellent tractor to me.

 

[Travis_R]

Good way to bend a rod or the crank. Hopefully just a head gasket problem.......Mike

Never even crossed my mind. Thanks for posting this.