MF 261

[automanIII]

Got it running, Diesel been sitting for a year and a half. Oil coming out of dipstick tube. Was not locked when I got it. Possible rings stuck? What to do now? Thanks Brian

 

[paulharvey]

I would do a full oil change, and fill to right at "full", run it for a few hours and see if it "gains" oil. If it does, your probably getting diesel in the oil, but until you establish a baseline, you don't know that someone didn't simply over fill it.

 

[Masseywrench]

Did you ever figure out your problem with the oil coming out of the dipstick?

 

[automanIII]

The tractor has a lot of blowby. I don't know if it is rings or head or head gasket or what. I guess I will have to tear the motor down to find out. I don't know.

 

[automanIII]

any ideas where to start. That would be great. Thanks Brian

 

[Masseywrench]

Im going to ask you a bunch of questions.... answer what you can. I will warn you some of them will sound silly but it will help

First - how many hours are on the tractor

what kind of shape did the previous owner/owners leave it in?

you mentioned that it sat for a year and a half. Where was it sitting? Outside or in a shop?

Does your exhaust pipe point upward or does it drop down and go toward the back.

If it goes straight up, at the top, does it have a rain cap on it or does it turn sideways or is it just a straight up pipe

I know all that sounds crazy but it will help, I will explain later.

Did you change the oil yet?
What did it look like? Normal old thick black oil, or was it very thin and runny, or does it look milky?

When you checked the oil, what was the level on the dipstick? low, normal or over full

When is the last time the injectors were pulled and had them tested?

Do you have access to a compression tester with the perkins adaptor or know someone who does?

Last one - Does it smoke when started? at idle after a few minutes? under a minimal load? going from idle to 75%-80% throttle quickly - how bad is it and how long does it take to clear up?

Sorry I threw so much at you.

 

[automanIII]

Hello Massey wrench, thanks for the help. My wife age 47 suffered 2 major brain anuresyms this year back march 6th and we have not worked since then. I am he full time care giver and don't know when I will be able to go back to work. I have worked on cars my whole life and understand all the questions. It shows 33000 hrs, owned by school district regular service, they were replacing the water pump and never finished, they decided to sell in the middle of the repair. So I put it back together. It sat out side, the exhaust is straight up and the oil was low and just normal old black thick diesel oil. It did not have a rain cap on it. I don't know if they kept the exhaust covered or not. No idea on injectors and no compression tester for perkins diesel. When first started it has white blue smoke for about 3-5 minutes and then clears up. I will not be running this tractor hard just use on property really for the front loader to lift things for me. Thanks for you help and God bless and happy new year. I have to fix this as cheap as possible, we are surviving by selling off everything we own.

 

[Mike476]

Good health is a precious thing, hope things stabilize for you both.

 

[automanIII]

Thank you Mike, God Bless

 

[Masseywrench]

Hello Massey wrench, thanks for the help. My wife age 47 suffered 2 major brain anuresyms this year back march 6th and we have not worked since then. I am he full time care giver and don't know when I will be able to go back to work. I have worked on cars my whole life and understand all the questions. It shows 33000 hrs, owned by school district regular service, they were replacing the water pump and never finished, they decided to sell in the middle of the repair. So I put it back together. It sat out side, the exhaust is straight up and the oil was low and just normal old black thick diesel oil. It did not have a rain cap on it. I don't know if they kept the exhaust covered or not. No idea on injectors and no compression tester for perkins diesel. When first started it has white blue smoke for about 3-5 minutes and then clears up. I will not be running this tractor hard just use on property really for the front loader to lift things for me. Thanks for you help and God bless and happy new year. I have to fix this as cheap as possible, we are surviving by selling off everything we own.

I am sorry to hear about your wife's health. I hope that the new year brings good things to her as well as yourself. I have always said family comes first, friends second, and your toys, whether it be tractors, motorcycles, cars, etc come last. A friend of mine had to sell his motorcycle to take care of his family during hard times and he just could not let go of it. I told him that they have been making motorcycles for over a hundred years and they are not going to stop tomorrow. You can always get another shot at a project to work on, you cant get another shot at family. You get one chance to get this right and you better make the most of it.

With that said, I can give you some things to think about regarding your 261.
Are you sure its 33,000 hours or is it 3300.0 There is a big difference. I think there is only 5 digits on the hour meter with the last digit being in tenths of the hours. Sometimes those gauges had the tenths of the hour in a slightly different color than the hours itself. Such as the hours will be black with white letters and the tenths will be white with black letters. Thats why I think there is 3300 hours on it. Or lets say they rolled it over one time in its life it could have 13,300 hours on it.

The straight up exhaust pipe is going to be one of your main culprits from the blow by issue in that somewhere in the life of that motor you have gotten rain water down the pipe and put water on top of one of the pistons. If not two of them. This will rust and seize the compression rings. Secondly you need to ensure that the valves are set properly. Bad injectors can cause a form of this but more times you will see it out the exhaust unless your exhaust valve guides are worn out, which may be happening as well. The injectors need to spray a mist of diesel into the cylinder. Worn or improperly set injectors will spray a stream in there and makes it hard for a low compression to ignite the burn. When you dont get the full burn that residue has to go somewhere on the exhaust stroke. It either smokes out the exhaust and/or goes out the valve guides into the valve cover and out the blow by tube. And since you have it coming out the dipstick tube I would say that its bypassing your rings from some water damage and leaking back into the crankcase.

A compression test will reveal what is going on and as to which cylinder is causing this.

I would first set the valves properly and see what you get from there. Second thing I would do, when time and money allowed, would be to pull the injectors have them tested, making sure to replace the copper sealing washer on the bottom of the injector nozzle. In the mean time I would look for a antique tractor club in your area and see if there is someone locally that could assist you with a compression test. If not, as a last resort, I have seen old timers pull the injectors and pour some Automatic Transmission Fluid into the cylinder with the piston close to the top, and let it set for 24 hours and soak into the rings to try and free them up. You can then crank the motor over to blow it out of the cylinder (put a rag over the injector hole) but you will not get it all out of there. Keep in mind most of those pistons have a recess area in them (like a small bowl) and at some point you will have to suck the ATF off the top of the piston to get it out of there.

Best of luck with everything.