Smoking #1 cylinder on My Ford 3000 Diesel

[mtodd101]

I know you said new bore and sleeves would be upward of $1000. Did that include the pistons and rings?

A more important question, how much would it cost you to just rebore to .040 and no sleeves? I would think the sleeving adds considerable expense. If the boring would only be a couple hundred$ and then you could go with an .040 kit I think you would have much better results and could last a long time. You still might want to check the bearings with plastigage just to see whats going on. Did you have good oil pressure before and after your rebuild attempt? I'm not a mechanic, only worked on a few engines like yourself so hopefully the experts here can give better comment and suggestion.

Hi Harold. The shop didn't break down the cost for me. It's was a quick telephone conversation with just a general idea what i was looking for. They said plus minus without seeing the block. It did not include piston and rings though. A .040 over would require new pistons and rings etc. The problem with the .040 over is that top end of cylinder 2 and 3 are already between 4.2400 and 4.2450 so boring .040 wouldn't get me perfect cylinders. If I went in for a bore, I would go for sleeves to bring me back to standard bore of 4.2 and could reuse the new pistons I already have.

I wasn't sure what Plastigage was but will google it and see if that is something I can do myself. As far as oil pressure all I have is a oil light that comes on. I always made sure there was proper amount of oil and would check it often. Never ran it out of oil. Thanks for postings. Matt

 

[sd455dan]

A bit of bad news here. My wife got the news that there will be more layoffs at work and her group may be hit so this kinda forces my hand here. The problem is we won't know until September. So my choice of action has been slashed so to speak. I saw a new complete engine for $4300. That would be rather irresponsible of me. A new block was somewhere in the range of $2300. Again not in the cards. New bore and sleeves( already at .040 over in spots) was upwards of $1000. A new in frame rebuild kit is $282 for a .030 over kit. Or I could go old school and wait until Sept. and use a weed eater and shovel until then. I don't have the back for that anymore, so I'm thinking I'm going to chance another rebuild kit.

My plan is to call the seller (YT Ford 3000 Basic In-Frame Engine Rebuild Kit, 175 Diesel, .030 Pistons (BIFF1753D)) and get specs on the piston size to figure out the gaps. If they are within the manual specs I'll order the kit and check the rings in the cylinder. They have a good return policy so I'd lose the shipping If I return the kit. Not sure of a restocking fee.

So here's what I see. My cylinder is 4.233 and my standard piston is 4.1927 or 4.1952. Not sure which is the correct one. The number are 4th column from the left

View attachment 319360View attachment 319361

So if I take the smaller of the two plus .030 over gives me 4.2227. Take that from 4.233 and I get a skirt to cylinder clearance of .0103

If I take the larger of the two plus .030 over gives me 4.2252. Take that from 4.233 and I get a Skirt to cylinder clearance of .0078

The tractor ran well, other than the smoke and oil, with a skirt to cylinder clearance of roughly .0403 to .0378 using the numbers in the manual, so I'm hoping for some improvement

These are my guesses so I won't know exact numbers until I have the kit or the seller can give them to me.

Not the ideal situation by any means but it may reduce the oil consumption and improve compression some. Then I can make a more permanent decision this fall when we have a better financial picture and if the tractor doesn't run properly or a lot of noise is coming from the engine well then it sits until things change.

Anyway, I was wondering what you guys think of the rebuild kit and the numbers that I've given. I can't tell you the appreciation I have for all the comments that have help me with my repairs. I'll post the numbers and how things turn out when I get there. Thanks again. Matt

And Happy Memorial Day to all those who are serving and have served our country. My family is very grateful. Matt

Hadn't heard anything
just wondering if you ordered up a .030 over- piston & ring kit and went ahead and reassembled it and didn't tell us??? or like some of us it's been an expensive summer- and the tractor got put on the back burner

 

[mtodd101]

Hadn't heard anything
just wondering if you ordered up a .030 over- piston & ring kit and went ahead and reassembled it and didn't tell us??? or like some of us it's been an expensive summer- and the tractor got put on the back burner

Hi Dan. You're correct. Life got in the way of my tractor problems for the most part. New back sun deck. Vacation in your beautiful state and other things that took priority. I did order the .30 over kit and just finished putting it all back together on Thursday. My only mishap was sheering off an oil pan bolt but three is no oil leak as of today. The engine wanted to start even before I has all the fuel lines bleed. Once I closed the second line it fire and I bleed the third line while it was running. It smoked a bit but no oil coming out the exhaust this time. Put my brush hog on and mowed for an hour or so running about 1800 rpm and virtually no smoke. It does smoke if I change rmp's up or down, but then back to no smoke. Checked the oil level after that first hour and almost no oil use. I'm quite pleased with the out come. And no ether to start it. It fires on the 1st or 2nd cycle. I haven't check the compression as I broke my gauge, long story, but it cranks so nice that I'm comfortable with it until I get another gauge. Anyway I've been mowing like crazy and enjoying it. Also like not being covered with smoke from the exhaust AND the breather. No more burning eyes. My next issue will be a fuel leak behind or around the injector pump, but for now I'm just going to catch up on things around here.

Thanks for everyones help. It is much appreciated. I'd still be staring at it scratching my head. And of course I have a standard size piston/ring set for sale. Haha. Matt

 

[sd455dan]

happy you were able to get by with a .030 over set of pistons and rings...

hopefully you can put your standard size pistons and rings on ebay or craigs list and sell them.

Its a great feeling to have the tractor up and running and not smoking like crazy or using oil-and saved some money in the process...good job:thumbsup: