My tractor is smoking quite a bit and smells like fuel alot, the smoke looks bluish. Wondering what it could be.
Did you get an answer to your question? Blue smoke is usually oil burning, and it can come from a variety of places. The most common reason to burn oil is that some oil snuck past too much clearance in the piston rings or valve guides and got into the combstion chamber where it gets burned as fuel. That happens to older engines which develop larger clearances as a result of wear, but exactly the same thing happens to any cold engine. because when engines are cold the clearances are naturally larger. A it reaches operating temperature the parts expand and the clearances become small enough to exclude oil from sneaking into the compbustion chamber.
So it is not unusual for a cold engine to burn oil. Burning a little oil when cold won't hurt anything, and should stop when it gets up to temperature. Obviously it is best to get it up to regular operating temperature before revving it high or loading the engine.
Another source of oil burning can be the also be fuel itself or some additives.
For example, common diesel fuel grades are bunker, diesel #2, and diesel #1. These are gradual changes in grade rather than distinctly different products, and suppliers mix grades in different proportions depending on time of year and cost.
Bunker is heavy diesel somewhat like home heating oil. It burns heavy and smoky. All diesels, even the best ones contain some small proportion of the heavier fuel oils - that's what the different grades are all about. For common diesel engine fuel at the pump, #2 smokes less - sometimes not at all. And #1 is the lighter, cleaner burning automotive diesel you want. They are not distinctly different, and some suppliers use will include additives in their mixture as well. Additives also vary. Some are very much like an oil and some are less so and contain lighter hydrocarbons.
So if your tractor has suddenly decided to throw out some blue smoke, the first thing I'd do is to make sure it is fully warmed up before running high rpm or working it - that goes for any engine. It can take ten minutes or longer on a cold day. Check the temp gauge. Sometimes in the cold it is necessary to block off part of the air flow through the radiator.
And if the warmed engine still smokes then I'd try some new winter fuel from somewhere that sells a lot of passenger car/PU truck diesel.... might even drain out most of the old fuel and replace it. Don't go crazy if you do that, just replace most so as to dilute the old fuel.
My advice is to do those things for a month and see how it goes.
Good Luck,
rScotty
