TX1300F engine questions

fxrs55 · Jan 18, 2015

I did not replace the rod bearings. They looked fine.
I was given my TX and it had sat unused 10 to 15 years.
My friends neighbor bought it at an estate sale.
Apparently the neighbor could only get it to run
on one cylinder and after awhile gave up. But
they left the valve cover loose and some water
got into the engine. I had no clue what all
could have been wrong with mine so I kept
my cost down.

dantnz · Jan 18, 2015

So some interesting findings.

Looks like I was possibly wrong about the cylinder walls coking up, barring the engine over it seems that might have just been where the last lot of half burnt diesel settled after the last failed start - under the pistons last position was fine and the rings and scrapers seem to be doing there job too when barring over. So maybe the rings are ok after all.

On the negative side, I can't get the &%$$ing sump off! If you look at the picture below you can see that access to the front bolts is blocked by the pivot bracket.

Anyone encountered this problem before? Any trick to this I haven't spotted?

I haven't really got the time to drop the whole front frame off just to get the sump off, so it looks like I'll be skipping the piston rings and just hoping its just the exhaust valves causing my start issues.

fxrs55 · Jan 18, 2015

I have the same tractor as you and I was able to remove
the 2 next to the pivot with an open end wrench.
The others I had a swivel joint on my socket.

dantnz · Jan 18, 2015

It looks a lot more room in the photo than in reality. Although it doesn't look like it in the photo, the cross member overlaps the bolt heads, making it impossible to get either an open spanner or socket on. I'm just off to have another go though. I don't know why it's different to yours, maybe the front game of mine had been shifted a bit too fit the loader, can't see why though!

dantnz · Jan 18, 2015

No, no luck, I'm either going to have to give up or devise some kind of tool get in there. It'll probably take the same amount of time to just drop the front frame and loader off.

I had been meaning to a full disassemble, clean, paint and rebuild, but I just don't have the time to do it right now.

fxrs55 · Jan 18, 2015

Hey Dan, I just went out to the garage to look at mine
and I must say mine is different than yours.
Here is a picture of mine. Mine has much more
clearance than yours.

fxrs55 · Jan 18, 2015

Do you have a picture of the front of your tractor?

dantnz · Jan 18, 2015

Don't have a picture to hand. Will take some tomorrow for comparison.

Will also have a look at the TX1500 2WD I have, might not have the cross member but will still be interesting.

Bit of detective work here to see what has been modified from stock. As you can see from the photo by TX1300 is in pretty bad shape cosmetically, but because of the loader its a real workhorse. It really needs some TLC but it's got too much work to do before that.

dantnz · Jan 18, 2015

fxrs55 said:
Hey Dan, I just went out to the garage to look at mine
and I must say mine is different than yours.
Here is a picture of mine. Mine has much more
clearance than yours.

Something else different on mine is the tie rod - mine looks to have been bent to fit into position. Clearly some mod has been done to the front end at some point - although you can't rule out variations in the model. My hunch is that something has been altered to accommodate the loader, will investigate tomorrow.

fxrs55 · Jan 18, 2015

Does yours have the KE70 engine. I was just looking at your
picture an your oil pan is right up to the cross member.
Also I noticed that tie rod but one thing at a time.

dantnz · Jan 18, 2015

Well, curiosity got the better of me and I just went down in the dark to check it out under torchlight. It's the KE70 engine, at least that's what stamped on the block. I checked out my TX1500 and that has the same clearances as your tractor.

There isn't an obvious difference in geometry, but I'll get a tape measure on it tomorrow and try and see what has been altered.

dantnz · Feb 3, 2015

Head gasket finally arrived and the engine is back together.

Good news is that it now starts and runs. I haven't got a compression tester but it certainly sounds a lot better turning over, but still not as good as my TX1500, so there is more to do on the compression front - I won't really be happy until I can get a look at the rings. Also, it stills blows more smoke than I would like, not sure this is the classic rings or valve seal passing as it this engine has never seemed to get through any oil. Maybe the injectors need a look at? If they aren't spraying good then could be getting an incomplete burn.

I'm not really happy with the new head gasket I have either, just not great quality, and thinner (bolted down) than the one that came out. Will look for an OEM one when I next take the engine to bits - when I do the rings eventually.

For now, it is running I need to put it to work, so the finer points will just have to wait!

Ilikeurtractor · Feb 3, 2015

Congratulations - glad to hear it's back up and running

dantnz said:
...Also, it stills blows more smoke than I would like...

What color is the smoke? My KE70 smokes a little more black than it should and not just on acceleration after I put another set of injectors in it so apparently that is the cause. I'll need to go back to the first set which have new tips. For some reason these tractors like to smoke white and I can't pin down the cause. It might actually be very light blue which would indicate oil but I can't tell for sure. I don't think it's because of coolant leaks into the cylinder though as all my tractors of this period do this and none of them appear to be losing coolant - haven't really noticed much oil loss either but haven't been paying real close attention. They do this mostly during acceleration and the smoke can be combinations of white (lt. blue?), gray, and black. It doesn't bother me enough to try to correct it at this point but it would be interesting to see how a new one smoked under the same conditions. These engines were made during the era of questionable Japanese quality (at least for some things) so it may be inherent in the design. Smoke can be a funny thing too since it depends greatly on the background it is looked at. Some of my tractors look terrible from one direction and when you walk around to the other side the smoke is clear depending on where the sun is, etc.

dantnz · Feb 4, 2015

The smoke issue is really difficult to describe!

My benchmark is my my TX1500 which, prior to me getting it and putting it to work, either had a very easy life or a very competent rebuild. It runs beautifully and starts on the button, it can't be too far away from how one of these would have run new. But it still generates some smoke, much as you describe - of the whitey/grey variety - on acceleration or when the governor picks up under load. NO smoke at all at constant RPM.

However the TX1300F I've just got running generates more and thicker smoke under acceleration, at constant RPM it has a hint of smoke in the exhaust.

But, I'm just going to have to leave it as it is for now. Later on in the year I'll strip the whole tractor down and probably have a look at the injectors at the same time.

Ilikeurtractor · Feb 4, 2015

FWIW I have a KE70,75,K3A, and B and the KEs actually smoke the least amount of "light" smoke but they still do at times. The K3s will show at least some light smoke nearly all the time. On acceleration they generate much more white/gray/black smoke but are a lot quicker to accelerate it seems. Their pump configuration seems more intricate as well which might have something to do with it and I'm sure having 3 even firing cylinders vs. 2 odd helps acceleration too. Compared to some gasoline engines of the 80s I've seen I'm not complaining though.

dantnz · Feb 4, 2015

Did a lot of running in the tractor today, smoke issue not as bad today. Still a pain on start up, I'm still guessing an injector issue, but investigation will have to wait.