Diesel Discussion? Okay, I Have Some Diesel Discussion!

My small tractor has been trapped under a downed shed for a few years. I got the shed down and out of the way a few months ago and got my Ford 3000 diesel tractor pulled and pushed into my shop Saturday morning.

I checked oil, coolant and drained the water separator and turned the engine by hand to ensure that it was free. I put in a battery and then turned it about three turns with the starter and it lit off like it had been running the day before.

Diesels are amazing!

Have a great day,

[Ohtooman]

Every time my wife talks about getting a new car, I say"Great, lets go down to XYZ place, I saw a Mercedes diesel down there"
She always says that there are other cars besides diesels, but I just don't think so.

[vwbuge]

That diesel story may be a little different if you lived in PA.

[leathermang]

Twice in the last two days my Ford 5600 Diesel flashed its generator light at me. Once for a few seconds until I turned off the key and turned it back on... it is only the charging circuit.. did not turn off the engine... then this morning it just flashed at me...any ideas what would cause that ? It was very bright when it came on yesterday.... it has not done this in the past....has spent hours since with no flashing ......

[The Warden]

Originally posted by LarryBible
I checked oil, coolant and drained the water separator and turned the engine by hand to ensure that it was free. I put in a battery and then turned it about three turns with the starter and it lit off like it had been running the day before.

Diesels are amazing!

Yes they are!! With one exception, I have every intention of keeping my fleet entirely spark-free.

leathermang,

That one has an alternator doesn't it? If it does, I would be suspect of the brushes being on the edge of worn out. But, from the description of your problem it sounded like a generator with a flaky connection that caused itself to repolarize after shutting off and cranking back up.

vwbuge,

I can't imagine the story being different in Pennsylvania in June, now maybe if it were January..... The coldest I've ever started this tractor has been 9 degree Fahrenheit weather, with no problem. It does, however, take starting fluid at anything below about 35 or 40.

Have a great day,

[vwbuge]

i am just curious how it would have survived our "freeze-thaw" cycle. Last few years it is frequent to get down to -10 F and in the summer (like today) 80 F

[cracker928]

First Post!

Ohtooman,

I'm not sure which is worse. My wife refuses to surrender the '87 for a while just so I can do some repairs on it, and now she wants the soon-to-be-released $67,000 Mercedes Diesel. At least it got her off that passat TDi kick....




-Neil

[R Leo]

...or how about Dad's marinized 4-53 that was leaking coolant out from underneath the liners and into the crankcase so bad that at one point it was increasing the liquid volume of the lube oil at the rate of a quart per hour of operation. We carried a five gallon jug of fresh water to replenish the coolant while trying to get home from that trip.

The lube oil looked like a mocha latte from Starbucks but the damned engine never missed a beat and after fixing the coolant leak, had exactly the same oil pressure as before and (apparently) no rod knocking either.

For some reason, it also had a switch that must have killed the field current on the alternator. You could switch it off and it would quit charging the battery...for pure diesel ops I guess. Knowing who and what I know now, I'd call that a "Moody Mode" switch.

Very glad to finally have that 4-53 (and the miserable boat that it was bolted into) out of my life...

I thought the old style Detroits were kind of neat in any size. The design is quite old, but being two cycle makes for good horsepower/torque for its weight.

What was the coolant leak, a liner o-ring?

I always thought a 4 53 would be a neat engine to put in a heavy old 4 wheel drive pickup.

Have a great day,

[The Warden]

Love them Screamin' Jimmys. I work on two boats (volunteer work); one's an 82' Coast Guard cutter with two Cummins 1710 main engines and two 2-71 gensets, and the other's a 40' former admiral's gig with a 6-71 main engine. They're loud, they're noisy, but they're the simplest engines out there, and in my experience quite reliable. THe 40' flooded up to the top of the engine's valve cover once...we pumped the water out of the boat, drained the oil, put fresh oil in, and fired her right up. She ran great in spite of being immersed in the water for at least 6 hours (more like 12, probably) and still having a little bit of water in the crankcase. Ran the engine a few times, pumped that oil out, and it was almost clean and free of water. We'll need to drain the tranny again, but the engine's good to go as soon as we put oil and a filter in there.

[Wasuchi]

I'm not really surprised that tractor started....... maybe a little surprised that it wasn't inhaling mice, acorns and whatnot, or blowing the same stuff out the exhaust.

[Nate Stanley]

Sounds like my beloved 6.9 F250. It sat 6 months thru the winter, and lit off in 1/2 second after glowing for 5 seconds (yes, I replaced the stock controller with a pushbutton years ago).

Love that truck--

[The Warden]

Originally posted by Nate Stanley
(yes, I replaced the stock controller with a pushbutton years ago).

Smart move. I haven't done it yet 'cause the controller's still working...when it dies, I'll put the pushbutton in (I already have the parts).

I was actually down in Watsonville yesterday, searching for boat parts (the 82's currently out of the water in Moss Landing)...

[Nate Stanley]

You might want to do it as a pre-emptive measure. Mine choose to go out when I was towing my 5er thru the Siskyious just as the snow was starting to fall. It fried all 8 glow plugs at once and I could hear the pistons smashing them to bits.

You never know when it will happen and the last thing you want to do is pull the heads if you don't have to.

Nate