Oil & Fuel TC40DA: Oil change nightmare.

[shade tree welder]

Quick update. Got the correct head gasket on order the service manual
and the dealer mechanic do not recommend any sealants. The newer
laminated gasket do not need them. I will agree the surfaces of the block
and head are very smooth and typically the sealants only fill in the
machining (milling) marks of which there are none.

Tonight I got the SensiTrac clutch reinstalled and the related drive shafts.

On vacation tomorrow so I should be able to get the beast running, knock
wood!

 

[shade tree welder]

The proper head gasket arrived this morning it is ~3 times thicker than
the first one ordered. Ooopppssie, glad I didn't mess that one up...

Forgot to take picture prior to installing the head. To the picture ******
my apologies. Again no gasket sealant(s) used. But I did use anti-seize
on the head bolts, I use anti-seize on just about every fastener there is.
I spent too much of my time in the Navy dealing with salt water corrosion.
The only thing so far I did not anti-seize were the conn rod bolts, but
they were lubricated with engine oil prior to assy. As was the whole of
the piston prior to installation.

Also spun the crank and everything moved smoothly with no bangs, knock
or whines. Always a good thing I could not spin the crank by hand before
removing the bad rod. Also the engine pulley nut is 36mm.

I have included the service manuals two pages that cover head gasket
selection for the TC35, TC40 and TC45 models, and the head install
procedure.

 

[CowwFace]

Hey Shade_Tree,

Thank you for posting this thread! I'm going to be VERY careful adding oil to any of my motor's from now on.

Let us know when she's breathing again!

 

[jonyyuma]

Great details, some new head gaskets are self-sealing.It was 3 times thicker? I always use assembly lube on the bearings so I can spin it over by hand. This prevents problems later.No antiseaze on the rods, but sometimes I peen the end of the bolt, it depends on the manual. Hope it fires up on first try...Anything special about speed when it first starts up? Jy.

 

[shade tree welder]

I'm going to be VERY careful adding oil to any of my motor's from now on.

The main reason for this thread.

Great details, some new head gaskets are self-sealing.It was 3 times thicker?

three times thicker than the wrong head gasket. About the same as the original, SWMBO was nice and took my shop garbage out earlier this week and I did not have the old gasket as reference. Read Ref 11 I had a head gasket for the TC45 engine, same outline but much thinner.

I always use assembly lube on the bearings so I can spin it over by hand. This prevents problems later.No antiseaze on the rods, but sometimes I peen the end of the bolt, it depends on the manual. Hope it fires up on first try...Anything special about speed when it first starts up? Jy.

Engine internals, bearing, rods pistons etc. all get engine oil as assy lube.
Bolts that do not see lube in engine operations, get loctite or most likely anti-seize. Such as head bolts valve cover bolts, battery clamp bolts. I even put a light coat on injector thread and glow plugs, like I said a light coat, spark plugs on gas engine get them too. Mystik JT-6 spray grease or marine grease on hose clamp threads. All chassis bolts get anti seize, exhaust manifold bolts and nuts, and plenty there.

I have the valves adjusted (0.008") valve cover on, injectors in, glowplugs in, fuel lines hooked up, exhaust manifold on, thermostat housing on.

Checked compression, 8 compression strokes took every cylinder to 440-460 psi. Every sounds nice and quiet like it should.

Need to get to water pump, fan, power steering resevoir, muffler, and radiator and support brackets.

Possible tonight, definitely tomorrow to firer it up. Not planning on anything special for speed on start up, just a nudge on the throttle to get 800-1000 rpms til she warms up.


SWMBO = She who must be obeyed...

 

[nickel plate]

shade tree welder, I have a 2002 TC40S and there is no mention/caution of this in my operator's manual. I do see in your Ref 02 Service Bulletin with the date of "0606" so I beleive this emission control change/fiasco took place much later than my tractor's birth date. There are however references to the TC40-A so all of you "A" series owners-take heed of what stw had to go through. Thank you for the cautionary post and I hope this turns well for you and your tractor.

 

[mrmikey]

But I did use anti-seize on the head bolts,

Was that a wise thing to do? I understand why you did it I use Never seize on most everything too but what do the torque specs say, dry or lubed.
Not pickin', just inquiring ....Mike

 

[shade tree welder]

shade tree welder, I have a 2002 TC40S and there is no mention/caution of this in my operator's manual. I do see in your Ref 02 Service Bulletin with the date of "0606" so I beleive this emission control change/fiasco took place much later than my tractor's birth date. There are however references to the TC40-A so all of you "A" series owners-take heed of what stw had to go through. Thank you for the cautionary post and I hope this turns well for you and your tractor.

Nickel, does your tractor have an external valve cover breather?

Was that a wise thing to do? I understand why you did it I use Never seize on most everything too but what do the torque specs say, dry or lubed.
Not pickin', just inquiring ....Mike

Does not state dry or lubed, but I have had to dick around with too many
broken bolts in my life not to anti-sieze everything I can and that makes
sense to. Also I know that debate always going on about torque value of lubed
and dry bolts, etc. etc. Torque vs. actual bolt stretch is only a good guess
and can be effected by soooooooo mmmmaaaaannnnnyyyyy other variables
such as type of finish on the bolts (black oxide, chromate, zinc, cadmium,
etc.) surface finish of the bolt, surface finish of the mating part, material of
the mating surface (aluminum, cast iron, steel) corrosion condition of the
mating parts, machined thread fit, you can go on and on. I lube them, I torque
them, on the high end if given a range, and I move on. I have never sheared
a bolt or had an equipment related failure.

General Update:
Good progress tonight, got everything on but the hood bracket, air cleaner
and refill fluids. Everything went smoothly. 'cept the fat old man got tired
and hungry, SWMBO took me and the kids out to dinnner. Filet and shrimp,
yummy....

I am going to just fill the cooling system with water, and a little coolant
conditioner, for tomorrow and I have a **** load of chores to get done then
drain the system and refill with EG coolant.

Basically the same with then engine oil, fill it run it for the day. Drain, filter
change and refill with fresh oil for the winter. I also have the hydralic system
filters to change.

 

[nickel plate]

Nickel, does your tractor have an external valve cover breather?
Yes it does. It's on top of the valve cover between the two cylinders closest to the steering wheel. Connected to it is a rubber like hose that leads straight down to about even with the bottom of the crank case oil pan. Please tell me what this means in relation to your set-up.

 

[shade tree welder]

Yes it does. It's on top of the valve cover between the two cylinders closest to the steering wheel. Connected to it is a rubber like hose that leads straight down to about even with the bottom of the crank case oil pan. Please tell me what this means in relation to your set-up.

Nothing really I guess, morbid curiosity.

I was reassembling the air cleaner today and noticed a plug in the housing likely
intended for a breather hose connection. I'll post a picture later of it.

 

[shade tree welder]

Well, well, well...

I got everything together today and filled the respective fluids, engine oil
(SLOWLY, and yes it was driving me nuts), water in the radiator and top off
the power steering fluid. It was just easier to remove the PS tank that to
fight with it. If you had the patience, I do not, you likely could have just laid
off to the side and worked around it. Same with the radiator.

Well SWMBO and the kids were watching while I started it. She cranked for
8-10 seconds whlile the fuel system primed itself then she just purred to life.

I felt relief, my wife actually thinks it is running smoother now than
before. :thumbsup:

After running and warming up a little blue smoke came out of the exhaust for
a minute or two then stopped; just the excess oil burning off from the
disaster.

Finished up a few other tweaks, rerouted the SensiTrac control cable so it
does not run in front of one of the drain plugs. The dealer installed the
engine block heater when we purchased the tractor, they had the cord
wrapped 10 times or so around the lower radiator hose and barely had the
plug hanging below the engine guard. I am rerouting that back to the floor of
the platform for easy access.

I have several round bales to move today along with some other work, should
get everything good and warmed up then I will drain the engine oil, and water
from the engine while still hot, get any and all dirt I can out of it. Change
the oil filter, refill oil, refill coolant with EG coolant and the remaining coolant
conditioner, change the hydraulic and HST filters and top off the Hydraulic
fluid.

 

[Willl]

Glad to hear everything's back up and running. :thumbsup:

I did this exact thing to a Thermoking box truck refer unit sans the mechanical damage.

Plugged the plugs and preceded to blow oil all over the side of his building.

Got lucky and will never forget that lesson.

 

[Ford850]

That's a lot of pressure you put on yourself, trying to start it the first time while SWMBO watching! But when it started it had to bring a smile to your face. Congrats on the rebuild, and thanks for a very well documented thread.

 

[shade tree welder]

That's a lot of pressure you put on yourself, trying to start it the first time while SWMBO watching!

Yeah well it was not planned not to mention the boys standing there
seeing how Dad did... I am glad I pulled it off.

Well I got chores done and the oil and water drained out. Refilled with
new engine oil and coolant (yes I waited until it was cool to refill with
new coolant) I use a new (to me product for the engine oil) Rotella T5
"Syn blend" in 10W-30. Like I said before finding a API Service CI or CJ
in my neck of the woods has been a PITA, Autozone carries this.

 

[irvingj]

To you, a well-desrved pat on the back! Thanks again for sharing your escapade. Glad all seems to have turned out well.

Now, go back and shake the hand of your dealer for going to bat for you!:thumbsup:

 

[shade tree welder]

Nothing really I guess, morbid curiosity.

I was reassembling the air cleaner today and noticed a plug in the housing likely
intended for a breather hose connection. I'll post a picture later of it.

Here is the picture. The plug I was speaking of is the white fitting in the
elbow at the bottom of the photo. If you wanted to you could modifiy the
intake manifold valve cover casting to vent to this and not to the intake
manifold side. It would be cheaper than a new timing gear cover which is
$372. But I want to stay with stock parts.

 

[chopped]

So basically this is a new EPA thing?

 

[shade tree welder]

One last thought I would like to share on this topic. Attached is the picture
of the fuel shut off solenoid, the red arrow points to the electrical connection
for the solenoid. I will get to that later.

I believe that my bent rod was caused by not only some of the oil being filled
draining into the intake manifold and the intake valve being open. In
addition, I believe that the piston was near the top of the intake stroke
allowing nearly a full charge of air less the oil that filled into the cylinder. So
that when the valve closed and compressed the air into the pre-combustion
chamber along with some oil, that when the injector fired there was sufficient
compression to fire and with the additional oil and higher than normal
compression this resulted in unexpectedly high pressure. And since the
injectors fire at 20ｰ BTDC the piston tried to complete cycle and then bent
the rod.

So what can be done to prevent this especially if you believe you might have
overfilled the valve cover and got oil into the intake manifold?

I do not think that the starter alone would have enough power to bend a rod
even if the cylinder was full of oil, it would just stop the rotation of the crank.

I would suggest prior to starting your engine pull the wire off the fuel shut off
solenoid. The red arrow point to the connector grab the connector and pull
straight back toward the rear of the tractor. Disconnecting this wire will
prevent any fuel being injected into the cylinders and if you do have oil in the
cylinders you will just hydraulic lock the engine, likely with no damage to the
engine. Now you only have to get the oil out of the cylinders. If the engine
cranks over normally then reattach the fuel shut off solenoid and fire the
engine.

If you do have oil in the cylinders then remove the glow plugs and crank the
engine, if needed use nonflammable brake parts cleaner to thin the oil and aid
in cleaning out the effected cylinders. Replace the glow plugs, replace the
solenoid wire and restart the engine.

 

[shade tree welder]

So basically this is a new EPA thing?

Not all that new just a poor design to meet the regulation
most intake manifolds are not integral with the valve cover so
having the internal breather is somewhat uniuqe, typically they
are tied back into the air cleaner housing. My 1995 Kohler
powered lawn mower (Craftsman lawn "tractor") has one.

 

[Willl]

I do not think that the starter alone would have enough power to bend a rod
even if the cylinder was full of oil, it would just stop the rotation of the crank.

No, starter motors have plenty of torque to bend things, especially if it got a 'run at it'.