B6100 no power

swierczt · Sep 29, 2013

I recently replaced the head gasket on my B6100 HSTD. I checked for flatness and all looked good. I got it started, but now it has no power...it will go fine on a flat or down hill, but even the slightest uphill and it bogs down. It starts fine, idles fine at low or full throttle. Short of a compression test, is there anything else I should look at?

GPintheMitten · Sep 30, 2013

How was the power before you replaced the head gasket?

swierczt · Sep 30, 2013

Good...plenty of power if I used the tractor within the limits. I had no problems using a brush hog, bottom plow or disk harrow. I could brush cut up and down hills all day long without a problem...now I can hardly get her to move her own weight....but I do have one more piece to add to this....I started it up tonight after checking fuel fittings and such. It was dark, so I had a headlamp on. With the light I was able to see some steam or smoke coming from the back of the block against the firewall....I would not have seen this during the daytime and without the headlamp. I was thinking of checking the torque on all the head bolts again and if that's ok, guess I'll have to tear the head down again and check again for flatness or if there is a piece of junk between the gasked and the head or the block or if the o-ring is out of place....questions now is if I tear it down, should I use the same head gasket or buy an new one?

GPintheMitten · Oct 1, 2013

Im not a mechanic. All I can do is speculate. Given that it had good power before, I would say that something went wrong with the install. I would remove and reindtsll with a new head gasket.

Hope fully someone with more experience will post up soon.

tjkubota93 · Oct 1, 2013

Did you mess with the injector pump at all?

It is not likely you are leaking enough compression to cause a lack of power. If so it would shoot antifreeze out of radiator cap or sound like an exhaust leak.

swierczt · Oct 2, 2013

I didn't fool with the injector pump at all, just removed the metal lines going from the pump to the injectors was all. I started the tractor up again last night and shot the exhaust manifold at the head with an infrared temp gauge. I found that the middle cylinder was much cooler than the other two. I then cracked open the line at the injector for the middle cylinder...sprayed fuel all over the engine, but no change in idle. I then cracked open the front most line at the injector and the engine sputtered and died. I think I may have found my problem. I'm going to pull the middle injector and have it checked. As for the steam or smoke, I think it may have been burning penetrating oil or fuel on the back of the head or block because I did not see any steam or smoke coming from the back of the engine last night.

tjkubota93 · Oct 2, 2013

You're probably on the right track looking at fuel related things.

Soundguy · Oct 2, 2013

did you retorque the head after warming?

have you checked oil for water.. and water for oil?

have you checked for fuel restrictions?

a restricted fuel line will cause low rpms/power on a diesel.

swierczt · Oct 22, 2013

I retorqued the head, no luck. I re-tightened and cleaned all three fuel lines, still no luck. One thing I noticed was when I was cranking it, it sounded like there was not as much compression. The starter seemed to spin easier than before. I then checked the adjustment screw on the decompressor and it seemed a little long on the one cylinder that I could confirm was not firing. I backed it off a bit and tried again...I think that was it! I was able to confirm that all three cylinders were firing. I tried up and down a couple of hills and she seems to be running fine. Not sure why the decomp would be out of adjustment...but that seemed to be the issue.

ibnxe · Oct 25, 2013

swierczt said:
I retorqued the head, no luck. I re-tightened and cleaned all three fuel lines, still no luck. One thing I noticed was when I was cranking it, it sounded like there was not as much compression. The starter seemed to spin easier than before. I then checked the adjustment screw on the decompressor and it seemed a little long on the one cylinder that I could confirm was not firing. I backed it off a bit and tried again...I think that was it! I was able to confirm that all three cylinders were firing. I tried up and down a couple of hills and she seems to be running fine. Not sure why the decomp would be out of adjustment...but that seemed to be the issue.

How is the valve adjustment? Replacing the head gasket would require checking the clearances afterwards. You may have a valve that is too tight.