White Smoke (billowing)

Humanparody · Aug 4, 2018

So I screwed up. How royally I screwed up is what I'm hoping you could tell me. Driving my 2520 today and managed to get my 1/2 acre lawn mowed with no issues. Afterward I went to drag my gravel driveway and hooked up my loader. Now this might not be related but i figured it's worth mentioning. Noticed my color coded caps had fallen off and attempted to connect my hoses by guessing. I got it wrong a few times as the bucket wasn't doing what it was supposed to. After about the 5th try I got it right and began to move some stone. After about 10 minutes of using the bucket I noticed a slight burning smell coming from somewhere but I couldn't pin down what it was. About a minute later, all of the sudden and without warning (aside from the aforementioned burning smell) the exhaust BILLOWED out thick white smoke that smelled of oil. It did it for about 5 seconds before I gained enough sense to kill the motor.

Being as it died right in the middle of my driveway, normal life could not proceed as cars couldn't get in or out so I had to move it which meant firing it back up briefly. At first it seemed like the engine was seized. I got half a crank and that's it. Finally it turned over and started back up with a little more white smoke coming from the exhaust (more than usual) but the hydraulics weren't working. No forward/backward, no bucket. After about 30 seconds of trying the bucket finally lifted, 10 seconds later I could move the tractor enough to get it out of the way. Just before I got it to it's final resting place the white smoke just started turning to gray/black.

And this is where I'm at. I can tell right now that I'm pretty sure I ran the hydraulic fluid too low. I generally check the site glass but today is just hopped on and didn't do my due diligence so I don't know what the level was before I got going. Although it could have dropped when whatever happened happened, I can no longer see any fluid in the site glass.

So my question is, what most likely did I do to my tractor?

Jstpssng · Aug 4, 2018

Did you check the engine oil level? If it's excessively high than you may have blown a seal in your hydraulic pump, allowing hydraulic fluid into your crankcase. That can happen when you hook your hoses up backwards... and don't ask me how I know that. In my case it was when I hooked up my backhoe pump up to my woodsplitter wrong, after which I had to buy a new pump.
Note; my comments above could vary depending on the tractor.

Humanparody · Aug 4, 2018

I wasn't able to get a good read on the dipstick, the whole thing was coated which I just figured was because the oil hadn't settled yet since i checked it within a minute of turning off the engine but I figured it couldn't be overfilled since oil can't appear out of nowhere, right lol? Well I guess it COULD appear out of nowhere if it was hydraulic fluid. So what am I looking at as far as fixing this mess?

beenthere · Aug 4, 2018

Check the engine oil now that has cooled and set for a bit. Let us know what that engine oil is.. can then go forward from there.

:welcome: to TBN

Humanparody · Aug 4, 2018

Went in clean, came out covered **** near to the handle.

beenthere · Aug 4, 2018

Now you need to look for the source of the extra oil in the engine. Doesn't sound good.

I think, from what you described, I'd dis-connect the hyd lines to the FEL, drain the engine oil and fill with correct qty before starting the engine.
Then start the engine to see if the air clears of white smoke.
Gotta get that extra oil out first.
If the smoke stops, then check the hyd. oil level and bring it to full.
Run the tractor again, and see if the 3 ph system works.

If still ok, then hook up the FEL correctly and try that. Hope you are lucky and back to working.
If not, then dealer time or mechanic time I'm afraid.

Humanparody · Aug 4, 2018

Thanks, I'll give those steps a try and keep my fingers crossed.

flyerdan · Aug 4, 2018

White smoke almost always means coolant. High oil level is because most of the coolant is in the sump and oil floats on water.

hosspuller · Aug 4, 2018

After you drain the oil, Put a wrench on the crank and turn the engine over by hand. This is to make sure you have not hydro locked the engine. Broken pistons, bent con rods, and other stuff will result.

Humanparody · Aug 4, 2018

I read that coolant burning would have a sweet smell. This smelled like burning oil.

Wagtail · Aug 4, 2018

Re: the coloured caps falling off (in between waiting for the white-smoke issue to be resolved)...

Put a corresponding number of tie-wraps (zip-ties) on the male & female lines: 0-0, 1-1, 2-2, 3-3 and you won't have to go through the guessing game again.

My FEL 3rd function ports are both female and I've also done this, 0-0 and 1-1 for when I attach the 4in1 bucket. Same thing if you run a grapple.

Jstpssng · Aug 5, 2018

Wagtail said:
Re: the coloured caps falling off (in between waiting for the white-smoke issue to be resolved)...

Put a corresponding number of tie-wraps (zip-ties) on the male & female lines: 0-0, 1-1, 2-2, 3-3 and you won't have to go through the guessing game again.

My FEL 3rd function ports are both female and I've also done this, 0-0 and 1-1 for when I attach the 4in1 bucket. Same thing if you run a grapple.

I'm not sure if it was the proper way to do it, but after spending 400 bucks on a new pump I had alternating ends on my pump, splitter, and backhoe to prevent reversing them again.

RyeThomas · Aug 5, 2018

Take the dipstick and check for a fuel smell. Sounds like an injector issue causing excessive fuel =white smoke = crank case oil overfull of a diesel oil mix. Do not run the machine.

DwayneB · Aug 6, 2018

I think I'd look to the hydraulic pump. I personally don't think you've done any major damage other than blow the seals on the hydraulic pump. If you change the oil and add hydraulic fluid your just going to fill the crankcase again. Fix the pump and see what happens.

larboc · Aug 8, 2018

Screwing up the order of the disconnects won't hurt anything. It's no different than hitting the ends of the cylinders or overloading, the oil just bypasses.

The steering and implement pumps are run off the timing gear train on the front of the engine. Sounds like a seal popped out of one of them, there should be a pump on front and one on back of the housing. It must have been close to failing and it was a coincidence.

The crankcase probably got too full of oil and started pumping it out the breather tube into the intake. I sure wouldn't have fired it up a second time, neutral is there for a reason, just drag it and the bucket out of the way. After you shut the engine down the first time the oil probably had time to fill the intake manifold with oil, then a cylinder so when you started it back up it probably partially hydrolocked a cylinder.
I would pull off the pumps, noting which one lost the seal, cover the ports with duct tape, change the engine oil, fire it up and hope you don't have a bent rod or broken piston. You might have got lucky and just need a pump. If a rod is bent you'll notice a weak cylinder and eventually a loss of oil pressure, and possibly some banging in the basement.

Humanparody · Sep 27, 2018

UPDATE:

so it turns out that a seal blew on the hydraulic pump and dumped a ton of hydraulic fluid into the crankcase. It's currently at the shop while they wait for the new pump to come in. I know someone had said that mixing up the hoses shouldn't have done any damage but I can't help but think that the timing (5 minutes before) is more than just a coincidence, especially considering that I put that loader through it's paces **** near every time I use it and it's never so much as hiccuped. I appreciate the input from everyone. Hopefully after they get the pump replaced and flush out the contaminated oil they won't find that I had caused any more damage to the pistons by running tainted oil for a little while. Best I could tell, it was still "running" when I shut it down.

Dwellonroof · Sep 28, 2018

This gets me thinking, I will do the zip tie idea.
I didn’t know such a mixup could do that.

larboc · Oct 2, 2018

Dwellonroof said:
This gets me thinking, I will do the zip tie idea.
I didn’t know such a mixup could do that.

It can't, just a coincidence as long as the pressure relief valve is working. An unfortunate coincidence, but still just a coincidence.

I'd be more worried about hydrolocking the engine from the 2nd start up.
Hydro oil isn't enough different from engine oil that you would have caused any problems due to that. I'd guess you can rack up several hours running UTF in a crankcase without any issues. It's close to 30w.

You got lucky that the engine didn't run away.