Blown & Repaired Head Gasket: Red Flag for Buyer?

[Suburban Plowboy]

Would you buy an 800-hour tractor that had a head gasket blow and was then repaired by a dealer?

 

[Hay Dude]

Would you buy an 800-hour tractor that had a head gasket blow and was then repaired by a dealer?

Yeah, IF it was priced correctly and the dealer gave adequate warranty assurance.
Head gaskets can blow for reasons other than abuse.

 

[RayIN]

If the price is to my liking i'd buy the vehicle.

 

[Suburban Plowboy]

I am looking at the tractor today. It's a TYM with a Kukje engine. The seller says the tractor's head was replaced under warranty "along with a list of other things." Sounds like the head was defective.

 

[Suburban Plowboy]

Plot twist: forgot to tell this guy I had corona. He is not interested in catching it. Now I have to wait a couple of days. He says the dealer put a new head on the tractor and a bunch of other junk on warranty. Says TYM fought them. His theory is that the dealer expected to take the tractor back, so they fixed it up for themselves.

 

[Tinhack]

I was offered a Corona but I won't drink it. It's made by the same farts as Buttweiser.

 

[Suburban Plowboy]

I'll tell you what. I'd drink a case of Corona before I'd touch one Budweiser. Especially Bud Light in the Loafers.

 

[EddieWalker]

I would want to see the paperwork from the dealer. People selling stuff have a habit of telling you what they want you to know, but not always everything you need to know.

The tractor has very low hours to need a new head gasket. I'm struggling to understand how that happened if it wasn't abused.

 

[Suburban Plowboy]

Here is what Grok thinks:

The most likely reason a low-hour diesel tractor's head gasket blew, assuming proper maintenance and operation, is overheating or thermal stress. Diesel engines, especially in tractors, operate under high compression and load, generating significant heat. If the cooling system fails to manage this heat—due to issues like a malfunctioning radiator, low coolant levels, a faulty thermostat, or a clogged cooling system—excessive temperatures can cause the head or block to warp, compromising the head gasket's seal and leading to failure.


Other potential causes include:

• Improper installation during manufacturing or a prior repair, such as incorrect torque on head bolts or a defective gasket.
• Detonation or pre-ignition from improper fuel quality or injection timing, increasing cylinder pressure beyond the gasket’s capacity.
• Material or manufacturing defects in the gasket itself, though less common with reputable brands.

Since the repair included a new head, it suggests the original head may have warped or cracked due to overheating or excessive pressure, reinforcing overheating as the primary culprit. Checking the cooling system and fuel injection system for underlying issues would be critical to prevent recurrence.

 

[Suburban Plowboy]

Here is what ChatGPT thinks:

If a low-hour diesel tractor blows a head gasket and the repair includes installing a new cylinder head, that strongly suggests the original head was warped, cracked, or otherwise defective — and this was likely the root cause of the failure, not just a consequence.

Most likely cause: Factory defect or casting flaw in the original cylinder head​

Given that:

• The tractor has low hours (i.e., not much wear or thermal cycling yet),
• The failure was severe enough to justify replacing the entire head, not just the gasket,

Then a manufacturing defect is the most probable cause. Here's why:

1. Warped or cracked head from the factory​

• A head that’s not machined perfectly flat or has casting flaws can allow combustion gases or coolant to breach the gasket seal even with low use.
• A crack in the head can lead to overheating, coolant loss, or combustion pressure loss, all of which will destroy the gasket.

2. Improper torque at the factory​

• If the head bolts were not torqued correctly (too loose, uneven, or over-tightened), this can cause uneven clamping pressure, leading to premature gasket failure and possible warping of the head.

3. Cooling system issue from day one​

• A blocked passage or casting flaw in the head could cause localized overheating, damaging both the gasket and the head before many hours accumulated.

---

Less likely causes (but still possible if not a defect):​

• Overheating from coolant loss or pump failure — though unusual on a low-hour machine unless there was already a flaw.
• Incorrect fuel injection timing causing high cylinder pressures.
• Operator error (e.g., lugging the engine excessively or running without coolant) — but again, rare for low hours unless abuse occurred.

---

Summary:​

Most likely reason the gasket blew: A defective cylinder head — such as a crack, warping, or poor surface finish — likely caused the gasket to fail, and that’s why the head was replaced rather than just resurfaced. This points to a factory defect, not wear or operator error.

If the tractor is still under warranty or recently purchased, this kind of issue should be documented and may be grounds for compensation or further inspection of the engine's build quality.

 

[Suburban Plowboy]

Dude says he will give me the number of the guy in charge of the repair at the dealership so I can ask what they know.

 

[EddieWalker]

Most people only run their tractor 50 hours a year. Since it was under warrantee, it sounds like it was being used commercially to have so many hours on it in just a few years. I'm assuming the warrantee is 3 to five years.

If it was defective, I would think that defect would of been caught in just the first couple dozen hours.

I would look really close at the rest of the tractor for abuse and excessive wear. But in all honestly, I can't imagine the price being so good that I would take a chance on it. What's going to fail next?

 

[Suburban Plowboy]

The owner has a tree service, and the tractor has a Land Pride grapple. That's how he put in 800 hours. He does pretty much the same things I do with my little Kubota, but I put in about 25 hours a year.

The warranty is hard to pin down, which is another reason to talk to the dealer. TYM's site doesn't clearly state how long it runs. There is a commercial warranty, and there is a residential warranty, and TYM refuses to give a clear statement of the dividing line between commercial and residential.

You make a good point about defects.

The seller ended up buying a bigger Kubota because he had to keep renting tractors while he got the head gasket issue resolved. That speaks poorly of TYM and the dealer. On the other hand, the local Kubota people kept my tractor for several weeks when I needed to have the engine front cover replaced.

 

[Torvy]

Design or factory flaws tend to show up frequently on the same model. In this case, the same model engine. They aren't hand-made. A factory defect would affect many units.

That engine has a long history of reliability and no evidence of flaws in the head. That same engine is on 474, 4815, 4820, 5520, 494 and 574 models.

Occam's Razor...the simplest explanation is typically the right one. The guy abused the tractor (or he had an employee who did). People will always paint themselves in the best light possible. They want companies to pay for their own mistakes.

 

[Harry in Ky]

I see tractors nearly every day. Not as many as I once did, but more than enough to keep me occupied. During my many years as a dealership journey level mechanic I saw my share of engine problems. When they failed it was usually pretty obvious why. Granted, I freely admit that just looking at it I wouldn't know a Kukje motor from a Daedong from a Yanmar, but I hear and read about head and head gasket failures so frequently, I can't help thinking they CAN'T all be operator error. A good many, probably, but there has to more to it. Back when I was doing tractor engine overhauls the failures were usually self evident. The "worn out" ones may have run eight to fifteen hundred hours, so they deserved to be worn. Others were often abused in some way. Overheating was common enough, but would often result in what we called "pulled sleeves" where the pistons would overheat, expand too much and start grabbing the cylinder walls. The result (and the reason) was obvious. I don't recall any that just cracked heads or blew head gaskets, and certainly not within a few hundred hours. That sort of failure is all too common these days and I feel sorry for those who own these machines. It seems these tractor makers start up, stop, change names and partners every six weeks or so, and last years models become orphans next year with zero parts and product support. If that prospect doesn't bother you, then by all means, go for it.

I work on some newer machines but many are between twenty and fifty years old. I can't imagine where the machine in question here will be in ten years.

 

[Suburban Plowboy]

Winchester, Kentucky? Until I was a year old, I lived in Bel Air. I believe my house was across the fence from Jerry's. I was born in Winchester.

I don't know what happened, but somebody convinced TYM it wasn't the owner's fault. I don't know if that means anything. Maybe it's not that hard to get TYM to cough up $10,000 for an owner-error problem.

 

[Harry in Ky]

I guess I'm just a downer, but I have my opinions of TYM. They're not favorable opinions.

 

[5030]

Why not just ask Chat GPT or whatever it's called and let it guide your purchase????

 

[Suburban Plowboy]

That sounds like a bad idea until I consider the horrible advice human beings have given me with great confidence.

 

[Hay Dude]

The owner has a tree service, and the tractor has a Land Pride grapple. That's how he put in 800 hours. He does pretty much the same things I do with my little Kubota, but I put in about 25 hours a year.

As a business owner that uses tractors, I can tell you that having multiple operators, as your TYM seller probably has, means other people run his tractor. Those other people don’t generally care very well for the sellers tractor. Sometimes, thats a red flag.

The warranty is hard to pin down, which is another reason to talk to the dealer. TYM's site doesn't clearly state how long it runs. There is a commercial warranty, and there is a residential warranty, and TYM refuses to give a clear statement of the dividing line between commercial and residential.

You make a good point about defects.

The seller ended up buying a bigger Kubota because he had to keep renting tractors while he got the head gasket issue resolved. That speaks poorly of TYM and the dealer. On the other hand, the local Kubota people kept my tractor for several weeks when I needed to have the engine front cover replaced.

Note “bigger” Kubota. That means the tractor he is selling was too small for the work he was doing. That means it could have been pushed beyond its’ limits. Another possible red flag.

My advice in those situations is buy it IF its really cheap, but also be prepared to fix it.

Also: Check front axle bearings and loader/bucket pins for excessive wear. That will tell you if it was overloaded, too.