International 254 Engine Rebuild Question

[Glassonion]

Hi all.
I bought an International 254 with a FEL last year and finally got it over to a mechanic friend to have a bit of a once-over, as it wasn't running very well.

He just called and apparently the #3 cylinder is badly scored, resulting in a lot of blow by and keeping it from running for more than a minute or so before it dies.

I believe these engines (K3E) are not sleeved, but I did find a rebuild kit online that purports to come with cylinder sleeves. I'm curious if anyone has ever used one of these and whether it's possible to sleeve the block in place or if I will definitely need to pull the engine?

I can't find much info on pulling the engine - will it require me to split the tractor or can the engine be pulled separately?

Any suggestions/help is most welcome!

Thanks!

 

[Oldtractorfixer]

You might find someone who would sleeve the block in place but I wouldn't do it. You will have a lot of metal filings going down around the crank if they can even bore far enough. By the time the head and pan are off there will be very little left to take loose to get it out. And yes it will be splitting the tractor. That's a small tractor. You block it up on behind the engine on the transmission. Unhook the front axle and roll away then lift the engine off. You might find an old Mitsubishi engine somewhere to put in.

If you do bore it you'll get a better job in the machine shop than with a portable in the field and no travel time for the machinist.

 

[DJ54]

You're right, no sleeves. Case/IH shows 3 oversized pistons & ring sizes available. Official Case IH Online Parts Store and Case IH Catalog for Best Parts Search and Best Parts Look Up. Case IH Parts for Case IH Tractors, Case IH Combines, Case IH Tractors, Case IH Manuals, Case IH Parts It shows them in mm, not thousandths, which I'm used to seeing.

If that kit does in fact come with a sleeve, the block is going to have to be bored enough to accept the sleeve, if in fact it takes it back to std. bore.

If it were me, I'd take the block top a good machine shop, and see what it would take to clean it up, to the next oversized piston. Might be cheaper in the long run to have it bored, and get o/s pistons & rings, rather than bore, and get the sleeve set. You can go 2 more o/s piston sets, before you'd have to sleeve back to standard, or a slight o/s sleeve kit.

Some sites show kits with sleeve's, even though the engine doesn't have them, because of how the info was entered, not necessarily because it does, or does, not have sleeves.

As far as that goes, what ever engine machine shop does the work, I'd more then likely let them order the parts, if you do overbore. That way if there is a problem, it's up to them to make it right. Whenever I get a crank turned, I have the machine shop order them. If there is a problem, it's their baby. JMO...

 

[Glassonion]

Thanks for the replies.
Mostly agrees with what I thought... unfortunately.

I bought the tractor fairly inexpensively (~$2200) and had to put about $400 into fixing a broken steering shaft + power steering rebuild. I'll have about another $400 in mechanic fees from this recent assessment and some fixing up.

I doubt I can afford to have someone else pull the block and reinstall the engine, so I may have to set it up at my place to do so. I'm not crazy about splitting the tractor, but it sounds like there's not much choice.

The big question now is whether it's worth going in this deep or whether I should just cut and run, as it were.

I haven't found any comparable options around here (small CUT, diesel, 4x4, front loader) for anything near the amount I have in this one, but I also have no idea what this one would be worth if I did a full engine rebuild (or what I'd have to spend to have that done - presumably several hundred in machine shop fees + ~$500 or more in parts?).

I considered trying to find another tractor that the FEL would fit on, but I can't find any info about it or what other tractors it might fit. It's a KMW 95, but I believe KMW has been sold at least once, and possibly twice since the early 80s, when this one was built.

Thoughts?

 

[Oldtractorfixer]

I am interested as to how excessive blowby from one cylinder will make it stop running. It can cause lots of problems like smoke oil consumption and other things but I would think it would keep running on a couple cylinders.
Not saying your guy is wrong, Just trying to learn something new.

 

[Glassonion]

I don't have much experience with diesel engines at all.

It seems to run for quite a while if you leave it at mid throttle, but it sounds pretty bad - pretty sure it's just running on 2 cylinders.
When you throttle up to full it runs "better" but only for a minute or two and then it dies. It acts like it's getting loaded (i.e. like you let out the clutch with brakes on) and the revs just decrease till it dies.

I started looking around for parts today - Case/IH can't get any of the pistons anymore. I'm going to see if there are any aftermarket options, but if I can't find those it looks like part it out or find a donor engine.