KAMA 500 hour service

[lakespirit]

I need one on my 254, but never done one. Am I about to go off on a journey to never-never land? Any special tools required?

 

[greg_g]

Which 500 hour maintenance list are you going to start with - engine, or tractor?

//greg//

 

[lakespirit]

Engine, please.

 

[greg_g]

Engine, please.

Nine maintenance items on the list.
1. clean & inspect injectors, test delivery pressure and spray pattern
2. time injection pump
3. inspect valve seats, lap & grind if necessary, adjust valves
4. tighten conn rods, main bearing cap, flywheel bolts
5. retorque head bolts
6. replace air filter
7. clean/flush cooling system
8. inspect thermostat and water pump seal, replace as necessary
9. clean electrical terminals, replace damaged wires/connectors

Besides the normal complement of hand tools, I see a need for a diesel fuel pressure test set, depth gauge, feeler gauge, torque wrench. Might be less expensive to hire out a few of these items.

//greg//

 

[greenmule]

If you have got 500 hours on it,and it still runs good,sounds good,etc,than I wouldn't do number 1,number 2,number 3,number 4,number 5, or number 9 on gregs list.

Tractor don't know how many hours its got on it and if it runs good,than leave it alone.

What have you done to it in the past?

Change the motor oil and filter,buy you a new airfilter,blow out raditiator good,tighten altenator belt,check tire air pressure,check for loose bolts and give her heck.

 

[lakespirit]

Runs OK, but really difficult to start, even after plugged into heater for an hour. My problem is that I don't know how to do items 1 - 5. I have torque wrench, feeler gauges, but no pressure tester.

 

[Bob Rooks]

A good Bacharach test and calibration stand will run about $90,000.00. Best to send your injectors to a diesel shop for a pop & leak-down test. Much more reliable than DIY.

Inspecting valves & seats requires removing and dismantling the cylinder head component - I think I'd just check the valve lash (after you checked cylinder head torque).

Checking rod and main cap torque requires dropping the oil pan - checking flywheel bolts requires splitting the tractor. Your call, but I don't think it's necessary at 500 hrs. unless you have major symptoms.

 

[greenmule]

Well,only problem is thats its hard to start in cold[it is just when its cold,right?],,does it have glow plugs?,wonder if they work if it does have them? if it doesn't,than thats the reason its hard to start.

Don't think doing any of those things on gregs list will help it start easier[as long as it runs and sounds good].

What have you done to it in past? tell us what you've done to it already as far as maintance.anything?

 

[greg_g]

A good Bacharach test and calibration stand will run about $90,000.00. Best to send your injectors to a diesel shop for a pop & leak-down test. Much more reliable than DIY.

This test only requires verification of delivery pressure. I interpret that as being pump output pressure. That can be done with that cheap diesel pressure tester that Harbor Freight sells. Other than that, it's a matter of cleaning the injector tips and visual evaluation of the spray pattern. If they can't be cleaned - or spray an inconsistent pattern - it would make more sense to simply replace them. Around here a professional injector rebuild runs ~$100 each, compared to <$200 for 3 new Y385 injectors.

Don't think doing any of those things on gregs list will help it start easier

That's the engine manufacturer's 500 hour list - not mine. And if you don't think fuel delivery system maintenance and properly adjusted valves can help it start better, then somebody else must do your all your diesel maintenance work.

It doesn't cost you a thing to tell somebody else to forget a maintenance item. But what would your reaction be to someone else's advice to ignore your Kioti manual? I think we'd all be better off if you left this topic to those who've actually worked on KAMA/TaiShan tractors.

//greg//

 

[Bob Rooks]

Sorry I got off on a tangent Greg. Our re-man eco-tip injectors run about $400.00 ea. (~half the cost of new). Sixteen per engine x four engines = $$$$. And we're only getting about half the life out of them (25,000 hrs.) that we used to before ULSD.
We even do pop & leak down (holds pressure without dribbling) tests on re-man and new injectors before we install them, and have found quite a few bad builds (duds).
I forgot how inexpensive these injectors are.

I'll check out that HF tester, sounds like a new toy addition.

Update: I checked Harbor Freight and all they had was a couple of diesel engine compression testers rated for 1,000 psig max., about half of what you will need (no fuel line adapters either). Or did you see a set somewhere else?

 

[greg_g]

I don't see that diesel fuel pressure tester on the website either, but for some reason not all print catalog stuff gets online visibility. I've entered catalog numbers online, to find stuff that their search engine wouldn't otherwise bring back. If/when I see that fuel pressure test set in a print catalog again, I'll use the part number for another web inventory search

Not sure why you mentioned the compression testers though - unless you thought perhaps there was a way to modify them for fuel pressure. Cuz cylinder compression on these Chinese engines (~325 psi) is well within the 1000 psi limit of both sets.

//greg//

 

[greenmule]

Well its still a motor and gears,thats what they all are,don't matter what brand

Now if for some reason on a brand, this or that specificly was going bad at so many hours cause this hadn't been done,than yeah,it should be done.

But just doing these things[which requires you to be a pretty good mechanic],for really no reason,is silly to me anyways.And probably causes about as much harm as good.

Kioti don't tell you to get all that done,just get valves adjusted at 800 hours.Bet the rest don't either.

Now,speaking of owners manual,brings me to thinking of warrenty. You need to do or get done,the things in book,to keep warrenty,which is just what you got to do. I;m betting the warrenty on his karma is long gone,so,no need to be bound by the owners manual,which makes me think,if he's even got an owners manual,cause he asked here.

 

[greg_g]

Well its still a motor and gears,thats what they all are,don't matter what brandNow if for some reason on a brand, this or that specificly was going bad at so many hours cause this hadn't been done,than yeah,it should be done.But just doing these things[which requires you to be a pretty good mechanic],for really no reason,is silly to me anyways.And probably causes about as much harm as good.Kioti don't tell you to get all that done,just get valves adjusted at 800 hours.Bet the rest don't either.Now,speaking of owners manual,brings me to thinking of warrenty. You need to do or get done,the things in book,to keep warrenty,which is just what you got to do. I;m betting the warrenty on his karma is long gone,so,no need to be bound by the owners manual,which makes me think,if he's even got an owners manual,cause he asked here.

Are you any relation to THINGY (without the .....,,,,,,,habit)?

//greg//

 

[greenmule]

Do I have a relative thingy? with a habit? You lost me man. You better slow down on whatever your doing there.

 

[valley]

Lakesprit, Sounds like greenmule has aimed you at routine maintanence. Like valve adjustment and for hard starting he mentioned checking out the glowplugs. That sounds good to me. The information on valve lash is on this site and others. Let us know where you are with this.

 

[lakespirit]

I adjusted the valves tonight as follows:
1. Removed the radiator...simple to do two bolts and a couple hose clamps.
2. Used 27mm socket on the crank pulley to get to top dead center.
3. Set the exhaust valve clearance at .011" and the intake at .009".
4. Adjusted the compression relief screws on all 3 cylinders.

I am not the greatest wrench in the world, but thanks to some help on this forum, I accomplished the entire deed in about 2 hours.

 

[valley]

lakespirit, That was fast. Sounds like you spilled no oil, drank no beer! Richard

 

[greg_g]

I checked Harbor Freight and all they had was a couple of diesel engine compression testers rated for 1,000 psig max., about half of what you will need (no fuel line adapters either). Or did you see a set somewhere else?

Don't know why HF wasn't listing these at the time Bob. But a recent search ( http://search.harborfreight.com/cpisearch/web/search.do?keyword=fuel+injection ) did return fuel injection equipment. Whereas none of them specify diesel compatibility in the big print, there may be some more usable tech data in the individual product manuals.

//greg//

 

[psj12]

The kits listed at HF are for automotive (Gasoline) systems not diesel.

A diesel system for injector pop testing would have a high pressure hand pump similar to that on a bottle jack, a resivoir, connector line and adapters, and a 500 to 3,000 psi pressure gage. Many (not all) high pressure diesel injectors pop at around 1,700 psi.

 

[greg_g]

I suspected as much, just didn't bother to download the PDFs to read the fine print. But at one time they did in fact carry a injection system test kit that was specified (in the big print0 to be for diesels. Unfortunately I haven't seen it listed lately, I guess since late last year.

//greg//