1010RU Gas Engine Rebuild Questions

[Bmoore]

Guys, I need some help from anyone out there who has managed to rebuild one of these poor orphans. I know they are not popular, had a limited production and are now 60 years old. But this is my daily user and I love it.
I have not disassembled this one yet so I have no idea of piston condition or cylinder condition. I plan on rebuilding the head and have all the parts to do that. Oil pressure is good. Lucky since bearings aren't available either. However compression is way down on two center cylinders and it blows oil out the exhaust badly. I'm guessing I lost the rings on those two cylinders.
My first question is about getting around buying an NOS deck plate for $2300. Has anyone here honed one just a bit oversize and been able to re-ring or go with oversize pistons and rings possibly out of a different JD model? Apparently only these gold plated deck plates and standard rings are the only parts available anymore.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Bob

 

[Hotflashjr]

Mother Deere has the gas engine plate for just under $1,600 still available. They also have main and rod bearings available
with rod bearings being as cheap as $28 each. I agree it is quite pricey on some of that stuff. Rings at $237 - Crazy!

I have had some luck over time using Engine Restore with oil changes. It is not going to fix the issue but it might buy you
some time to source parts.

I have not seen anyone on here post about honing a 1010 deck plate. If you are just doing rings and honing the cylinder you
might get away with it. If you lost a ring any signs of it in the oil pan? Oil pan gaskets are $20 and might be a good look
into the bottom end of the engine and at the bottom of the pistons.

I also have a 1010RS and I am quite fond of it.

 

[Bmoore]

Thanks, Flash! That gives me some more places to look. I'm afraid to even open this engine up for fear of what I'll find!! Always an adventure around my place.

 

[oldjohndeere]

I have my 2010 deck plate in the machine shop now being honed to oversize. It cleaned up at .030 but
could not find pistons. Found .040 pistons so am taking it to .040. I have not been able to find
mains yet so may have to reuse them. got rod bearings and gasket set ordered and confirmed. All
parts are very pricey,

 

[buickanddeere]

Odds are a honing and a set
Of rings will be sort of good enough to do .
Valve guides and valve seats will need attention .
This would be a good time to grind the cam and resurface the lifters .

 

[Mnethercutt]

I rebuilt the lower end of one 3 years ago. At that time I didn't have an issue getting parts. I used the website agkits.com to get new rod and main bearings, seals, etc. They were also pretty competetively priced at the time.

Searching again today I don't see them having those parts anymore.

While you may want to keep it the original engine, it may be cheaper for you to acquire a John Deere 145 Power Unit. This is the same size engine as the 2010 gas or 1010 Diesel and was included in the 45 combine and various other machines as a power unit. I was able to buy one a guy was gonna use for a log splitter for I think $250. Way more parts availability than the 115 gas (which is what you have now) because the 115 was only used in 1010 gas models.

As an example, you can get an inframe rebuild kit or complete overhaul kit from the agkits website for the 145 here:https://www.agkits.com/john-deere-145-gas-engine-overhaul-rebuild-kit.aspx. They don't have hardly any parts for the 115 anymore. The 145 will bolt up to the tractor. You'll need to swap out the manifold and potentially the flywheel. Depending on the engine it may not have the slot drilled and tapped for the tachometer. Just depends on how you want to go about it. You get better parts availability and power from the 145 engine, but it won't be original anymore.

If you decide to go with a rebuild, I have heard of folks reboring the sleeves but again, that's just from talk at tractor shows. I got lucky enough to meet one of the workers who built the tractor at the factory who told me that if I ever needed to re-install a sleeve deck or a new one to lather it up with soapy water prior to install and NOT force it down with bolts. You can probably still find parts if you keep google searching but if it were my tractor i'd just replace the engine.

 

[Lowbuck1010]

Of the last three gas 115s I did, two measured over factory service spec and one was at spec. Not wanting to spend stupid money for a new cylinder liner plate on tractors almost 60 years old, I used a BRM flex hone, following their instructions to the letter, and used rings I purchased from YT. Compression on the most recent one after about 30 hours of use is 118, 122, 125 and 124 psi. I sent the heads out and had them resurfaced, valve job, replaced the guides and used aftermarket umbrella seals instead of JD. I can t promise you ll be ok, but I would wager you will.