I recently purchased a CASE 450 crawler/loader (serial# 302). This poor machine is beat to say the least. I bought it from a farmer for $1000 when he managed to get it to fire up and prove to me that it can move under it's own power. Not knowing a thing about bulldozers, but being a good mechanic, I descided to take a chance on it.
When I got it back to my garage ($250) and took a better look at it, serial numbers, etc, I realized that it was supposed to have a G188 gas engine but instread had a A201G that I believe came from a 660 CASE combine. The machine would run rough (3 cyl) but just looked like it needed some TLC.
The electrical system was a complete mess, so I rewired the entire machine (returning it to factory original, $200). I removed the carb to clean it just to find that one ear of the two bolt flange was broken off. I had the carb welded and machined (NC thanks to a buddy of mine) and put it back on.
Topped up the fluids including the engine coolant and started it up. When it ran I soon realized that the exhaust manifold on cylinder #4 was cracked and was spitting out green coolant when it was running. I shut it down and realized that coolant was somehow entering the cylinder.
I pulled the head off to find no smoking gun. The head gasket looked good and all sleeves do not show signs of any cracks (not sure if the sleeved are wet or dry on the 201). I sent the head out for magnefluxing and it came back scrack free. So what was it? A straight edge on the head looks like the head is not straight. My guess is the farmer ran it without coolant and overheated it. I know rain water got in because I removed the #4 exhause valve and it's baddly corroded around where it seats.
The question is: What would you do? Do I spend the money, reface the head and rebuild the top end of the 201 and risk it? or...
My other buddy has two old CASE IH 93 and 94 combines that are stored inside that he is willing to sell for scrap. The're both complete and haven't run in 10 years but were stored propperly. I don't know if the engines would fit in my 450 but would consider doing an engine swap if I had to. I'm $1450 into it and don't want to waist another $300 just to rebuild the top end ant find out I missed a crack somewhere else on the engine. What would you do? Thanks for all your input!
When I got it back to my garage ($250) and took a better look at it, serial numbers, etc, I realized that it was supposed to have a G188 gas engine but instread had a A201G that I believe came from a 660 CASE combine. The machine would run rough (3 cyl) but just looked like it needed some TLC.
The electrical system was a complete mess, so I rewired the entire machine (returning it to factory original, $200). I removed the carb to clean it just to find that one ear of the two bolt flange was broken off. I had the carb welded and machined (NC thanks to a buddy of mine) and put it back on.
Topped up the fluids including the engine coolant and started it up. When it ran I soon realized that the exhaust manifold on cylinder #4 was cracked and was spitting out green coolant when it was running. I shut it down and realized that coolant was somehow entering the cylinder.
I pulled the head off to find no smoking gun. The head gasket looked good and all sleeves do not show signs of any cracks (not sure if the sleeved are wet or dry on the 201). I sent the head out for magnefluxing and it came back scrack free. So what was it? A straight edge on the head looks like the head is not straight. My guess is the farmer ran it without coolant and overheated it. I know rain water got in because I removed the #4 exhause valve and it's baddly corroded around where it seats.
The question is: What would you do? Do I spend the money, reface the head and rebuild the top end of the 201 and risk it? or...
My other buddy has two old CASE IH 93 and 94 combines that are stored inside that he is willing to sell for scrap. The're both complete and haven't run in 10 years but were stored propperly. I don't know if the engines would fit in my 450 but would consider doing an engine swap if I had to. I'm $1450 into it and don't want to waist another $300 just to rebuild the top end ant find out I missed a crack somewhere else on the engine. What would you do? Thanks for all your input!