co-op E3 4B153 white smoke

[kevin in WI]

It was running fine when all of a sudden it started a huge amount of white smoke. After that it needs a lot of choke to start and needs choke to warm up and doesn"t have enough power to move for about 10 minutes. Compression is 130, 125, 130, 130, and was missing on 1 and 3. No bubbles in radiator but it has a very minor amount of oil on top and was using anti-freeze. I pulled the head and it pressure tested ok. from what I can see the head gasket was ok and don"t appear to have any cracks between cylinders. Anyone got a next step? thanks.

 

[D beatty]

You said you had the head preasure tested but did you get it magnafluxed for hairline cracks?

 

[kevin in WI]

Magnaflux was fine, I took it to Diesel Cast Welding in MPLS because I assumed it was cracked. They are the pro's and they gave it a clean bill of health and me a heafty bill as well. thanks

 

[oliver90owner]

If it is not the head, what else can it be? Check liners for a crack. Check sump for water/antifreeze.

What colour were the plugs after this occurred? I would expect that to indicate the problem cylinder.

I am assuming there is no water jacket on the inlet manifold.

Checking where the leakage is occurring before dismantling
will often locate the fault without recourse to further diagnosis.

If the coolant was being lost through a combustion chamber, the problem pot should have been clearly apparent at head removal.

You also likely have a serious ignition problem, if missing on those two cylinders, so little wonder it did not have much power.

RAB

 

[kevin in WI]

The first thing I checked was the ignition and had great spark where it should be. Even when it was missing I grounded out the plug wires and got good spark.
The manifolds are not water cooled. None of the plugs looked "washed" when I removed the nor does any one cylinder look different that the others. I was wondering if an "O" ring had failed (it has wet sleeves), but the pressure of compression should be a lot more that the vaccuum created on intake so I would think that I'd be getting more crud and bubbles in the antifreeze than I'm getting. I didn't have any antifreeze in the oil according to the dip stick, but didn't check the drain plug. thanks

 

[oliver90owner]

When you said 'it ... was using antifreeze...' I took that as equivalent to 'using oil' - ie consuming. Are you suggesting now that there was no loss of coolant? Please confirm.

If the white smoke was not due to water loss, and compression tests indicated no problem, I am left wondering why you removed the head for pressure testing.

Compression pressure is not transmitted to sleeve O rings. They are fitted between the crankcase and the cooling jacket to isolate those two fluids; combustion pressure is confined by the head gasket.

If this white smoke is not steam related, it would appear to be unburned fuel likely caused by either a fuel or ignition problem.

You have not swapped over numbers 1 and 3 plug leads by any chance? I ask this because your use of the word 'sudden' may not be quite as I understand it.

RAB

 

[Anonymous-0]

Just a thought. Are you using the right head gasket? It seems that a couple of years ago someone had the same problem and it was the wrong head gasket for that year engine. Just a thought like I said at the beginning.

 

[kevin in WI]

I have ordered the valve grind gasket set from Steiner, I'll be sure to make sure the head gasket fits correctly when I put it together. The old one appears to have been right, but it's certainly possible to have been wrong. thanks

 

[Mike(NEOhio)]

Could be the head gasket itself. I've seen one that had a fine hairline crack running from a coolant passage to a cylinder. Couldn't see it until you flexed the gasket a little.

 

[K.M. Hewer]

Try this. reinstall head back on tractor, start tractor and choke as needed. Once running and warmed up a little, get propane torch out, crack valve and feed propane around the outside of carburator and if tractor speeds up on rpm's the you have carb rebuild problem. I have seen this happen before on Csck 30 tractors. regards Keith