gentlegiants1974
New User
My H started sputtering and lost 2 cylinders the other day, not smoking really, tried tinkering with carb a bit to no avail. Running like a John Deere 2 cylinder and hardly enough power to drag itself along on level ground. Checked plugs and number 2 and number 4 were fouled with oily goop, cleaned them and reinstalled, started up and ran great for 5 minutes then began missing as before. Managed to limp it into the shop today and started into it, valve cover off, all seems good, head off, all seems good, oil pan off, nothing in there, seems good. Funny thing, tractor started to run better just as I was pulling into the shop, like it had a big burp and could breathe. Pulled the plugs and all were dry and normal looking. Popped out number 4 piston and for the life of me the rings seem fine, sleeve is mirror smooth. I really hate to pull all those pistons for nothing. If some of you gentlemen who know more about piston rings on the H engine could look at these photos I would appreciate it. I expected to find broken piston rings falling out all over the place, or worn to nothing, but these seem fine. My only other thought was that possibly a big chunk of carbon had broken off inside and somehow managed to lodge itself in the valve seat of one of the valves giving effectively zero compression, then finally it worked its way out? I dunno.



