John Deere B Update

[MarkMac77]

So I inherited a 1948 John Deere B. It had been parked outside for over a decade. I replaced the carburetor, rebuilt the magneto and whole ignition system, rebuilt the cooling shaft assembly, installed a new sediment filter and oil bath, a new battery, new bunch of stuff. I changed the motor oil and there mustve been an inch of water in the crank case, I suspect from rain running down the exhaust for years. At any rate, I got it popping, but it was very weak.

I tinkered with the carb per instructions and it got better, then a little better. Making a little progress each time. Then yesterday it went off. The sound changed, it got quieter, smoother, and picked up enough power to go scary fast. So much new power I had to adjust the clutch so it wouldnt slip.

It musta been running on a single cylinder before, and now both cylinders?!?

At any rate, now Im getting a bunch of white/gray smoke especially at higher RPMs. Its also spitting out droplets of oil, enough to speckle oil rain on the hood. Im thinking the cylinder that wasnt firing before, but is now, maybe had a stuck or broken ring, valve with a broken spring or is out of adjustment, bad head gasket??

I have a compression test kit, and thats my next plan. Is there any chance this isnt badly damaged engine internals? Has anyone experienced this and have a theory?

I feel really dumb, but not having a good running JD-B for reference makes this difficult to know when Im getting it right.

The bugger-all is every time I run it, it gets stronger, but sprays more oil and makes more smoke.

 

[Gene Davis (Ga.)]

Run it a while longer and see if it clears up. If not, usually when the Letter series Deere are spitting oil from
the exhaust pipe like that it is most often that the crankcase ventilation pump located in the fan shaft has broken
springs or some other problem, but that is the majority of the problem they caused back when.

 

[Loosehandle]

It's pretty hard to hurt one of those
old slappers. I'd try to figure out if
it's oil or coolant causing smoke
first, how's the oil look and smell? Is
it real thin or milky?

 

[Mike M]

It is possible you are finding out why it was parked all those years ?

 

[55 50 Ron]

I'm assuming you didn't have the head off. Sitting outside for a decade and not stuck? Are you sure it was a decade? I worked on one last winter that was outside uncovered for only a couple years and it was stuck. Also had both exhaust valves sticking. After getting it unstuck, we NEVER tried to start it, just went straight to pulling the head and doing a head machining. After the head work and carburetor work and new condenser (capacitor) it fired right up and runs good. It's a 1942 and had been switched to distributor ignition.

I'll bet the compression test will find your problem.

Of course we did the engine oil, oil filter, air cleaner, antifreeze, etc. changing too.

 

[old]

If you didn't do an ATF soak before you started turning it over good chance it has sticking rings so they need to work free or it will keep spraying oil for a while

 

[MarkMac77]

(quoted from post at 07:11:37 10/26/21) It's pretty hard to hurt one of those
old slappers. I'd try to figure out if
it's oil or coolant causing smoke
first, how's the oil look and smell? Is
it real thin or milky?

The oil droplets are dark black. The Deere managed to mist my pickup truck with it.

 

[MarkMac77]

I dumped a quart of ATF in the crankcase, and split a can of Seafoam 50/50 between the gas tank and crankcase. Then I ran it for 15 minutes. No change (I didnt expect one instantly). I plan to keep exercising it daily for a good heat cycle. Maybe itll pull through without a teardown.

I can testify I saw my Deere sitting as lawn art for at least 6 years, and it was apparent it was sitting for a while before that. Thats why I estimate 12 years sitting. After a rebuilt ignition system and a brand new carburetor it started and ran on one cylinder. Then after a few hours the second cylinder started firing intermittently and then more consistently. However there is a lot of blow-by at the exhaust valve and likely piston rings. Maybe itll polish itself up with some more hours?

 

[NoDakInMN]

If it ran on only one cylinder for couple of hours, you may have gotten gas in your oil, thinning it it out, add that to some rings not fully seating and that might be causing some of your spotting. Sometimes the gas shut off on one of my As will leak by and into the crankcase and I get that happening. If you didn't do an oil change to start with, now would be a good time and you can tell a lot from the oil coming out of it.

This post was edited by NoDakInMN on 10/27/2021 at 07:59 pm.

 

[thdrduck]

It could also be that if it ran on 1 jug or missed on one jug for a long time things in that cylinder could be pretty nasty. Now if it's running on that jug also, it may take some time to burn that crud out. When you say it runs fast, keep in mind these things are only made to turn a little over 1000 rpm. Anyway, as long as there is oil pressure, I'd run it a while and see what happens. Just keep in mind that 1000 rpm ain't much.

 

[MarkMac77]

Welll, I dumped the ATF in the crankcase and split the
Seafoam between the fuel and the crankcase. I did a 20
minute run cycle at idle a couple nights ago. It ran
smoother, but still smoked like wet grass in tue chimney.
Tonight I did another cycle. After a few minutes I decided to
experiment and take turns pulling the spark plug wires off
each cylinder, alternatively. Both cylinders would keep the
Deere popping at a lower RPM, both smoked, but the right
side turned a bit slower. I ended up letting it run on both
cylinders for a few more minutes. After about 20 minutes it
cleared up a bit, so I spooled up the RPMs. It smoked nasty
again. So I waited, and spooled it up to MAX RPM again.
This time it smoked less after burning off some residual oil.
There are an occasional audible engine rattle accompanied
by a contemporaneous stream of smoke. So I started doing
full throttle pulls for a couple minutes followed by a minute
of rest. After another 20 minutes of run time the smoke had
95% disappeared, along with the rattle. Either whatever
was causing the blow by freed up or its out of oil (There is
no way it cooked 7 quarts). The throttle response is better
now too.

Im somewhat amazed it came back to life like this.

Thank you for the advice.

 

[NoDakInMN]

They are extremely forgiving machines and will run when they really have no right to.