1948 BF Avery Blown head gasket

[ke.avery48]

I think it was back in 2009, my mother won a 1948 bf Avery tractor in a draw at a tractor museum. Didn't have enough room to store it so they kept it in their facility until 2018 where they said we had to take it. Now it just sat there until I decided to try and get it going. I replaced the spark plugs, fixed the carb up, checked for spark, changed the oil ect... It wasn't even seized from sitting, but I put some oil down the cylinders anyways. This thing was restored when she won it so it has all new tires, new paint (but its flaking off), new gauges and much more.

Anyways, after I got everything done and I cranked it over quite a bit, nothing. Then cranked it over more and coolant started spewing out of between the head and head gasket. Then I pulled the plugs and yeah, the cylinder was right full of coolant. Well, after a few months of procrastination I bought the head gasket but now I need the torque specs and sequence, anybody know what it is? The motor is a Hercules IXB3. some other numbers on the motor plate are 2430906, 008, 006, 15 and 3-1/4x4. whatever that means. Also, do you think it would be ok to run it with normal diesel oil until I get some non detergent?

I know, long way to say I need torque specs and sequence but I thought you people might like a little story. Thanks in advance!
 

[ke.avery48]

I forgot, believe it to be a 1948 BF Avery A with the wide front.
 

[Repairman60]

Cannot help with specs but nice story.
Got any pics you can post?
 

[Repairman60]

You might try posting this in the Minnie
Mo forum here on YT. The MM BF had same
Hercules engine. You might get some help
there.
 

[ke.avery48]

I just found the torque specs, its 45 ft/lbs, seems a little low but I guess it only has a 6.6 compression ratio. I found the same answer on three different sites, one even on a manual for a IXB3 motor so it must be.
wanted to get it running today but I didn't realize the head bolts were completely screwed from corrosion. I have 3/8" grade 8 bolts that will work, but I don't have enough of them so ill have to order some. Hope to have them and another 4L of non detergent oil by next week.
I guess the reason my mother entered into the draw in the first place was to win me one of those pedal tractors that was of the Avery (I was only 6 at the time), she ended up winning the actual thing. I think I remember going there, some sort of event was going on.
Ill post a few pictures tomorrow, its covered in oil, coolant and dust so isn't in the nicest condition right now but I will make sure to post more pictures once its all together and running.
 

[ke.avery48]

Sorry for not posting for a while, never got around to posting any pictures. Anyways, I've got some good news and some really bad news.
The good news is, I torqued the head down and did everything and it started right up! just fired right up like nothing and ran like new.
Now for the bad news, I filled it with water and started it up, I then started it and noticed steam coming from the exhaust, and the longer it ran the worse it ran.
I then noticed water coming from around cylinder #3 spark plug, and finally it was only running on 3 cylinders. So I pulled the plug, cranked it and a whole bunch of water shot out and hit the roof, not
good, this is the same cylinder that had was leaking coolant into it when I fist tried to get it going before I replaced the head gasket. Also checked the oil and of course its making milkshakes.
I then decided to pull the head as the only explanation could be cracked something. I got the head off, filled it with water and no leaks, I then plugged the water pump inlet and filled the block with water.
I then turned the motor over by hand and once cyl #3 got to bottom dead center it started to fill with water. I looked down and there is a pinhole in the cylinder wall that is causing water to fill it with
water, that isn't good.
At this point this isn't a sleeved motor so I need either A a new motor or B a new block and I can transfer all the parts. I emailed a guy who sells Oliver crawler motors and parts, so hopefully he has a
motor that will work. So this all means that it was never the head gasket, damn it.




 

[J.Wondergem]

You could also just have that hole dry sleeved. A machine shop can do that.
 

[ke.avery48]

that's a good idea, How much do you think it would cost?
Also might try JB weld as its small enough. could that possibly fix it?
Just trying to find the best semi-permanent fix as I don't want to spend very much on it and it wont be used very much. Maybe 30 to 60 minutes every month or two.
 

[amtrac]

Regarding the getting a used block option, I can almost guarantee that a used Hercules block will need re-boring at a machine shop to get good round cylinders. Pulling the engine is not big deal since you have a frame to hold everything else in place. I would get the bad cylinder sleeved, and not half-fix the problem. That only leaves it for the next guy to fix. My two cents. BTDT
 

[ke.avery48]

hello again, I decided to try and use JB weld on the hole in the cylinder wall as its got nothing to loose if it doesn't work work.
Last week I cleaned up around the hole in the cooling jacket so the JB had a good clean area to stick to and it seemed to work good, I even got the putty to push through the hole out into the other side into the combustion chamber (which I cleaned up).
My only trouble was that the cooling jacket side of the cylinder walls are so dirty that I had to take a thin layer of metal off the cylinder wall with a chisel to get to bare metal and there was about a half inch of gunk built up in the bottom of the water jacket around the cylinders that I tried to flush out with hot water which worked good enough but not great.
Anyways, I then put the head and head gasket on, torqued it to 45 ft/lbs and it started but I then had water coming out from around cylinder #4s spark plug washer for some reason. I then pulled the plug and there wasn't any water in it but I had milky oil. Only thing I could think of is I installed the head gasket incorrectly.
So on Friday I took it all apart and figured out that I didn't have the head gasket in the correct spot as the copper or brass part that goes around the one water journal wasn't crushed properly. So I then put it all back together (making sure the gasket was in the correct position this time), torqued it and then I realized that I have been torqueing it to 45ft/lbs instead of the proper 35. There was no gong back at this point so I filled it with water and started it up and it ran great!
Running on all four, Exhaust temps are pretty much all the same and it revs right up as it should and for the first time it wasn't making milkshakes!
I took it out for a little drive today and its runs and drives like a dream, even the brakes work as they should, Although not very comfortable for someone over 6' like myself.
Now all I have to do to it is drain the water and add some coolant, change the oil with some proper non detergent instead of the the 10w40 delo I've been using to get it running, possibly fix the fan bearing, check if the generator is working and maybe fix the front right bearing.
 

[ke.avery48]

Here's a few pictures, I may post more and a video of it running sometime this week.







 

[ke.avery48]

 

[J.Wondergem]

Thanks for the update. It's always nice to hear of a good out come.