| Author | Message | ||
     keith zack |
Hello, I just acquired an Oliver 1550 with a diesel engine. The exhaust smokes, not terribly bad, but it never goes away. There in no blow by from the breather. There is a small fuel leak from what appears to be a return line. I was told that if the engine is starved of fuel it will smoke. Is this true? warm regards, keith zack | ||
| Chris Losey (Admin) |
What color is the smoke? The return line leak won't cause insufficient fuel delivery, just a leak. I haven't heard of diesels smoking due to starving for fuel. This kind of goes against the way a diesel works. Unlike a gas engine, a diesel always has full air flow. There is nothing in there to regulate the air flow, and is by design is meant to run 'lean'. The amount of fuel injected controls engine speed, so if you decrease the fuel, your RPMs would drop. If it got too short of fuel, it would stall. For a diesel, black smoke is partially burnt fuel. Blue-ish white smoke is usually a sign of poor atomization of fuel by the injectors, poor compression, or the engine isn't getting warm enough. Lots of white smoke usually means coolant is getting in the chamber. Stick a thermometer in the top of the radiator and run the tractor until it is warmed up. The coolant temp at the top of the radiator should be around 180 degrees. Take the radiator cap off before you start the engine, then you don't have to worry about getting burnt by steam. Also, smell the crankcase oil. If it smells like diesel fuel, then there is a good chance that the injectors need work. Let us know what you find | ||
| keith zack |
O.k., it is apparently burning coolant as the radiator has lost about a gallon of coolant in 2 hours of running time. The exhaust does not smell like burning coolant though. It smells just like poorly burnt diesel fuel. This is my first venture into tractors and the thing seems to run great. What shuold I do? I don't use it much at all right now. Should I just keep topping it off, chance running 'barsleak' in it, check for head gasket leak? Thanks warm regards, keith zack | ||
| Chris Losey (Admin) |
Sounds like a head gasket leak. You might get lucky and the barsleak might stop the leak. But the more likely, and correct thing to do would be to pull the head, check it and the block with a straight edge, get anything that is warped milled, and then re-install witha new head gasket. That coolant getting in there isn't doing you any favors. It can get past the pistons into the oil, and cause rust while it is sitting there. It will also corrode the injectors, causing poor atomization of the fuel. If it were mine, I would fix it while it is still running good. | ||
| John Schwiebert |
Befor you take the head off be sure to check the condition of the radiator cap and fill the radiator to its correct level and pressure test the cooling system. Five pounds of pressure would work great. Normally the same tester you use for testing the cap can also be used to test the cooling system. stange as this may sound, I have experienced a few cases where changing the fuel filters got rid of that thin smokey exhaust. Also poor quality fuel will or can give off a smokey exhaust. |
