Mowing season again

A mate of mine who is a serious landscaper showed up at my place yesterday to get some garlic for a do tonight.

In short..... I showed him my new Deutz tractor and he showed me his newish zero turn mower on a trailer behind his truck.

It was a Scag and I was totally blown away with the way the the thing had been put together. All real welded solid steel, including the bit around the blades, diesel, fuel tank (the only plastic bit) holding 40l.

I've seen / used some of the rest in domestic use, but this thing would be the dream. The way they should be made. Dunno how much.

And it can mow manicured stuff at 28 km/h apparently.

cheers, DL

Wow ... 28km/h :o I've near been thrown off the ride-on at walking pace :wasntme:

As always I'm learning from my mistakes. I found a 5 foot slasher locally ... it wasn't cheap (well not what I'd consider cheap) but it has a disc with huge swing back blades) what appears to be an aussie made grease filled gearbox and a rusty top. So more work for next winter to patch the top up.

Anyway.... Why do people remove thermostats ?? why, why ... why. I noticed after cutting about an acre the temperature gauge on the tractor works (phew, that's a relief... saves climbing off every 5mintues to put my hand on the radiator and see if she'd getting hot). Anyway, it never managed to get to 55degrees even working hard running a slasher. sigh .... and "poof" about a litre of oil evaporated from the sump after a couple of hours use.

Yes, yes, I know, it's not burning oil. The fact the tractor has never been warm enough to even move the temperature gauge off the zero stop in the last decade or two means the oil will be more moisture and unburnt fuel than oil .... and some of this will have boiled off.

here's what I learnt. Don't run them out of fuel. ( don't ask :wasntme: :censored: ). I tried bleeding the filter and found the manual primer on the lift pump ( no go ). A friend from bendigo had an operators manual and sent that up to me. It's an 11 step process in the manual to bleed the pump............ And that doesn't work either. They needed to make it a 12 step process. They missed "crack each injector and bleed".

In the process of trying to find all the bleed points for the fuel system I lifted the bonnet off. Did you know if the last person that dismantled the air cleaner assembles it's clamp with the threaded rod to the back ... when you tilt the bonnet slightly as you lift them off ... the threaded rod will go straight through the radiator ?? :censored: :censored: Yep, I know that now too.

Anyway, what a bloody ripper, she runs a lot smoother after the "enforced" service. It came with a box of fresh filters, so it now has fresh engine oil and new engine/fuel filters, I scraped 30years of oil/dirt/gunge from the bottom of the oil bath air filter etc...

Now to fix the brakes ... and lets not forget I probably should change the transmission and hydraulic oil.

Just what I needed, more "things" to service an upkeep. I should have bought a tractor and slasher 5 years ago and saved destroying the mower. Gee's it makes life easier.

seeya,
Shane L.

Wow I'm good at this stuff... I"ve worked out I can break tractors just as easily as ride on mowers :wasntme:

The old international has been getting harder and harder to start, to the point where I used "start ya bastard" to get it fired up tonight. There is a lot of crankcase blowby, and I've noticed it's starting to mix the tiniest amount of oil into the coolant (small slick in the top of the radiator) ... and maybe ( hard to tell ) coolant in the oil.

I'd say she's suffering from a tired rusty old head gasket.... That is blowing into the oil galleries ... and possibly between the cylinders too. It hasn't handled the thing running at operating temperature ( ie: thermostat fitted) and normal load and engine speed for the first time in probably a decade.

It still sounds sweet when working at operating temperature under load (no smoke). but blows plenty of white smoke when cold. And black smoke under full load if you manage to ground the slasher out and use it as a trenching tool :angel: :o :D

I was going to just order in a head gasket for it and whip the head off .... but look how cheap a kit to freshen the motor up is

IFK4444 In Frame Rebuild Kit IH A414 B414 434 Tractor International BD154 Engine | eBay

I wouldn't touch the bottom end, it runs smooth and quiet so will hopefully outlast me given the very limited use.

Oh ... and these sound like the go for those that hate holding down the glow plug button ... 2->4minutes seems like an eternity after all.

MONARK Quick start Set for MERCEDES 200 D /8 - OM 615 4x glow plug glow plug | eBay

Oh, there is no signs of bubbles in the radiator ... I would have expected that with head gasket issues :confused:

seeya,
Shane L.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 350RRC

A mate of mine who is a serious landscaper showed up at my place yesterday to get some garlic for a do tonight.

In short..... I showed him my new Deutz tractor and he showed me his newish zero turn mower on a trailer behind his truck.

It was a Scag and I was totally blown away with the way the the thing had been put together. All real welded solid steel, including the bit around the blades, diesel, fuel tank (the only plastic bit) holding 40l.

I've seen / used some of the rest in domestic use, but this thing would be the dream. The way they should be made. Dunno how much.

And it can mow manicured stuff at 28 km/h apparently.

cheers, DL

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That belts around like the Toros at my work for the playing fields and surrounds - they are quick!!!

Well the damn tractor wouldn't start to put it in the shed ( I even tried start ya bastard again ). Which means I have no choice .... it has to come apart. You know the head and head gasket look perfect to me ....

I'm guessing the reason it refuses to start is the compression rings have broken from hitting the lips at the top of the bores. The "grey" look must be because I tried to start it with starting fluid to move it into the shed :confused:

seeya,
Shane L.

get a bearco engine rebuild kit
cheers
blaze

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bblaze

get a bearco engine rebuild kit
cheers
blaze

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Is this one of there kits ?

IFK4444 In Frame Rebuild Kit IH A414 B414 434 Tractor International BD154 Engine | eBay

thanks
Shane

same content quality unknown. Also be aware when you remove the sleeves there is likely to be some damage where the orings seal in the block

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bblaze

same content quality unknown. Also be aware when you remove the sleeves there is likely to be some damage where the orings seal in the block

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Thanks, yes I'm expecting there to be corrosion and age damage everywhere. Do you bed the liner seals down onto any sort of sealer when you do them? . The liner protrusion feels non existent at the moment to my highly technical "run my thumb nail" over the edge of it test. I'm assuming the old liner Orings are flat as pancakes. The old cars engines I've played with in the past used paper seals under the liners. You set the liner height with varying thicknesses of gasket paper.

seeya,
Shane L.

Lot of internet debate about how and when to use ether to start diesel engines ie results in broken rings, bent rods, redlined rpm, lifted heads etc. Seems best avoided unless specified by the manufacturer ie engine is designed for ether start.

I was contemplating ether when trying to get a yanmar working but decided against it after the internet search, persevering with getting the electrics and fuel system working properly instead. A tractor is a very useful machine to have. Good luck.