2084: Puffing Smoke 2

[105_Tom]

Oy. Not the thread I was hoping to start. I finally had a chance today to take the 2084 out for its virgin run in the big field. I mentioned at the end of my other post that I noticed it smoking lightly as I was putting it away. Well, after 30 or 40 minutes of WOT mowing in medium length grass with the Haban deck, it blew all of its oil out of the front and rear seals. I shut it down just in time as it was just starting to knock and was quickly on its way to a fatal overheat. I refilled it with oil land nursed it back to the house for a complete cool off and hosing down.

After the cool off, it started right up and ran well, so I got it back into the shed. Right now, I'm thinking I'm gonna pull the Command and strip it to the block. Dunno know if I'll pull the heads yet, but I'll do both crank seals, clean the fins and tins up, and go over the breather and valve cover gaskets as well as any other obvious issues (maybe even steering CV joint).

I know Paul S and Eric had a happy ending with a nearly identical issue on Paul's 2084, so I hope I can make lemonade here with mine. I still really like the tractor; it operated flawlessly otherwise, and I'm really diggin that Haban deck! Just bummed to be dealing with this after my first outing. Maybe I should name this one Titanic? 827 hrs...

[SumBum]

The oil didn't feel sticky did it? Iv'e seen that happen when someone overloads oil treatment with the oil.

[Cubcrazy]

Sorry to hear Tom.
You will get it fixed!

[Methos]

Tom I hate to hear that. Uncle Gene had a engine rebuilt in his 1862 and the engine builder used RTV and plugged up one of the oil path holes and it would blow both seals. He took it back to the builder 3 times and he gave him a full refund! Him and his son put a gasket on it it after they removed all the RTV and haven't had a problem since. I hope to own that 1862 one day.

[EricR]

Sorry to hear about the problem Tom. Yeah I don't like the stock crank seals but the replacements with just a little RTV on the outside of those seals made them fit snug and have been mowing most of last season and have not had a problem since. Not a hard fix but you will get it!

[ACecil]

Sorry to hear that, Tom. You'll get it straightened out!

[105_Tom]

Two and a half months later... Well, hey, it's back up and running by July! This poor Kohler was doomed from the start. I was soo enthralled with the tractor, I didn't even give it a good once-over before I used it Had I have just taken the air cleaner off, I would have never bothered to run the tractor without a complete teardown and cleaning. It was soo caked up with dirt and grime that there is no way it could have possibly kept its cool under ANY operational condition! In addition to what you see in the dirty pics, the inside of the blower housing was caked solid right up to the flywheel: no airflow at all. I finally got some shop time with my mechanic friend last Wednesday. We pulled the motor down to the block for a total inspection. Not a virgin engine by any stretch. Both pistons had been touched by a valve at some point (dropped a guide maybe?) and it appears that the heads and valves have been worked at least once. The breather was actually not clogged, but the filter was missing, indicating that someone had been in there. The cylinder bores were in pretty good shape, but the bottom 3-piece oil control rings on both pistons were obviously not doing their jobs. We hit the bores with a hone for just 10-20 seconds to break the glaze on the walls and then removed the old rings and cleaned out the lands in the pistons really good. A lot of coked-up deposits there, especially on the wide bottom land for the oil rings, so I'm guessing they may have been siezed and not sealing.Everything else spec'd out fine, so we installed the new rings (at $75 a piston ) and put the motor back together with new gaskets and head bolts where applicable. No service to cylinder heads or valves.

I've been cleaning and scraping and scraping and cleaning the past two days to de-gunk the bolt-on accessories and tins and get the tractor back together for the weekend. Used a half tube of JB Weld on the 'engineered materials' to glue the front clip back together. So far, it's holding. I went easy on the retainers this time when I reattached it to the frame. I went ahead and put two new magneto coils on it while the engine was apart. The coils can be suspect on these engines, and since I know it got hot, all the better to swap them out now. I also did the SamMac clean and re-pack of the steering and front driveshaft CV joints. Got it all back together around dinner time and I now have about 20 minutes of smoke-free run time on the motor! Tomorrow, weather permitting, I will take it down to the powerlines and sink it in some taller grass to seat those rings good.

I'll be completely satisfied after a good performance tomorrow. I still like the tractor a lot, and hope the 2nd outing will be much better than the first! Oh, yeah, someone's been in the rear, too.

[105_Tom]

more pics:

Only thing better than one nice Super is TWO nice Supers!! (and yes, I'm quickly getting very attached to that old red one...)

[ACecil]

You have some sharp supers, Tom!

[Cubcrazy]

Good to hear you got the 2084 back up and running Tom!
Nice pair of supers too!