1959 D14 - Advice needed on potential overhaul

I have a 1959 D14 that has been in the family since my great-grandpa owned his A-C dealership. I am guessing it has anywhere from 3000-4000 total hours on it, and it has never been overhauled to my knowledge. It is starting to burn a decent amount of oil, has a slight miss on acceleration/load, and I can tell a general loss of power as well. While I don't think it's in need of a major overhaul just yet, I wanted to get some advice on things to start looking at.

Aside from regular wear and tear maintenance items, what things should I start testing to see if it needs work? Compression test? Head work? Valve adjustment? If an overhaul is needed down the road, what overhaul kits are recommended?

This tractor has worked it's entire life and I want to get another 50 years out of it.

Thanks!


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Do you know if there has been any neglect with regular oil changes? If it has been parked for any extended time with long overdue/dirty engine oil there is a possibility of piston rings getting stuck. If that may be the case, a fresh oil change with a good additive, I have had great success with Rislone myself, might free up the rings to give good seal again. A compression test will tell you a lot. If the oil consumption has been slowly increasing it may be due for new piston rings and a valve grind. These engines have good longevity. The cost should not be out of line for a minor overhaul.
 
(quoted from post at 11:30:55 03/23/23) Do you know if there has been any neglect with regular oil changes? If it has been parked for any extended time with long overdue/dirty engine oil there is a possibility of piston rings getting stuck. If that may be the case, a fresh oil change with a good additive, I have had great success with Rislone myself, might free up the rings to give good seal again. A compression test will tell you a lot. If the oil consumption has been slowly increasing it may be due for new piston rings and a valve grind. These engines have good longevity. The cost should not be out of line for a minor overhaul.

Thanks for the reply. This tractor has been used regularly since the 50's, and has never sat for longer than maybe a few months at at time. We use it for mowing, spraying, etc. All oil changes and regular maintenance has been done.

The question was more along the lines of when is it time to look into a rebuild? I suppose a compression test will tell me a lot. I considered a quick valve adjustment as well. The burning oil issue seems common for a tractor this age, but it is starting to use more than I would like.
 
I have two D14's and the engines are tight with good compression. I have no previous history or how many true hours, I have high appreciation for what these 149 cu. in. engines will do and how they hold up even under considerable workload. To answer your question i would say yes, yours is ready for new piston rings and disassembly of the head to make sure the valves are up to snuff. You will be very pleased when this is done. In all likelihood the sleeves are fine but need to be honed and have the ridges removed. The difference in results between new sleeves or leaving the old ones in, is minimal providing the old liners look ok. If there is no bottom end knock on start up and you have ok oil pressure with the bearings looking fine, it's really up to your discretion if you reuse or replace them. It's nice to see an all original one owner tractor like your picture shows.
 
(quoted from post at 13:17:43 03/23/23) I have two D14's and the engines are tight with good compression. I have no previous history or how many true hours, I have high appreciation for what these 149 cu. in. engines will do and how they hold up even under considerable workload. To answer your question i would say yes, yours is ready for new piston rings and disassembly of the head to make sure the valves are up to snuff. You will be very pleased when this is done. In all likelihood the sleeves are fine but need to be honed and have the ridges removed. The difference in results between new sleeves or leaving the old ones in, is minimal providing the old liners look ok. If there is no bottom end knock on start up and you have ok oil pressure with the bearings looking fine, it's really up to your discretion if you reuse or replace them. It's nice to see an all original one owner tractor like your picture shows.

I also have a high appreciation for these 149 engines. It has never needed major work, and it has been ran pretty hard for close to 65 years.

But the main issue right now is the burning of the oil, and once the tractor warms up it has close to zero oil pressure (not sure if that's normal or a gauge issue). Any recommendations on the best rebuild kit to buy?
 
Before I went to far into the engine I would do a valve adjustment, maybe look at points, look at spark plugs to see if it is rich or lean, maybe take apart and put
together the carburetor, cleaning and adjusting it, and do a compression test, and check ignition timing. Then with the results of all this make a decision as to how to
proceed.
 
(quoted from post at 14:49:04 03/23/23) Before I went to far into the engine I would do a valve adjustment, maybe look at points, look at spark plugs to see if it is rich or lean, maybe take apart and put
together the carburetor, cleaning and adjusting it, and do a compression test, and check ignition timing. Then with the results of all this make a decision as to how to
proceed.

This is great advice. I really haven't done anything mentioned above other than plugs, and a few ignition components. Might be time for a complete tune-up and go from there. Thanks.
 
One of those engines, that is healthy and in good condition, will not use ANY oil from one oil change (100 hrs max) to the next. It will never smoke blue out the exhaust pipe. When the engine is worn out (or near worn out) they start using oil and suffer from low oil pressure when warmed up. I've been servicing those little engines since 1970 or so. Any attempt to "re-ring" old pistons and sleeves is a band-aid at best and usually won't last 50% of the hours of new pistons and sleeves. The actual labor time to clean/hone/re-ring isn't much different than new sleeves and pistons. New valve guides are a must and probably new intake and exhaust valves too. On an engine that old (if never OH'd before) it would be very wise to pull the old sleeves to remove the accumulation of rust build-up from inside the block cavity. While the sleeves are out, throw them away and install new. New cam bearings are an absolute must for good oil pressure as are new main/rod bearings and a good chance that the engine will need the crankshaft reground undersized to get the journals round again. New governor weights a must. Any proper tune-up includes a timing light to set the ignition timing correctly with the engine at wide open throttle. A compression test is OK fine, and the compression still may be good, but because of the wear on the sleeves, rings, piston ring groove width and valve guides and valve stems it is using oil and no tune up will correct that. Almost forgot.....rebuild the oil pump as it will need new vanes/springs at a MINIMUJM.

This post was edited by DrAllis on 03/23/2023 at 05:54 pm.
 
(quoted from post at 16:23:02 03/23/23) One of those engines, that is healthy and in good condition, will not use ANY oil from one oil change (100 hrs max) to the next. It will never smoke blue out the exhaust pipe. When the engine is worn out (or near worn out) they start using oil and suffer from low oil pressure when warmed up. I've been servicing those little engines since 1970 or so. Any attempt to "re-ring" old pistons and sleeves is a band-aid at best and usually won't last 50% of the hours of new pistons and sleeves. The actual labor time to clean/hone/re-ring isn't much different than new sleeves and pistons. New valve guides are a must and probably new intake and exhaust valves too. On an engine that old (if never OH'd before) it would be very wise to pull the old sleeves to remove the accumulation of rust build-up from inside the block cavity. While the sleeves are out, throw them away and install new. New cam bearings are an absolute must for good oil pressure as are new main/rod bearings and a good chance that the engine will need the crankshaft reground undersized to get the journals round again. New governor weights a must. Any proper tune-up includes a timing light to set the ignition timing correctly with the engine at wide open throttle. A compression test is OK fine, and the compression still may be good, but because of the wear on the sleeves, rings, piston ring groove width and valve guides and valve stems it is using oil and no tune up will correct that. Almost forgot.....rebuild the oil pump as it will need new vanes/springs at a MINIMUJM.

This post was edited by DrAllis on 03/23/2023 at 05:54 pm.

Thank you for all of this information! Sounds like an overhaul, sooner rather than later, is my best option to keep this tractor going. It burns a good amount of oil, and the oil pressure when warm is almost zero.

Any recommendations on what brand to use for parts? There are a few different rebuild kits available and I would assume they all come from the same manufacturer?
 
Oil consumption is from worn out parts. So is low oil pressure. What exactly is your oil pressure gauge ? does it have numbers on it ?? or just the word NORMAL ?? I'd probably suggest straight SAE 30 weight motor oil and cheap oil to boot. Non-detergent oil probably will smoke less. One grade hotter spark plugs will help keep them from fouling. None of this is a fix. It is just an attempt to nurse it along until OH time. I would install a D-15/G-149 motor kit knowing full well if you are 6 volts now, you will need to update to 12 volts to start it better with the D-15's higher compression. More compression makes more power, will use less gas on most jobs, but takes more oooommff to crank it over when cold.
 
.

Try adding Lucas old engine lube after changing oil. As one guy says it's got a lot of dinosaurs in it to make an engine run better.

.
 
Back in the day when we ran Allis Chalmers tractors engine overhauls were no big deal. About every seven years the way we ran them.
New sleeves, rings, valve job, etc. good to go another seven years.
 
(quoted from post at 15:10:40 03/24/23) Oil consumption is from worn out parts. So is low oil pressure. What exactly is your oil pressure gauge ? does it have numbers on it ?? or just the word NORMAL ?? I'd probably suggest straight SAE 30 weight motor oil and cheap oil to boot. Non-detergent oil probably will smoke less. One grade hotter spark plugs will help keep them from fouling. None of this is a fix. It is just an attempt to nurse it along until OH time. I would install a D-15/G-149 motor kit knowing full well if you are 6 volts now, you will need to update to 12 volts to start it better with the D-15's higher compression. More compression makes more power, will use less gas on most jobs, but takes more oooommff to crank it over when cold.

Sorry just now seeing your reply. We have been using straight SAE 30 for as long as I can remember on this tractor.

My oil pressure gauge just reads "normal". On startup I can get the gauge to read about halfway up on the normal range. It will stay in normal range until about 15-20 minutes of use then it drops to zero. No blue smoke on startup, and there really isn't any blue smoke noticeable when running the tractor. The only time I can see a faint blue smoke is if the tractor is far away, and the backdrop is dark.

I think I will start by changing out the plugs for one step hotter like you suggested. Cylinder #1 always tends to fail first, the other 3 are usually good. Again, I am not too eager to take on an overhaul project at the moment but it is definitely something that needs to be done.
 
Engine oil pressure on an engine like that doesn't have to be high. 5psi is enough. Sometimes these new paper element filters will
cause low pressure. Try finding one like the original which was stuffed with rag material.
 

Is the standpipe (that slides into the filter media) still in the filter base? They sometimes work loose from the base, stay in the filter, and get thrown away during a filter change. It provides a restriction to control the amount of oil passing through the filter, it must be there to have proper oil pressure.

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Dr. Allis advice above is sound. I just did a total rebuild/repaint on a 59' d14. One of the things i did do that i think was well worth it was a compression test and a leak down test. The leak down test (kits for this on amazon), proved the valves on cylinders 2 and 3 were leaking badly, from what i suppose is the famous "water down the exhaust pipe" for those tractors left outdoors. After pulling the head, and cleaning the oil-crud out of the valve train assembly, i replaced the guides, lapped and replaced the valves, and reassembled. Figured at that point i had little dollars in the tractor engine, and if it ran crappy after assembly then the next step was the lower end rebuild., In my case, my compression was high and even, no leaks on the leak down, and so far i got lucky - engine purrs with good oil pressure. Your tell-tale oh-oh is the low oil pressure. Doc is right- probably ready for rebuild. And for sure don't forget what has already been mentioned - make sure you put a rebuild oil pump in. That is easy to do and well worth the small investment, but must be done when the engine is out. Good luck.
 

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