bad tractor day

Well i have not used my ford 4000 much the last 6 weeks and we were doing some work to my barn and my new one was being built so my ford had to sit outside. went to start it the other day and it was dead so i jumped it from the truck and put it in my work shop. Then yesterday i happend to walk by it and pulled the dipstick and it was covered in what appeared to be Grey Paint. well i drained the oil and i drained 5 gallons of gray fluid. i dont think there is any doubt i got a crack in the block. I drained the anti freeze and there was maybe a couple quarts of clear fluid (water) I had it filled with the antifreeze and i dont remember adding water. but some how it got in there and must have froze and crack somthing some were. since then ive gotten the radiator off and the fan and all the panels, hoods and so on. ill pull the oil pan in the next day or two. and get to the head. but so far i don,t see a crack of any kind. just hope its fixable.

My ford is my primary tractor i use it for every thing from baling to digging post holes and all the basic utility work. been looking for a 80hp tractor to take over the bigger jobs but havent found one and now i got to spend my money rebuilding the motor on the ford, i also had a loader lined up but now its a no go. i hate days like this. what do all guestemate what it will cost to fix this.

3 cyl or 4 cyl?

gas or diesel?

soundguy

3cyl, gas, 1965
was a great tractor.

If it turns out to be pinholes in the cylinder wall, about $100/cylinder for a repair sleeve. You might consider all three.

Maybe put the radiator back in, fill with antifreeze, and then pressurize it. Then look for leaks and pull the pan to see where it might be coming from. Might save you some time, once apart and you don't see anything then it gets to be a guessing game. chris Good luck chris

you know i thought the same thing but on this model the radiator is attached to the front end and to get the oil pan off i have to remove the front end its a poor design as far as ease of maintance. but i think i might figure out a way of keeping the radiator in place so i can do that.

That 3 cylinder non sleeved motor is an easy one to freeze and break. I have had several over the years that would get water down the muffler then freeze and break the block. I usually have a local machine shop bore the block and install a sleeve in the bad cylinder. I have the two good ones bored to +.030 or .060 then match the replacement sleeve to them. Install an overhaul kit and you are good to go.

It does not take much rain either. I had one that was used on a Friday and left out side. We had one inch of rain Saturday. It got to -5 Monday. The owner started it Tuesday morning. Cracked number three cylinder wall and dropped the water into the oil. So it only took 3-4 days to wipe out the motor.

Just another example why we dont let our tractors set outside.

Haven't worked on many Fords, just trying to help. chris

If it was me,...I would continue on with the oil change, and run it to see if the oil turns white again. Could be a very bad case of condensation or maybe some kid put water in the oil filler opening? Just saying,..make sure.

Why do you need the radiator? Find rubber plugs for the inlet and outlet, pressurize it through heater port in water pump, or the block drain. (fill it with water first) You should have the pan off for this test, so you can see which cylinder is dripping. Otherwise, all you'll see is water dripping out the drain plug, and we already know water is getting to the crankcase. I think it would be best to have the manifolds off, too. Make an adapter for a garden hose to attach to your engine.You'll get a better test this way, since with the radiator on, the most pressure you can get would be 14lbs., without endangering the radiator. Most well water systems are about 40psi, city water even higher. Here's one more thing to try. Put it all back together and run it one more time, see if it does it again. I suggest this because I serviced a 655A for a guy last summer, which had the exhaust manifold split from frozen rainwater due to a rotten muffler. Radiator empty, oil dripping out dipstick tube, I told the customer the engine was wasted. (but it still ran) He said,"just change the oil and put on a new manifold". I did, and that blasted thing never lost another drop of water. I have no explanation. That experience defied everything I thought I knew about engines.

you think its just condensation? i just thought that when i drained the case i got a very full 5 gallon bucket of grey paint looking oil that it had to be a crack. i didn't even try an oil change. well i haven't taken it any further apart and it would only take 10min to get it to gether enough to run i guess i ought to make sure its not the simple things first before jumping to worst case conclusions. if it is condensation its the worst case i've ever seen 5 gallons out of a case that should hold 2 gallons /8 quarts. well lets hope its condenstation.

Guessing game, brother, you aint kidding! Currently have a pre-chamber 7.3 apart, one cylinder filling with coolant. Had to pull a glow plug and crank it before every night before I could go home. No evidence of head gasket leak, pressure tested heads, did in-vehicle block pressure test with equipment borrowed from my machinist, intake gasket in good condition, never found anything. I'm afraid to put it back together!

I will also say it sounds like a pinhole in a cylinder. Oil doesn't turn into that grey goop just by getting water in it... your tractor was run with water in the oil to make that mess. I've had this happen with two of my Fords - the 7000 maybe 15 years ago (4500+ hours since) and my 4600 last fall. I've been shopping around some for parts and got a good deal on a sleeve/piston/ring set, so I think I'll be able to get mine back together for somewhere around $2000, depending on what the machine shop charges. I'll echo the other poster in saying sleeve all three cylinders, not just one.
The 'good' part of your situation is that you'll have a tractor with a fresh engine that should last another 40 years.

Over in Britain we have a big problem with porous blocks in Fords and we don't usually get enough frost to cause it. The big problem was porous castings right from the start,some so bad that when they did eventually leak and you went to resleeve them they would open out to a hole the size of a marble! All Ford dealers had a hand cart to carry the new criss-cross blocks out to the customers pick-ups,but even these leaked. Nowadays we have aftermarket short motors as cheap as reboring and overhauling. Shop around.
Sam

FYI, The 7.3L IDI's liked to cavitate and get a hole eroded in one of the cylinder walls from the outside in. (cyl 7 or 8 were most common). In order to prevent cavitation you have to run an additive in the anitfreeze that needs replenished every 15000 miles.

Most likely it got a pinhole in the block...
Best thing at this point is to drain the oil and refill the cooling system... then watch and see what comes out the drain plug. If it's a slow dribble or almost none... probably a pinhole. If it's a gusher... I would expect it's probably one of the welch plugs in the head let go. They do rust...
It's certainly possible that a cylinder split open... but if it had the correct strength mix of antifreeze and the exhaust was covered... I think a split is unlikely.

Rod

I just say that one should check with the simplest possibilities before jumping to a major overhaul or getting a new engine. A bucket full of oil is much cheaper than going through all that other stuff. Right?