[Farmall] Super A engine trouble...

Stephen Offiler soffiler at gmail.com
Sat Sep 19 05:30:29 PDT 2009


I'm surprised no one mentioned this - but further diagnosis does NOT
require opening up, yet.  After the initial compression test, you put
a few tablespoons of oil in any suspect cylinders and remeasure
compression.  If the problem is rings, the compression number will
come up (maybe not all the way back to normal but a signficant change
for the better).  If the problem is a valve, the oil will not help at
all.  Next, a leakdown test will also give more info without
disassembly.  There are various rigs you can employ to get numerical
measurents, but you can simply hook an airline in place of the
compression gage on the bad cylinder and listen.  (bad cyl  must be
tdc on compression, make sure valves are closed).  Do you hear airr
hissing out crankcase?  Intake manifold?  Exhaust manifold?

The fact that your mechanic has not done this suggests to me that
perhaps you need a different mechanic,

Steve O.

On Fri, Sep 18, 2009 at 8:52 AM, Greg Holmes <nycsfan at yahoo.com> wrote:
> This may be a tough question to diagnose online, but my Super A has been running very poorly (as in, barely running) and this is beyond my level of expertise.
>
> A tractor repair guy now tells me that the #1 cylinder has about 15lb pressure (the plug was very oil- and carbon-fouled on that cylinder) and that he needs to open the engine up to determine if it's a valve or worse. I have a worst-case scenario of a $2500 rebuild or a valve, or a head gasket problem (the engine does seep a little oil from the head gasket area).
>
> Any shared experiences are welcome. Ultimately, this will be a decision of would one scrap a vintage tractor vs. fully restore it to tip top condition for probably another 50-100 years of service (given how it's no longer working daily on the farm).
>
> Many thanks in advance.
>
> Greg
>
>
>
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