today's gasoline... is it just me?

I've been restoring tractors for almost 25 years now, and as of late have noticed a new quirk. Few years ago I rebuilt a '40 H completely. New pistons, rings, sleeves, etc and a professionally rebuilt head. I've noticed that when I first start the tractor up, I get a slight misting of water droplets. Not white smoke and not unburned fuel, but it does leave little black specks all over the place. It doesn't have any water in the crankcase or creamy oil, and my water level isn't going down.
Now, I've restored three different tractors in the last year, (two cubs and a B), and all of them exhibit similar characteristics. Has anyone else seen this? I could see ONE headgasket maybe having a leak after assembly, but 4? I usually use an aviation grade head sealant and out of 35 tractors I've redone, I've had NO head gasket leaks. Interstingly enough, I have 4 JD two cylinders, and none of them show the same spray, even though they use the same fuel.
I'm using 89 octane w/ 10 ethanol...which is about all you can get around here in the midwest it seems.

Ethanol is the most likely reason. It tends to attract water. The bonus here is you'll never have a frozen gas line because the ethanol holds the water in suspension where it can't freeze. If you find some non-ethanol fuel, it would be real easy to test this theory. As far as finding non-ethanol fuel, Nebraska only puts ethanol in mid-grade. You obviously don't need the octane, but aviation fuel doesn't have ethanol.

As an after thought, consider this... the droplets usually disappear after the engine warms up. That being considered, it might explain why the Deere DON'T have the spray..... the long horizontal exhaust may allow the droplets time to "pool" before being sprayed out, and then they are evaporated as the exhaust pipe warms up....

I run the 87 octane non ethanol in my gas equipment and do not have any issues. I am not going to get into the ethanol debate, but it works fine for me.

My Dad had a '40H, then I had it, and when I sold it about 5 years ago to a local young man it was still running smooth as silk and never been apart. All in all I drove that tractor about 20 years and worked it hard about 5 of that.
First start of the day and also restarting after a coupe hours setting I would always get a mist of water coming down on me from the exhaust and sprinkling the hood cowling.
But, like I said, it runs smooth with plenty of power so I wouldn't worry to much about it.
I also had a couple JDA which never did it, using the same fuel.
Dell

Sgt,
I also have the same problem and also with my "restored" H Farmall. The engine got new rings and valves 4 yrs ago when I bought the tractor. When I start it up and let it warm up a bit small (very tiny) black liquid spots fall on the tractor. After a few minutes I rev it up to 3/4 throttle and bring it back to idle just to blow the crap out of the muffler. Then I get out the nice soft rag and wipe everything down; the stuff is easy to remove.

Sometimes I just start the tractor and pull out the driveway and go about 1/4 - 1/3 throttle and the stuff always hits me in the face and I get tiny black spots on my shirt. And the spots on shirts are permanent. The problem goes away after I travel about 500 feet.

I've tried to use gas with no alcohol whenever I can but the problem seems to be with me all the time. Of course, adding no-alcohol gas to a tank with leftover regular gas defeats my goal somewhat.

My radiator does not leak, I change oil often, and mostly use the tractor for joy rides and run it full throttle about 1/2 the time just to clean out the exhaust. Even after our spring plow day (tractor pulls a plow for 3-4 hrs) I can start the tractor the next day and those black spots fall out of the sky.

I feel that the spots are water-based, not from raw fuel.

LA in Wi with spotted shirts.

Its called condesation, building in the muffler as it warms up. Simple easy fix it to let the tractor sit for a few minutes and warm up the muffler. We have had this "problem" as long as I can remember.None of the older Deeres we had did this because of the muffler design.

87 octane, no ethanol, no problem, cold or hot. Tractors get very little use, so I have mostly condensation. My personal opinion is that ethanol is overrated. But, I'm not saying it's causing your problem. I have seen cold diesel engines do that, but not gas. Had to wash my pickup after some idiot in central Texas with a cold diesel pickup with vertical exhausts floored it in front of me. Never saw so much soot.

Well, I'm feeling better about it... still don't like it, but feel better. I think I'll have the local muffler shop make me a nice 90 degree w/ an angle cut to blow the stuff off to the side... I hate getting the spray on my nice paint.

Water vapor is a normal byproduct of the combustion is the engine. A cool muffler allows the vapor to condense where it mixes with the soot from previous use.

If these tractors were still being pulled like they were originally used there would not be the buildup of soot in the muffler so the water droplets would not be as noticeable.

My 460u does the same thing...no water in the oil...same level in the radiator...I thought an engine job was soon to be on the docket. Sure makes a mess.

maybe internal engine work is not needed.

Butch

i thought this was refered to as wet stacking? maybe just me but my h does it to? if i put the engine under a heavy load it seems to go away for a couple days? but oh well it is what it is

Where are you getting non-ethanol gasoline? There is no around here in 500 miles. My mileage has droppeed 10% and my tractors run warmer but pop off more since Jan 1st. At least thats how I see it. Henry

My farmall 300 has been giving me the exact same problem. We were trying to track down the problem, and were just about to call it a head gasket when my super m started to do the exact same thing. I also feel it is the fuel, since the m was running on old fuel, and hadn't been filled with new for a while. It was when we put in the new tank that I started to notice it. I wonder if anyone has tried premium gas, and if it has made a difference

In a gasoline engine, under ideal combustion conditions, the exhaust product would be CO2 and water. However, we seldom notice water in the exhaust stream in a warm engine because once the exhaust system heats up, the water becomes a vapor...yes, that would be steam. Auto mufflers used to have "weep holes" to let water that accumulated in mufflers escape...and when these mufflers rusted out, usually it was in the vicinity of a weep hole [not always, but usually].

When the exhaust system--short as it is on a Farmall with an upright exhaust--is cold, the water component of the exhaust condenses...and you get water droplets falling out of the exhaust stream. Also, when the engine is cold, it's more likely it will take some amount of choke to start the engine. With the choke partially closed, you're introducing more fuel with the same volume of air. Hence, you get slightly less complete combustion, and carbon particles ["unburned hydrocarbons"] are also in the exhaust stream. So when that cold water component condenses out of the exhaust stream, it acts as a "scrubber" and takes some of the otherwise unnoticed carbon particles with it when it falls from the exhaust stream.

Thus, your "water drops" and "black spots" occur more commonly when the exhaust system is cold. And since alcohol is hygroscopic [attracts water], it's only logical that gasolines blended with alcohol will have more water in the exhaust.

I don't have any trouble with this, but I do have to drain my carb in the spring to get the SM to fire. That is til I dumped a couple gallons of chainsaw gas in it one day. The gas quit going bad in the carb at that point.