Farmall A New Overhaul Oil Consumption

Last winter I completely rebuilt my Farmall A engine including new sleeves, pistons, rings, bearings, reground crank, new valves/springs/guides, hot tanked block, and new clutch. Basicly, it is a new engine. I have a Woods 60" belly mower on this tractor and have been cutting grass all summer on a weekly basis as we have had a lot of rain this year. It takes about 1 1/2 hours to cut the grass and with all the rain, the load on the tractor is substantal and variable. I installed step pistons from Tisco, so I have much more power than I used to have. The problem I am having is that the tractor smokes every time I start it (hot or cold) and it smokes when it is idling. It doesn't smoke under load (unless it is burning it better). It seems like a valve guide problem, but I put in new valves and guides. It has used about 2 quarts of oil this summer. I also thought maybe the rings haven't seated, but I don't know why or what to do about that. This is not like my first engine overhaul as I have done many other tractors without this problem. Can anyone make any recommendations? One additional piece of info is that this tractor did similarly before the overhaul, so is there something wrong in the head that didn't get corrected at the machine shop I took it to? Roger

what kind of rings did you put in it I know a while back my dad put copper ones in a cub and I must have cleaned or changed the plugs every 4 hours and it smoked pretty good too took about 40 hrs to break in

They do not have factory stem seals. I always rebuild with PC style teflon slider oil control seals. Umbrella seals (though less directly effective) work well, and can be installed without removing the head. (use a piece of clothes line cotton rope in the cylinder to keep the valves up while removing the springs and retainers, to allow stem access. Using 30 wt oil as recommended from the factory back then, allowed less seepage down the stem than modern multi Vis, (do not go back to single wt oil, no need). I would give that a try, it is cheap and easy. I would also say that it could have a crack in the intake side of the intake ports allowing oil into a cylinder, but it would sure show on a plug reading to be only one cylinder. Jim

out of curiosity, did you make sure that the ring gaps were staggered, and do not line up?

Ring gap position has nothing to do with oil use. The oil ring controls that.

Did you ever run it with the valve cover off and see how much oil is flowing from the rockers? You may have to restrict it somehow as they didn't use valve seals. The center bolt(stud) is where the oil comes up from the cam.

I used to put a lot of perfect circle valve seals on those engines, and with wear the rocker arms will throw more oil on valve guides than when they were new. The compression rings do indeed have alot to do with oil comsumption, IH several times over the years changed only the compression rings to help control oil consumption. That is why they make several different types of compression rings like barrel face, taper face, torsion grooves in inner and or outer side of ring. Install a taper face compression ring upside down and watch it use oil.

Oh I agree. But this engine uses straight cut rings.

How many hours did you run it? These engines burned oil when they were new - two quarts in a summer isn't that much if you ran it 40-60+ hours especially under heavy load. 2 quarts is a lot if you only ran it 8-10 hours though. But then it isn't "broke in" if thats all you ran it.

Too much oil can be an issue but the oil is meetered by the cam bearing hole, a pulsing pressure delivery. If still excessive (a brazed up and then drilling a smaller hole on that bolt could be restrictive.

I prefer using seals as they actually meter the oil flowing into the guide. this both reduces consumption, and assures lube to the stem.

Jim

An oil ring has to leave enough oil on cyl to properly lube compression rings and it is their job to complete the job for final result of controlling oil no matter what style ring is used.

Thanks for all the replies. You confirmed several thoughts I had about checking how much oil is circulating in the rocker arm area by running the engine with the valve cover off. It looks like I should invest in some valve seals (my machine shop guy said he could supply). There was a question about how I installed the rings. I made sure the gaps were not lined up and also checked all rings for correct gap before installing on the piston. I like to buy "Made in USA" things, and this Tisco kit I think is made in Mexico, so that could be part of the problem. I have had a lot of problems with "Made in China" stuff as it usually almost fits and wears out quickly. That's my editorial. Roger