Block Cleaning

How much rust is too much on the cylinder walls? The 300 I bought that was stuck is now free and spins over easily with the hand crank. There is some rust on the sleeves.
What is my next step?

Should I replace the piston with the 1/4 in nut hammered into it?

I am not an engine builder...........yet.

Thanks
Nate

Looks like it needs a complete overhaul to me.

Hey Kevin,

From what I am seeing,you are actually looking at a full sleeve,piston,new rings scenario here.(I know,JUST what you wanted to hear,huh?

You can see the ridge at the top of the sleeves on all of the cylinders,It has been well worn to see that.

IMHO here,FULL rebuild if you want a REALLY good engine?

I meant NATE ,NOT Kevin.

(quoted from post at 14:40:04 10/24/12) I meant NATE ,NOT Kevin.

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Looking at the block makes me wonder about the head also.

Yea,The deck surface DOES look pretty rough.

I would be taking it all down and after cleaning the block and head well,be looking for cracks and be checking head/block mounting surfaces for squareness.


This is starting to look like a REALLY expensive road to start going down to me.

How much money were you planning on wrapping up in this project? A complete engine over haul can get WAY expensive.

Full rebuild is what I expected so that's okay. Can I do an in-frame or should I just pull the block and put it on a stand?

I am going to take the head into Arnold Motor Supply and have it gone through. There is alot of carbon built up on the valves.

Nate

Based on the pics I would pull it out and take it in with the head to be tested and machined, have them install the sleeves too.

Ain't just the deck. Water jacket looks a bit plugged too, oil galleys probably aren't much better. It would be an out of chassis if it were mine.

all depends what your plans are for this tractor. if you want some thing that runs and just as a play thing around the yard that can be running with very little expence. get your self some emery cloth and a flat file and put your elbow grease to it. pull the pistons hone the cyl"s. clean the block deck and if any pits in it use j b weld in them and file flat. as i say its your call , but just saying that a big professional engine job spending thousands of dollars is not nessessary when it will run with a couple hundred dollars worth, and a lot of time spent just in the cleaning up department. i have seen worst that that that i have made run. after all what do you think those soaker engines look like inside after being freed up? the pistons are running up and down in rust scoring the cyl"s more.but this is just a little advice that when you want a stuck engine to run is to take it apart and clean all rust out.

and hey, then you can say that "i made this thing run" and you also have gained experience working on an engine . thats what it is all about and then you gain knowledge for the next round. of course it can use sleeves and pistons, but its totally not nessessary to get the tractor running. good luck.

Pull the pistons out, hone it and ring it. It will work fine. I doubt that you are going to farm 500 acres with it. It aint new and it aint pretty but for a toy it will run fine.

To Kevin below,Yea I DO agree there is WAY more going on here than could me mentioned without something short of an engine rebuilding seminar!(That is my point too!)

To Nate,doing this this half A$$ed could cost you WAY more in the long run.

For one of MANY things ,look at this photo you posted.I know photo shadows can be somewhat deceptive,but that ridge is serious. I bet that particular cylinder would pump oil out the exhaust no matter if you did hone it and do rings!!!(The piston clearance looks WAY sloppy to,but could not be fore sure until further investigation)

Dont waste GOOD money just to go back and add more money later.Somethings can be "overlooked",but some can be disasterous!

FYI,You might wanna read the new post just 2 above this one! (titled super H)

I bet he wished he had did things differently the FIRST time???

Nate, I just did a major overhaul on my M over the summer. I brought the block and head to a machine shop, had it taken apart (removing the crank is tough without the tools or knowledge and I had neither), crank ground and new bearings replaced, cam checked, complete engine kit (sleeves/pistons/rings/bearings), I had the head completly rebuilt, deck resurfaced, and the short block re-assembled. All in all I spent $3,200 on the rebuild (just the engine). Sounds like your going to be doing the brunt of the work yourself so you should be saving much more than I did so my advice would be if your going to do it, do it right (im glad i did). take it to a machine shop, they will check the block/head for you to ensure that its not cracked, and tell you what needs to be done. Then you can decide how far you want them to go before you begin the rebuild. Best of luck, sounds like a cool project, give us updates on how it goes! ~Anthony

Well here is my 6 cents worth ( inflation ya know) From what i am looking at it is time for a rebuild , the ridge on them sleeves tells me that she is PLUM wore out . No if and's buts about it . Do it wright the first time and be done with it and it will out last you . It only hurts for a little while when you writing the checks , it only money and ya can not take that with ya.

Another option for temporary might be to find an old H and just use its engine.You can usually find a running H WAY cheaper than an engine rebuild.That will give you some time to rebuild the 300 engine and take your time doing it right.

You can part the H out for some extra cash. It might help out money wise?

I was going to part this 300 out to use on an H. Just cant bring myself to do it. I have a feeling before to long I'm going to have a lot of money in a lot of "parts" tractors.

Nate

It is easy to get a lot of cash wrapped up in these.Just ask ANYONE on this sight.

Well,there is probably someone out there that is looking for a 300 for parts or would like to have that one to fix up.There are also A LOT of decent Hs to be had at a reasonable price that run pretty good.

Either way you have an opportunity to have a tractor and sell some parts off to help offset the cost.

Just keep at it and keep a positive attitude.It took me quite awhile to find the one I wanted and to get it fixed the way I wanted it,but I finally got there. It did not happen over night though.