oil coming from breather

Have a 300 row crop that was burning oil so I pulled the head and had new valve guides installed. While apart I also had it honed and re ringed. Problem is now there is oil dripping steady from the blow by tube. Not sure if the rings never got seated right or possibly a broken ring might be the cause. The tractor starts and runs great except for the dripping oil. Anyone have any ideas ?

rings upside down? excessive sleeve wear? whats the spark plugs say?

Yep,

"Honed and re-ringed". Perfect plan for an oil burner.

Allan

Well pulled plugs and number 2 had quite a bit of carbon on it but the rest looked ok. Sleeves were still within spec and could be just honed and re ringed. The original problem were the valve guides. Going to run a compression test but probably have to tear it down to find the real issue.

Was the right side cover plate that the vent tube goes in removed? Also is the opening in the valve cover with pipe to air intake all open?

Tube from valve cover not plugged but never had right side inspection cover off

how much clearance was in the top ringland? unless you have your own machine shop you could have bought a new sleeve and piston set for probably less than twice what you paid to have the sleeves honed and new rings.

To be honest I don't know what the clearance was. All I wanted to do was replace the valve guides to control the oil burning issue. The new rings just seemed like a good idea at the time and now wish it was never done ! Just trying to figure out why after new rings I am having this problem . Wasn't trying to be cheap just did more than I probably should have ! Honing and rings were done by a friend with a machine shop so all i have into it is the cost of the valve guides and the set of rings ! Was just looking for a possibility of something simpler being wrong and not having to go through it again !

Get it on a good load & work it hard for a few days.

Here is a case where I would hook a water manometer to the breather line to check crankcase pressure. You have to have a orfice hooked parallel to the gauge and I would use one specified for a 400 series diesel engine as no specs are available for old gasoline engines. May have to use a smaller orfice if you don't get at least a couple inch's of water reading. Then I would compare it to another similar engine, H, M or something close. If you have significantly more pressure you know you have excess blow by and need to tear it down. Breaking it in will be a waste of time in my opinion. They work good right out of the box or they don't.

If you honed the liners and left a distinguished crosshatch pattern. Made sure your ring gaps were in specs for each cylinder, and your piston clearance was also still in spec, then I am sure the new rings are just not "seated" yet.
That is they have not had a chance to polish themselves and the inside of the liner. It sometimes takes plowing or some form of work the tractor was designed for. An afternoon or two of plowing should seat them.
I would first check to be sure the material inside the breather is clean. Remove it & clean in kerosene or mineral spirits, and blow dry, it also may need replacing.
Excessive blow by is a bit normal for new rings but if still excessive after working the tractor then I would check the ring gaps in the liner, side ring clearance, ring in the piston groove, and piston to liner bore clearances and go from there.
It is also possible the rings were not "clocked" correctly on the piston.
( ring gaps staggered or Clocked at 12, 3, 6, 9 oclock etc.)
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q...72892DE4EEEE7F045A0FE5344&selectedIndex=8

Well just took breather apart and the steel mesh filter that
looks like course steel wool was packed full of sludge. Have
soaking now and going to clean it and put it back on. A few
days ago had it running in the shop and stuck a small soda
bottle over the breather tube to catch the oil from getting
all over the floor and it was like magic it stopped dripping !
without the bottle would leave a dinner size puddle of oil
on the floor in five minutes. With bottle only about a table
spoon in a half hour ! Bottle doesn't fit tight so not causing
that much back pressure just enough to almost stop it .
Going to do a compression test and leak down test if
cleaning the breather doesn't help and I doubt it will .

Don't you have a cap on the tube????

Have never seen a blow by tube or oil breather tube with a
cap ! Maybe you were thinking of something else cause I
didn't call it by the right name !

Assuming the cylinders were properly cleaned of all grit after honing (Inadequately and even improperly cleaned cylinders will wipe out brand new rings). Assuming rings were properly installed, aligned the gaps properly such that they were not all in a row, and no rings were broken during installation then proceed.

After that breather is cleaned up. Put the thing on a good hard load and see what happens. Maybe you will get lucky and the rings will seat. Really nothing to lose at this point since you likely will replace liners and pistons if you have to tear it down again.

Moldboard plowing, single shank subsoiler and subsoil deep, Baker fan driven by flatbelt (the faster you spin a baker fan the harder it pulls), Dealer Dyno, etc. would all qualify as suitable hard loads to seat rings.

PS - There is a tube that runs from the front of the head over to the governor top that does randomly flow some oil although it is not under any pressure. The intent of this tube is to lube that upper governor linkage with a splash of oil every now and then. Believe it or not some numb skull had cut my tube and pinched it off on my Farmall M. I had a very random oil leak until I really got to looking at it - it did not leak all the time even. I could have just as easily thought it was blowby if I had just rerung it.

Yeah going to try that before I go too crazy ! Unfortunately
will be spring when I can get a Ser of plows behind ! Just
got a bunch of snow here and i think winter is here to stay
a while !

300 jk. Read the last PS portion of my previous post. I was editing as you replied so you may have been missed that portion. Longshot, but worth a look.

(quoted from post at 07:26:33 11/30/13) Have never seen a blow by tube or oil breather tube with a
cap ! Maybe you were thinking of something else cause I
didn't call it by the right name !

Click to expand...

Guess I was having a brain fart thinking breather was the air intake and just missed you callig it the blow by tube later. The steel wool (which is in the bottom of my intake) added to my moment.

These have a rudimentary crankcase ventilation system.
The blow by tube on the right beside the distributor is where air enters the crankcae, ( where I believe yours is leaking from) once you have that cleaned, check the vacuum tube that runs from the air breather to the back of the cylinder head to be sure it is clear and creating vacuum while the engine is running. The air cleaner may also need to be cleaned by rinsing all the accumulated oil & dirt in solvent & air drying, & be sure replace the oil in the cup with the proper viscosity and up to the proper level.
The only other way I can see oil could build up is the return from the head to the crankcase is collecting around the blow by tube area, might want to pull the valve cover and at idle check to make sure there are no obstructions or gunk causing the oil to pool around where the blow by tube comes out the side. Since you have that off already I would start it up & see if there is any air vacuum, or pressure coming out it, & let us know how much oil is coming out with the tube off.

Hey rhtx55 the tube I have doesn't come out of the head
but runs from the top of the valve cover to the stack on the
air cleaner ! So I understand you correctly if air enters the
crankcase through the blow by tube near the distributor
and vents through the line that goes from the valve cover to
the air cleaner stack right ? I thought it was just the
opposite and the excess was pushed out the breather tube !
Besides blocked passages is there anything I should look for
before i put that right side inspection cover back on ?
There is a little sludge but nothing looks plugged ! I
appreciate any advice !

Yes, the tube that hooks into the valve cover & connects to the air cleaner is the vacuum side. When the crankcase pressure becomes higher than what this tube can take care of, the path of least resistance will be the lower blow by tube, and it exists there. Since it was plugged with sludge, I am hoping the upper tube on the valve cover may also be plugged.