BN, water in oil...whits end

A few months ago I posted here about using bars stop leak on my BN. I had water in the oil, this is after I had already replaced the head gasket.

I did what most suggested, drained the coolant, mixed on the stop leak, refilled and took the BN for a run to get it warmed up. I also changed the oil for obvious reasons. The reason I knew I had a problem is a "gained oil", something this drippy old BN never does.

So yesterday bring the old girl in the shop to make sure the battery is charged before winter sets in. I noticed some steam/smoke coming from the breather, I pull the cap and it's puffing at a pretty good rate. I check my oil and while it didn't gain anything it was milky again, not really milky but you could see there was some antifreeze in it.

So....

Head gasket right? I just replaced it. I do know that at the time I only torqued it down to 65 pounds (per book) but have found out since that there's a revised value of 85 pound.

For the heck of if I pulled the rockers and re-torqued the head to 85 pounds and reset the valves. I fired it back up, and it might just be me seeing things but I don't think it was steaming/smoking like it was before.

I'll stop and pickup some oil on the way home from work. I'll have to watch it still. Sure sounds like a head gasket problem, I've never been able to "fix" one other then then replacing them. Is there anything else I should be looking at?

K

kopeck,
There are other places besides the head gasket that coolant can get into the oil.
Before you disassemble anything remove the pan and look up inside with a light and determine where the coolant is coming from. You may have to devise a way to add maybe 5 -10 lbs pressure to the cooling system to help find the leak if it is small.
The engine has wet sleeves meaning there are seals at the bottom of the sleeves which are known to leak with age.
Other possibles are a hole in a sleeve or cracked head.
Point is once you take the head off you have no way of investigating it for the cause.
good luck
Dennis

The radiator is not made for pressure so dont do that. BUT you do need to remove the pan let it set with the coolant in the radiator. Then with a lite look at the bottom of the sleeves for coolant it mite take a few days not uncommon for those rubber o-rings to leak and then if that where the leak is you will need to remove the head so you can pull the pistons and sleeves BTDT. I asume you didnt find a leak on the block at the rear next to the oil passage when you had he head off. The head gasket would have shown that as ive also found that problem. The stop leak doesent flow because of no waterpump and you will find it at the bottom of the block and lower radiator housing .

That engine is a wet sleeve engine and good chance one of more sleeve o-rings is going bad so you get coolant in the oil and only way to know that for sure is pull the oil pan and lay something under it and let it sit and see which cylinder sleeve is leaking

I know about those seals, that what I suspected when I tried the BARS stop leak. I premixed it so it would hopefully find the problems before it settled out.

I have to admit when I replaced the head gasket I didn't find anything that was obviously wrong with it.

I'm at tricky spot with this machine. I use it pretty often for chores so I hate to loose it. It runs well but needs plenty of attention, the front main seal leaks badly and it does use some oil. If I open up the engine to replace the sleeve seals I would be tempted to go much further since it really needs the attention.

I did check the compression, 90 on 3 holes and a hair over 85 on the the other one. It's still making decent compression.

If only money and time were limitless....

K

Yep understand the $$ and time thing. Always seems when I have the money to do something I do not have the time.
I built my BA old school as in only replaced the parts I could not reuse. I used a used head gasket and took 2 engines and built one good one but used all used parts. Had a A engine with a broken block due to it hitting a tree the tractor that is and had a B engine that was stuck so use the B block and the A parts and use the B front end and torque tube since the A torque tube was also broken due to the tree

(quoted from post at 12:55:22 11/25/13) Yep understand the $$ and time thing. Always seems when I have the money to do something I do not have the time.
I built my BA old school as in only replaced the parts I could not reuse. I used a used head gasket and took 2 engines and built one good one but used all used parts. Had a A engine with a broken block due to it hitting a tree the tractor that is and had a B engine that was stuck so use the B block and the A parts and use the B front end and torque tube since the A torque tube was also broken due to the tree

Click to expand...

I watched that project as you posted about it.

For me it's the classic, it needs to be fixed, I hate to do things half way but I'm not sure I can do it "right" at the moment.

Sounds like I may have a "farmer fix" on my hands soon.

I would love to just rebuild the my A but it has the same problem (bad sleeve seals), plus a cracked block, so it coming out for some big time attention at some point.

K

That A was in sad shape and in 3 plus big pieces when I got it. I had this B here but the engine was locked up bad as in ATF was not going to help it so figured I had nothing to loose and a lot to gain. Been using it to mow hay with ever since I built it.

Gene, if the stop leak would end up at the bottom of the engine block, would it not just be at the right place to stop an O-ring leak?
I very well know that they can leak. My engine showed the same symptom and it turned out that there even was a hole rusted through the sleeve wall were the O-ring sits.
Of course, I discovered the hole in the sleeve only after tearing the engine down. The leak was so minimal that I had to pressurize the block before the leak showed up. Crud in the bottom of the block prevented it from leaking worse and it only leaked when the engine was hot. I did, as you suggested, pressurize the block WITHOUT pressurizing the radiator. (I removed the radiator, blocked the lower outlet of the block and fabbed a coupler to the upper outlet to receive my garden hose.)

The stop leak went to the bottom of the radiator area as thats where i find it when tearing down if he bottom of the sleeves are filled with crud they usually dont leak. Ive found stop leak when i drain the radiator after removing the drain plug there it is and in the lower outlet. Without a waterpump and pressure it will just settle to the bottom.

Guess you have a couple options then,
Determine where the leak is and fix it or,
Get rid of the antifreeze by drain the cooling system and refill with water when you want to use it and drain cooling system when done using the tractor.
Antifreeze will kill your bearings.
good luck
Dennis

(quoted from post at 19:50:33 11/25/13) Guess you have a couple options then,
Determine where the leak is and fix it or,
Get rid of the antifreeze by drain the cooling system and refill with water when you want to use it and drain cooling system when done using the tractor.
Antifreeze will kill your bearings.
good luck
Dennis

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Yup, seems about right.

I think I might take another route for the winter though. My SM runs like a top, just doesn't start worth a darn in the winter. Might fix that problem (12v) use it for the winter and tackle the BN in the warmer weather.

The SM is no where near as "Handy" but it will do everything the BN can and more...

K

Warmer weather is always a plus for making repairs. Besides it will give you time to decide what to do.
have fun
Dennis