smoking 10 horse

[COMMANDO1 23]

The new to me ford ltg100 is a smoker...(bad) still starts though. here is my general question. i am mechaniclly inclined (not a good speller) how hard is it to put in new rings and what else should i do? it needs to be on the cheap.

[Kelly 1,029]

it's not hard to put rings in, pull the engine out, that tractor may be one of the ones the oil pan is welded to the frame, remove the head, and oil pan if you didn't leave in the frame, in the bore will be carbon build up at the top you need to remove most or all of it, if you don't you could mess up the piston ring lands when removing the piston, take note of what way the rod is on the crank, and mark the rod cap so it goes back on the same way it came off, remove the piston and rod, be careful not to scratch the crank, now if your doing this on the cheap this is a bandaid and may not last a long time, figure out what size rings you need and get them coming, the engine may have been rebuilt at some time so you need to check the bore size, clean the piston up, take note on the rings how they are on the piston, I use a broken piece of ring to clean the ring groves out they need to be clean for the new rings to fit right, now cover the crank and make a plug to fit the bottom of the cyl. a cardboard circle, a plastic lid off a butter dish something to keep crud out of the bottom of the engine, you will need a hone to ruff up the cyl. most auto parts stores have them, there are 2 main styles the 3 blade/stone type and a dingle berry hone, it looks like a bottle brush with ball stones all over it, that style is pretty cheap and the easiest to use if you have never used one, I dip mine in a can of ATF and have it in my drill, you want to run it up and down the bore so it puts a cross hatch pattern in the bore, you want the pattern to have about a 30deg angle to it, X pattern this you will get by going up and down faster or slower, when you have that, clean the bore out good and wipe with a coat of motor oil, so no rust starts, with a clean piston and rod, carefully install the rings they will break, oh and for a cheap re-ring buy cast rings not moly rings cast will wear to a out of round bore faster, and I'm sure your bore is not round any more, do not line the ends of the rings up put the open ends on opposite sides of the piston, you will now need a ring compresor to compress the rings so the piston will slide in the bore, before putting the compressor on I dip the head of the piston just past the rings in oil, to aid in going in to the bore and sliding out of the compressor, remember what way the rod goes on the crank and install the piston, I use the handle of a rubber hammer to tap the piston in the bore, line the rod up and install the cap, there are specs for used rods, you will have to look up that info, there are other little tricks I do with out thinking about them, but you get the idea, this should get you started or not.

[COMMANDO1 23]

THANKS FOR YOUR HELP KELLY, I GET THE BASICS. SHOULD I DO ANYTHING WITH THE VALVES?

[can whlvr 993]

to add to kellys great decription,i would lap the valves,this means taking them out,cleaning them,lapping the block with lapping compound and a lappind tool,reinstalling them and setiing the clearances,you need a valve spring compressor tool to do this,i made a home made one but later bought a new one

[COMMANDO1 23]

I got it running,runs pretty darn good but smokes alot. If i check the compression (what should it be ) and its good, could there be something else wrong? breather maybe?

[SousaKerry 501]

Due to a Kohler's Automatic Compression Release (ACR) system it is impossible to do a proper compression check. You can however do a leak down test. Do a Google search on leak down test, lots of useful info out there.

Here is a great site with tons of info, this should be a must read for anyone rebuilding Kohler engines

http://gardentractorpullingtips.com/engine.htm

dingle berry hone

Oh and Kelly I haven't that hard in awhile

[MarkPalmer 81]

The most common source of heavy oil burning is worn rings running in a glazed cylinder bore and these is no magical fix short of removing the engine from the tractor and disassembling it. I have seen plenty of these engines run and sound perfectly fine yet smoke like banshees. When the piston is removed and the ring end gaps checked in the bore, many times the gaps are well larger than what my biggest feeler gauge can measure, giving the engine a perfect means for pumping oil right up in to the combustion chamber. If the bore measures in spec and the piston is in good shape you can just replace the rings with the procedure Kelly outlined in his post. Using a multi-piece oil ring will often solve any oil burning issues on a used bore that has been deglazed.

-Mark-

[can whlvr 993]

ive read here that you can do a compression test by hooking up another tractor to the pto and run a belt in a figure 8 and engage both pto,s,this will spin the motor fast enough to disengage the acr

[MarkPalmer 81]

ive read here that you can do a compression test by hooking up another tractor to the pto and run a belt in a figure 8 and engage both pto,s,this will spin the motor fast enough to disengage the acr

Although that does sound like fun and could present the type of limb-loss danger I like, I would have to think just removing the cylinder head and inspecting would be a bit easier.

-Mark-