So our little farm dozer started smoking this morning. Smoke is coming from the right hand side ( if your sitting in the seat) looks like from the oil pan area, but no signs of leaking oil. Smoke is white. The exhaust is not smokey at all. Our mechanic said he is 2 weeks out to get to us as he his finishing an overhaul. Trying to diagnose the issue so I can have the parts to fix it when he gets here. My thoughts are either blowby or a pan gasket, but I would think a pan gasket would show signs of leaking oil, and if blowby, not sure where it would be smoking from. Any advice on narrowing in on a diagnosis would be appreciated. We don't have the ability to run a compression test right now. Thanks,
Take off the oil filler cap with engine running and see what's coming out of there. If its puffing out hard then you might be looking at an issue with a cylinder.
Fuel leaking on the manifold ?
Probably the crankcase vent puking coolant steam from a cracked head or head gasket failure. Nothing that a bucket of cash can’t fix.
Trying not to be a pessimist but I have also experienced this with a spun main bearing just something to keep in mind. Hopefully it’s not that hopefully it will turn over after shutting down. I would follow all previous suggestions. Dropping some engine oil to see anything abnormal or cutting open a filter could never hurt in the process of elimination. I was always told if you don’t know what the problem is find out what it is not.
Let it sit overnight then catch the first bit of liquid from sump plug. Coolant will settle on bottom of sump.
If no water present in the oil I would lean toward broken rings, or maybe a hole in a piston or a burnt piston. You'd need to do a compression test to look for indications of either, since you don't have the ability to do that I'd wait for the mechanic if he's only a couple of weeks out.
Thanks, it was puffing a moderate amount so it must be blowby from bad rings, bad piston, or worn sleeve. Still can't figure out how there is smoke from the underbelly but no fluid leaking. It's cramped under there so it's hard to see exactly where it's coming from.
Checked and all good on that side of things, thanks for the tip! I wouldn't have even though of that as I always associate black smoke with fuel and since thus was white it wouldn't have clicked with me.
Just checked it after it sat last night, no coolant..... Thank all things that are holy, that's not a problem I would have wanted.
Crankcase vent tube, usually runs down on one side or the other of the engine, it's the same 'smoke' that's coming out of the oil fill when you remove the cap.
Thanks buddy, that was it, once I knew what to look for it was easy to find. Just ordered a "major overhaul" kit from AgKits.com , actually reasonably priced. Now let's just hope there isn't $10,000 in labor to get it done.
It might have been better to see what all was wrong before ordering the overhaul kit. The 3204 engine is parent bore and may need to be bored oversize. IPD 3 ring pistons are a big improvement over original 2 ring. 3200 series engines are known for increased blow-by with 2 ring pistons.
Well, I just got the tracking number for the kit being in route, guess worst case I have to return it and get a bigger size.