Today being a balmy +36 F I tried to start a 3-53 that has been sitting in a machine a fellow wants to purchase. Ran great last spring when I last ran it. As is my cautious custom on a setting engine, I went to turn it over by hand for a revolution. No go. It turned 1/8 turn and hit something completely solid. Turned the other way and I can go back and forth 3/8 of a revolution stopped dead in either direction. I was thinking ice in the engine somewhere. We had some hellish rainstorms last summer and there are a few holes in the 11 ft. tall exhaust stack. I fired up a generator and with the torpedo heater setting in the skid steer bucket and blew heat on it for 3 hours. No gain but could still be ice in the oil pan. Lots of cast to get warm enough to thaw out a sizeable hunk of ice. Would a stuck valve only let it turn a measured 3/8 of a revolution? It sounds like hitting metal but not sure. Any other ideas?
It's ice until proven otherwise. I'm dealing with the same thing with an unknown engine at the moment. With the torpedo heater, if there was still ice after 3 hours, the engine would be cold at that spot within a few minutes of shutting off the heater. In my case I pulled the dipstick out, and the curved handle pulled off the dipstick leaving it sticking out, pretty sure that's ice in my pan. A valve wouldn't block it at 3/8, maybe the blower?
OIH I had a 4-53 in a crane do exactly what you're describing. Water got in the blower, froze and broke a chunk of the vane off. Wedged itself in there perfectly. Might be worth pulling intake off enough to see in there. It wasn't hard to see where mine broke. Junkyard
I will see if I can get to the blower. The engine is in a compartment mounted on the side of a tree precessor and the only access to the blower side is thru a 12" removable 1/2" inspection plate reached by crawling in on the slide. Its not very user friendly even to change the filter on that side. The other thing I noticed last night is that the oil is a good 1/2" overfull. Now I'm thinking it might be a big block of ice on the crank. Going to drain the oil and with heat see if any water starts dripping out. Being the blower is on the back side if there is ice in the blower it will take some time to get enough heat to the back side to thaw also. I thing I am going to leave the torpodeo heater on it all day. The engine enclosure does contain the heat pretty well. Hopefully it just needs time.
I'll cross my fingers.....ice does seem the most logical. Junkyard
Well I would be thinking ice somewhere too. Takes a long time to melt ice then you have to heat the cast iron quite a bit before the ice even begins to melt. Just glad you thought to turn it over by hand, otherwise you would know what the problem was real fast!
good luck buddy sounds like you got a project ahead of you. did you ever get that rd4 out of your shop?
Junkyard, you hit the nail on the head. After heating for 6 hours and the back of the engine hot enough to be running temp, I shut the heat down and crawled in. Pulled the bolts on the intake cover and water came running out. Removed the cover and there sat a broken vane smiling at me. It actually was not to bad to pull the blower off thru the plate once you get in there. My neighbor had pulled in about the time I crawled in so he handed tools to me. Guess I need to start looking for a blower. I borrowed the rebuilt one off my spare 3-53 power unit but I need to get a gasket set before I can reinstall it. Anyone got any tips to keep the gaskets in place when sliding it in. Its probably not going in as easy as it came out thru that hole. I hate that two direction bolt system and gaskets on the 3-53. Last time i messed around for 2 hours until I got it right with no oil leaks. That engine was out in the open on a skid. Best news is that we are headed to the Lake of the Woods ice fishing for 3 days in the morning so it will have to wait until Thursday to install the borrowed one. I'll keep you posted when I get back on it.
No, Its still in the shop but I got the shop cleaned out and can now easily get to it. I got the F-550 inside installing a new auxillery overdrive box in it. Just about done. Just got to tighten the u-joints and build a new shifter. The RD4 is next or I shall be shot or so I have been told. 4 years is long enough when theres only a couple days work left or so I think.
Roger, use 3M Weatherstrip adhesive to hold those gaskets. They won't go anywhere. Let it dry for a few hours. We call it Elephant snot. http://www.autozone.com/sealants-gl...r-weatherstrip-and-gasket-adhesive/249380_0_0
X2 on the 3M. It's like the third hand we always wish we had. Glad you found it and hopefully that's all it is. I assume it turns over now that the broken bits are out of the way? I haven't dropped a line through the ice in years. Friend of mine up there had a shanty that was nicer than my house at the time! Didn't make it feel like roughing it at all. With the exception of the Star Wars sound every time somebody drove onto the ice you'd never know there was a lake under you. Junkyard
X3 on the 3M, sticks like sh*t to a blanket. Mandatory for working on the old 2 bangers. If you got face book there's a group called 'Detroit Diesel Enthusiast'. Plenty of blokes on there with stashes of parts.
I keep threatening to have my daughter help me set up a face book account. Maybe its time as now it sounds like I have a good reason to. Thanks.
I drained the oil after turning it a number of revolutions. Looked a little old and sluggy but nothing in it. Compression feels decent. I"m optimist that all else is good. Will find out in a few days. Fishing. We will not suffer in the 12 X 24 fish house. The biggest toughing it out task is walking 3 ft outside exposed to the elements walking to the heated toilet which is built in to the "shack" but has a outside door. LOL
Well, you couldn't have ordered better weather for ice fishing!!!!
Once more I'm glad you had the good idea to turn over by hand before hitting the starter! Even if the blower is trash at least the trash probably did not get into any other parts of the engine. There are a few groups and forums on the inernet that are into the good old Detroits so finding a used blower should not be too hard. If I stumble across anything I'll post it here for you
There was one medium sized piece laying half in the opening leading to the ports. The other loose piece is in the blower yet. Everything looks clean and good in the block. Fishing is slow. Three of us caught only 5 walleyes and have only kept one so far. My cousin broke out his home brewed crab apple wine so we are enjoying an after dinner glass of wine. Retired life is good.
Picked up some 3M Yellow Super Weatherstrip and Gasket Adhesive at the parts store on the way home from fishing trip. On the tube it says, fast drying, exceptional bond strength, and Firmly Bonds Gaskets and Seals. They also had black that was basicly the same but supposed to fill bigger holes. I noticed on D9g's link that the tube was red. They had no red. Do I have the right stuff? Sticking it back together tomorrow. Supposed to get to near 40F.
Yep that will do I reckon, i've used anything like what you mentioned- we did use a lot called Bears contact cement. Its that glue that you put a light smear on, then wait for it to dry then apply your gasket. Make sure you prepped the mounting surface good with some sandpaper and then make it dry with a good solvent like electrical cleaner etc and then full givit
I've been using one of these sticks for holding gaskets. I can make a mess given half a chance, so i'm starting to get quite a flavors of these sticks. Give me a tube of anti-seize and good odds i'll look like the tin man before long. http://www.na.henkel-adhesives.com/adhesives/product-search-1554.htm?nodeid=8797908926465
Yes you have the right stuff, it's yellow and slimy and very sticky. It dries pretty fast, should stick well in an hour or two in that cold. Doesn't take much.
That yellow stuff is great. I brought the blower in the garage and warmed it up to about 60 degrees, applied the snot, (it does look like it) and let it set for 20 minutes. I applied the gaskets and with some finger pressure they laid flat and stuck like they had been on there for years. Slid the blower in and had it tightened up in 15 minutes. And to think how I fought the other one. It was around +40 F today so I cranked it using the #2 diesel in the tank. I'm happy to report it fired up and ran good. Thanks to all whom gave advice and clued me in on the 3M adhesive. It will be in my tool box from now on. I'm still in need of a 3-53 blower if anyone comes across one. Thanks again. Roger
Ok, now that thats done, lets go back fishing!!!!
Don't have any blowers but have some nice new bearings I believe they are main bearings, thrust washers and cam bushings. Would need to look at the box and check part numbers to be sure. Price very negotiable as these were left over from an inframe job I did on a genset at someplace I will not mention . I could not let them just sit on the bench knowing there was a 0% chance anyone there would have the faintest idea what they were. Old-iron-gets first refusal but the offer is open to anyone who can pay shipping and make it worth my effort to drop them in the mail. I can supply numbers and pictures if needed. But right now I'm too lazy to go out in the garage to look! While I'm at it anyone do a bit of work on old Cummins engines? I have an oil cooler test jig for pressure testing the removable oil cooler bundles. It make testing them a fast and easy job. Fits two different diameter bundles and I believe three different lengths. Slide two large caps on either end of the bundle and set in holder with large bobby pins to hold it together and plug in air. Toss it in a bucket of water and your done. Pictures available for that too. Found a picture online of a similar cooler test tool. Mine does not have the plate shown below the two round aluminum disks but other wise very similar. And NO I'm not asking anywhere near that much! http://tool-xpress.com/store/product/apex-oil-cooler-test-fixture-m20113/
Thats the plan. Monday is the goal. Hope fishing is a little more active this time. Only caught 21 total last time for the threee of us with only 8 big enough to keep. Still nice and peaceful in the icehouse, fun to get away from it all. We did not even make it to the Igloo, the portable tavern set up omn the ice each winter. You can fish thru the floor while you have a tody or two.