I was doing some excavating yesterday (hot, around 90 degrees) when my 955K suddenly starting running real rough (was making some knocking noises and seemed to be missing) and lost power. Oil pressure was good and water temp was around 220, so I started to head back to the barn. Within a few seconds it lost power. It would restart but would die within a few seconds (lots of black smoke coming from exhaust). I let it sit over night to completely cool down and tried again this morning after checking all fluids. Oil was right on, but coolant was down about three gallons (holds 10-11 gallons). Same thing. It would start (oil pressure came right up) but then die within a few seconds with a lot of black smoke. I'm figuring on changing fuel filter. Any other suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you for any guidance you can offer!
Sounds like a fuel problem. You need to check the screen in it too. It's screwed onto the bottom of the accessory drive inside a little housing that has a wire bail on it to mount it. The line from the fuel tank goes to it first.
Will do. I'll post the results of the screen check and filter change. Thanks!
You could check too the aircleaner and pré aircleaner
The air filter only has about 10 hours on it, so it should be OK (it's a Cat and not a knock-off), but I'll check just to be sure. Thanks!
Has it occured to you to think where the 3 gallons of coolant (about 30% of the system capacity) went..? My money's on something cylinder head/valve related, maybe a broken/dropped valve.
Yes, I have that fear in the back of my mind. I didn't see any sign of coolant in the oil (only about six hours since I changed it), and no oil in the coolant--so I'm hoping that I don't have a failed head gasket, cracked head, etc. I will do simple things first (checking for fuel flow blockage, air cleaner is clear, etc.) before calling in the pros to do a compression check (or whatever is needed to arrive at diagnosis).
I wasn't wanting to be a prophet of doom or anything like that. No coolant in the oil could still mean a head/head gasket blown between the fire ring and a coolant passage.
(K)eep (I)t (S)imple (S)tupid. The KISS principle first. Go from there. Nige, I'd think with the black smoke that it shouldn't be coolant in the cylinders. That should produce a good bit of white smoke. Also, it should have tried to hydro lock the next morning. I'm guessing that the knocking noise he heard was fuel related. Nige brings up a very good point that I purposely ignored on my comment about where your 3 gallons of coolant went.
If you see no external coolant leaks, and you find no coolant in the crankcase (loosen the oil drain plug to check that) then it's very likely that the coolant is leaking into one of the combustion chambers via a crack or a failed head gasket. Usually though, an engine will continue to run with this condition but will misfire and white smoke may be present. Since your engine starts and dies. I expect that you may find a cracked injector cup in the cylinder head. A cracked cup will let coolant escape into the combustion chamber and can allow compression to enter the fuel delivery drillings in the head, which interferes with the fuel supply to the injectors. You would have to pull the injectors out to locate a cracked cup. An injector that is loose due to a broken injector clamp will have the same effect.
Pulling the injectors sounds like a prudent thing to do. I won't be able to do that until next weekend (when I go back to the farm), but will be sure to post results. I'll also change the fuel filter and check screen to be sure that they aren't clogged. Regarding the coolant loss, this machine has been leaky since I've owned it, and I could smell some anti-freeze while running it. I figured it was a leaky hose or radiator. No white smoke in the exhaust, so I'm hoping the coolant loss is either due to cracked injector cup, or hose/radiator leak. Thanks to all for your guidance. I truly could not keep this machine running without your help!
Sounds like classic case of cracked head which those D330's were famous for. Top off the radiator and check for bubbles.
I have an early 955L. Not long after it was new, it overheated and that loosened the precombustion chambers in the head. That caused more leaks and let combustion into the water. We had to pull the chambers, put new o rings on them and retorque them. Would the K have the same setup?
The K became the L @ s/n 85J4672 and used the 3304 engine. Castings were improved but still pretty much the same configuration.
My dad taugh me about head gaskets, after scraping and redoing or shaving the head, i keep a beter watch on the old water level, running on low fluid or week koolent can cause problems too, but the truth is that head gasket will only last so many years. Maybe some little old lady can make hers last a life time, but most don't. Good luck.
There is no injector clamps or fuel delivery drillings in this engine, you will find injector nozzle-body and holding down nut, the pre'combustion chambers are treaded into the head with a steel washer at the bottom and an O ring to seal in the water at the top, the chambers are indexed to a prefered position for the glow plug location by differing thickness steel washers at the tread end, the common cause of chamber seals leaking is the oil coolers being blocked, this results in water leaking externaly, if you undo any fuel lines always turn off the fuel tap under the tank first.
Your trouble either started from high temperature / coolant loss, or has been the cause of it.
Change the damn fuel filter. Check the screen. Run it. No white smoke means no internal leakage into cylinders. No external leaks means no external leak. No coolant in oil means no internal leaks. It is more likely hat you didn't get all the air olut of the system when you changed the antifreeze. Wags
Not to be a *****, but start with the first obvious. If this is a sitting piece the fuel now days sucks and will make chunky stuff... like varnish. My old Oliver tractor has the same issue at times. Run some fuel injector cleaner in it (will take care of some of the gunk in lines/ tank/ etc.) Wags Valve/ head/ crack doesn't start then run. It either starts and runs with an obvious miss, or not.
i had this the other day on mine as well. would start right up, and then knock off about 2 minutes later like it was starving for fuel or air. sounded like it was knocking the whole time. No fuel pressure. i shut off the fuel under the tank, bled the sediment screw, and cleaned out the primary, which was slap full of sediment. Scared me to death. Anyway, cleared out the primary. put the mess back together, primed it, and it fired with some fuel pressure. rinse, lather, repeat, and voi-la, full fuel pressure. I ran it for about 20 minutes, and checked again. things look clean (no sediment in the primary) so Imma work with the machine a little today, and see how it goes. hope yours is as easy as this and not some of the other things floating around in this thread. That sounds like a pain. keep me posted, i'm totally curious.
Hi I am facing the same issue here down in Cameroon. The 955k was running and suddendly started to vibrate with loud noise. The 955k starts but after 25s goes down. I checked the filter and changed it since sediments were found in both filter and primary. I need your support
Which filter are you talking about? Have you checked the oil filter? Can you try to describe the "loud noise"? And as always a full S/N will help very much to get good answers.
Hi thanks for your feed-back. We have replaced the gas-oil filter. While starting the 955k cat, motor is knocking heavily doing like it has been pimed and after 25s it goes off. We also have black smoke coming out. It seems to be the same case already mentioned by a member here. Yesterday a friend told me that the gasoil quality can also be the reason after telling him where I purchased it last time. The cat has only 2800h, the motor has been rebuild by cat for a couple of years. No we have not checked oil filter, that will be the first thing to do this morning. We also intend to buy gasoil from a different supplyer. No oil is coming out nothing seems to broken the cat has been in duty these last 14 days without any kind of problem. We changed gasoil supplyer the last 2 days and after 10hrs the cat suddently get in trouble (knocking , power lost, starting and going off alone after 20s ) One more thanks
Hate to be the bearer of bad news but an engine hard fueling to try to stay running(governor fighting to stay up) and continually dying sounds like something is trying to seize up. I am betting a(or more) piston scored.
Black smoke & hard knock could be something as simple as a blown tip off an injector.. VERY COMMON..
But the hard die at a few to 30 seconds would not indicate that to me.