I am looking at a cat 966B loader to buy everything looks fine after inspecting the major components but the only thing is it blows a fair bit of smoke out of the breather so wondering what are the possibilities that causes the smoke. The exhaust only has normal black smoke under load.
Best guess on the smoke out of the breather would be blow-by past the rings. Might want to figure in the cost of a set of cylinder kits and some gaskets. Maybe some valves and guides in the head. Then if it has been setting unused for some time it may have some condensation in the engine that will burn off after a good couple hours running. Might pay to run a sample on the oil to see if it shows any signs of coolant in the oil. All in all the use you have planed for this machine would also come into play along with the price being asked for it. Like I always say if it will be doing light work for a handful of hours a week and it starts when needed just run it. But on the other hand if you need it to be ready to go everyday of the week working hard for 10 hours a day then I would be looking at aat the least a good in-frame overhaul. Only you know how hard and how much you are going to be using this machine.
Thanks for your info, yes the loader has been sitting for about a year, however it starts first time every time and doesnt need aerostart or any of those ether sprays to help start it... will be used to clear some old stumps and logs on a farm ,biggest log would only weigh 2 ton,,, averaging the loader use out of a year i would say a hour a week.
Well it's your money but if I had one, I could find about the same amount of work for one myself, I would just keep a close eye on fluid levels and pay attention to gauges and listen to how it runs and starts and just go have fun with it!