Hoping to find some help from some DD pro's.. Have a 3-53 from an older backhoe.. didn't run well when I bought it.. guy told me was sitting for a year, had water in fuel. Well, that's probably the least of its issues. Changed the filters, oil, got it to idle and run poorly.. Noticed oil pouring from the dipstick tube, not leaking, pouring.. also noticed when I removed the oil fill cap, the oil would stop pumping from the dipstick tube, but now I see white condensation coming from the oil fill neck... not good. Engine would not rev up, decided to pull the rocker cover to check injectors... Much to my horror, this is what I found.. Have never seen so much rust on the INSIDE of a rocker cover... obviously its been an issue for some time.. The top of the head doesn't look any better.. I ran the engine with the cover removed, and noticed white condensation coming from the right front side of cylinder #1.. here's a picture of the top of the head.. I didn't notice any white smoke in the exhaust, it does not appear to be burning it, but when I changed the oil, I also did not notice any antifreeze in the oil.. The combustion side of the head looks like this... Not familiar with the DD 53's.. But the #1 cylinder (to the right in the photo) doesn't appear to be much different then #2 or #3, other than the valves have a little bit of brown on them.. Is that black around the water ports on the front and rear of the head normal or is this possibly where the issue is coming from? The o-rings in the water / oil pass ports were pretty brittle but intact (although the water ports were brown and crusty on the top and bottom).. I was also confused that there was no 'gasket' of any sort on top of the liners where they contact the head... The 1/4" gasket that goes around the perimeter of the head appears to be below the height of the block which I was surprised to see it wasn't leaking externally... Sorry so long winded, any ideas what could be going on here? The injector tubes do not appear to be leaking (when running, I saw no sign of any leak on the top, and don't appear to be leaking on the combustion side)..The black burning between the end of the head and the water ports concerns me.. does not look like what I would expect to be 'normal'.. Before I waste any more money on this motor, I'd like an idea of what is causing the rusting issue.. One last observation... the oil galleys around the cam were full of oil except the front most was totally dry.. that doesn't seem normal to me either. Thanks in advance.
Hi . I have had some experience with some 53 series and 71 series jimmy diesels . I think you may have jumped the gun on removing the head . A couple of questions , was there any white smoke from the exhaust while idling after warm up ? If any white smoke then a cylinder or two was not fireing . doesn't the 53 series have some inspection covers on the side of the engine where you can look in and check the rings on the pistons? The smoke coming up from the oil return ports and oil being pushed up the dip stick hole tells me that you have a lot of compression going down in the base ..... some causes : engine was lying up for a while so maybe the Rings are stuck in the piston lands and letting compression go down in the base . Hole burnt in piston top and same thing happens compression going down the base . No point of installing the head now with installing three new pistons and sleeves. I believe the 53 series is a wet sleeve type so new seals will have to be installed on the liners. Its not a big job to rebuild and a Jimmy is one of the cheapest engines to rebuild. In order to install new pistons , you need to pull the base pan off and let go the con rods. I would inspect the mains and install a new set of con rod bearing also . BTW , with the smoke just coming from one location onj the ehad , it is possible the head could be cracked , but from looking at the valve face side of the head it looks like that cylinder was firing ok . It looks like # 3 cyl. was the cylinder that was dead .
I agree with Cat_man, since it's reported to have been sitting for a spell, I would've like to have ran it a bit before I pulled the head, get some kind of history on what all it's doing, oil loss/consumption, coolant loss, etc. Crankcase pressure could be crankcase vent tube is stopped up. Be sure and check the air box drain tubes for being stopped up by a mud dobber. Condensation could be from a crack, could also just simply be excess moisture inside the engine, need to run it a while to "cook it out". It doesn't use a typical head gasket, just perimeter seal, o-rings for ports, and what's called "fire rings" to seal cylinders. Seems you have two choices at this point, 1) finish tearing the pistons/liners out of it and go through it, or 2) put it back together with new seals and run it. In either case, I'd have the injectors checked. With water in fuel, and sitting, you could have a fouled injector or two. And lastly, once you do get it sorted out, be sure to use only SAE 40 oil with sulfated ash content of 1.0% or less, do not use 15W/40 multigrade oil. Chevron Delo 100 or Mobile Delvac 1240 best meet the oil specs.
Blower seals are dry rotted=oil out airbox drains,check air inlet hsg on blower. slow to rev=binding fuel injectors and needs the gov and fuel rack adjusted. also cold stuck piston rings low compression. after reassembly you can cause this engine to over speed by improper fuel rack adjustment. contact me.
i had a engine in the shop a while back same issues....found that the rings were stuck.... after getting the story from the owner unit was sitting for over 2 years.....used marvel mistry oil filled up cylinders, let set for a day cranked engine over and found compression back and rings not stuck..... just sayin
I wonder if someone blocked off the airbox drains. Also have to agree that the blower seals could be out. These are some tough boogers , as far as stuck rings etc, I have had that , run it a few hours then work it , the harder the better and it would come to life. Also like they said before make sure the rack and injector controls are loose or you could be in for a supprise. The cam followers look good , head looks good . You could do something like new rings and hone it while the head is off. I had a 3-71 that got hot several times , we run it easy for a bit and poured it to it. It had 80 injectors which were to big.