Hello guys, We have a john deere 444e with a 4276 turbo engine. Head gasket blew on it last winter and we pulled the head to put a new head gasket on. When we pulled the head, we noticed chunks out of 2 pistons. So we decided to throw a reman engine from deere in it with new injectors and injection pump, since it's a very clean machine and planned to keep it for a long time. Flash forward to a couple weeks ago, the motor started to develop a noise so the operator shut it down. I pulled the valve cover and found a bent pushrod and a broken push rod on cylinder 2. Threw new push rods in and it seemed fine. Ran great for 2 weeks but seemed to use coolant until yesterday it started to make a noise again. Pulled the valve cover and again a broken push rod and bent pushrod but on cylinder 1 this time. Pulled the head figuring to find a blown head gasket and inspect lifers, but head gasket doesn't seem blown and though maybe I'd find collapsed lifters but they are flat tappet solid lifters. Cam looks ok looking through the lifter ports. If coarse the $8,000 new deere reman was 4 days past 1 year warranty on the first pushrod issue (even though it lasted 200 hours only before issue). Anyone have any experience with these issues? Thank you
Is coolant filling a cylinder after sitting? It doesn't take much coolant in the cylinder to cause pushrods to bend.
That's what my original thought was. Blown head gasket getting coolant in cylinders but head gasket and liners look good. I am inspecting it more today after cleaning it up some more
Have you checked your rocker arm shaft? You could have a seized rocker arm from not getting oil.