When I bought this dozer it was not running. Took a while to get it going. Turned out it just was not spinning fast enough. Had the starter rebuilt and finally got it to start. Seems to run okay but there is quite a bit of blow by. I think it's blowing oil out the stick tube as well. I've had a mechanic look at it and his thoughts are a broke ring. I have been doing quite a bit of reading on here about the 3204 and weather or not an in frame rebuild is an option. This is a farm dozer that I I would like to do the majority of the work myself. After doing some reading on here, looks like there are lots of differing opinions on weather or not to pull the engine. I guess where I should start is find a manual for this machine? Anyone know a good resource or a video that would be a good learning tool for taking on a project like this?
a 3204 is not a sleeved motor honing the cyls. will not give you good results you need to pull motor have it bored and resleeved back to standard don;t recommend going oversize also go with the 3 ring piston
I guess the reason I bring up this question is I see in frame rebuild kits for sale on line. In your experience what's the biggest problem with honing the cyl and trying to go that route?
Usually if it has that bad of blow by the cyls. are damaged or wore badly so you will end up with blow by again.
The situation you are facing is that the cylinder bore diameter(s) are most likely way past the upper honing limit. If that's the case honing won't achieve a damned thing. Having a machine shop take the cylinder bores oversize then sleeve them back to standard is the generally-accepted way to go.