Hi guys, hope you are doing well. I have just bought a used ingersoll rand XP375 air compressor with a John Deere 4045HF285 that seemed fine when buying it, but surprise after using it for 8 hours, it consumed almost all oil. I have checked turbo exhaust and charge side hoses, hoping to find oil in them, but there was only black soot. Is it posible that the turbo seals are damaged, even tho the hoses have no oil traces in them?, or am i looking here for a major over haul. I tested for blow by at the oil cap when buying it, there was none. Theres lots of gray smoke when starting it cold. I will very thankful for any ideas you might have. Thanks Juan
At that high rate of oil consumption over a period of time the muffler outlet would show signs of oil residue. You didn’t mention any blue smoke either when running. Any oil in the coolant ? or the bell housing full of engine oil ? How many hours on the engine?
Hi Dave, theres no blue smoke when running, it is more of a gray color. The catalytic converter has failed while using it yesterday, it just broke from both sides. Engine is supposed to have 2100 hours, and it appears they are original hours. Thanks in advance
To me , It doesn’t all add up. When you get the converter replaced , fill the engine with proper grade oil and run it another 8 hours and note the exact consumption.
Engine oil doesn't exactly disappear. Its either burned, leaked, or transferred. I'm with Dave........this isn't making sense at the moment.
Hi, I will take Dave's and Vetech suggestion then, I will repair the muffler first. I am completely sure there was oil in the engine previous using it as I myself supervised it. Can a clogged vent cause this exaggerated oil consumption rate? Thanks to both of you
Yes, but that causes leaks in many locations on the engine that may have weak gaskets. You should be able to see those type of leaks easily. I would be checking how much oil may be blowing out of the vent tube while your engine is running at high idle. You could monitor that by placing a clean bucket or can with the end of the vent hose in it. The grey smoke on start-up may be nothing much. It could be just abnormal smoke on a cold start. Those engines don't usually do that when the fuel system is in good condition. Its sounding like you may have weak compression. Does the engine start immediately or is it having to roll over a bit before starting?
It starts around 3 seconds later after initial switch engagement. I will do the bucket test once the exhaust gets repaired/reconstructed. It seems abnormal to me that an engine with that amount of hours (2,000 hours) had an exhaust in such a bad shape (compressor was made in 2012), maybe they fooled me with the hour meter, but for my experience, it seems like the original one. I leave you a photo of the exhaust system that we took out of the equipment, maybe you have an idea of what could be wrong with this engine besides the high oil consumption.
with the outlet elbow rotted out like that, I suspect that exhaust has been restricted some what by a long extension pipe attached for a good part of its life.
Do you have an engine serial # ?
Yes, it is PE4045L203860
Just wanted to check the engine build date was aligned with the compressor year. .
I really aprecciate you help in this matter. I will have to wait until the exhaust gets rebuild so I can continue performing tests on this engine. I'll keep you posted.
Hi Diesel Dave, I just got the exhaust rebuild, and Cylinder Head has already been taken apart for repair. I havent been able to find replacement parts for the valve guides neither OEM or aftermarket. Anyways I found that John Deere sells valves with oversized stems. Repair manual states: "Production valve guides have a 5/6-24NF modified internal thread the entire length of guide with major diameter of 8.052—8.128 mm (0.3170—0.3199 in.). Have qualified machine shop thread valve guides accordingly after reaming for oversize valve stems." I dont get if the valve guide is actually threaded on the inside??, never heard of that before, and I an not sure my machine shop can do that work, Is there any advice you can give me about it? , or do you know if theres somewhere that sells the original valve guides?
I have next to no experience replacing valve guides. Per the manual , max valve stem to guide clearance is .006“ What are you getting for measurements, also did all the valve stems have the seals in place and were they in good condition ? How many hours on this engine again ?
Hi Diesel Dave and guys, yesterday we finally took the pistons out of the engine. Hours on engine are 2,200. Can you advice me on what went wrong with this engine looking at the pictures of the pistons and liners. I guess it was dirt due to bad air filtering or poor maintenance, but want to make sure I don't need to check anything else besides before installing a new liner kit. Let me know if you need more pictures. Thanks in advance.
If you are looking for possible dust ingestion into an engine, try this - take a clean white cloth and push it into the air intake tube that is immediately on the engine side of the air filter. Rotate the cloth at least a couple of turns and remove it. Can you see any dirt on it.? If you can then there is your answer because if the filter is working correctly the cloth should be perfectly clean.
Check ring end gaps.
Maybe take some pics of the other 3 liners. The factory crosshatch in the one liner still looks good
Everything in the pictures looks OK to me. Chidog is right on checking ring gaps, including oil ring, but the bore shown doesn't look like it would have worn out the rings. Are all the rings free in the grooves? Do the rings have proper side clearance? What do the tops of the pistons show?
I've seen pistons and cylinders in much worse shape than that. The one bearing concerns me more than piston/liner condition. Curious why you tore the engine down?
Any coolant & oil cross contamination?
According to the OP the engine lost the contents of the oil pan in 8 hours of running.
I seen that part but unless I missed a post somewhere it seems like it was torn down with no other diagnostics being performed. It was mentioned earlier to refill the sump and run it again to see for sure just how bad the consumption was and it does not appear that was done. I'm not familiar with that particular model of compressor but a lot of compressors and gensets have built in spill containment. I'd hate to see this being a case of a missing deflector or baffle for the vent tube and the tube being routed down into the containment tray....
Gotcha. I agree, the move from losing oil to tear down didn’t seem to have any intermediate steps in the process.
At 2,200 hours---the gaps are fine, side clearance is fine, IMO rings in that engine were never seated properly. IMO
TS, is there anything you would suggest that could be done to help an engine that wasn't broken in properly?
At this many hours not really, I do know that the deere dealer here will not let a rebuilt/or new engine leave the property with out being PTO dyno run, just for this very reason.
DMiller & Junkyard swear by this stuff. Insta seat. *
All the reman or rebuilt engines at the Deere C&F dealer where I worked were filled with Break- In oil. Deere recommended to use it for the first 200 hours. TY26661: Engine Oil, Break-In™ Plus, SAE 10W-30, 3.78 Liter (1 Gallon) | TY26661 This genuine John Deere Break-In™ Plus oil helps piston rings and cylinder liners seat correctly in new or rebuilt engines. shop.deere.com
Wow, that brings back memories!