8N fuel

I was wondering.....Can't you fairly easily pop rings/bearings into an 8N without pulling the engine? In other words, can't you remove the oil pan, and head, and do the job that way? I just mention it because I think I read that somewhere. It would seem that if you could get away with that, it wouldn't be so drastic, ya know? However, the others will have to weigh in on this, as I am just a tractor newbie.

-Bob

You should perform dry and wet compression tests on your cylinders. You need at least 90 lb in each cylinder with no more than 10% difference.

Your tractor should be warm when you do these tests. "Wet" involves putting 1 tbsn of 30 wt oil in each cylinder. Significantly increased compression means rings; no change means valves (and possibly rings too).

In short, just replacing rings isn't something I think you should do. You'll have to get into her a lot more than you think and there's no better time to do it right.

Best of luck.

The engine and oil pan are structural members of the tractor. Front axle has to come out of the way; gas tank and hood ought to come off; easier to just split the tractor and put it on an engine stand.

Also, like most engine work something like "mission creap" takes over. Once you have the engine on a stand then you start thinking about rebuilding the oil pump; grinding valves; timing gears; etc. etc. etc.

Your mileage may vary

Oil won't solve you're problem. Did you also try a wet test?