Overhaul advice

thanks

I got a gas tank from a lawnmower shop to use as a temp so I can work on it with the hood off. Sure appreciate the help, y'all need to write a book "8ns for Dummys" some of us could sure use it.....john

• Hobby farm

Just pour about 1-oz (tablespoon, or oilcan squirter) down each sparkie hole and let the mouse-milk UN-STICK yer stuck-up rings. Takes a couple of days for this de-sticky trick to work. Treat'em every day, crank'em over to spread the treatment up'n'down the cylinder walls so the rings scrape the treatment into the piston ring grooves. Simple, eh?

Then starter-up and wait for oil burning to clear outta yer rings. And FINALLY, check yer compression. Ford specs: 90psi min (dry) warm engine.

Then explain again why you want to OVERHAUL a good engine..... .Dell

Before environmental concerns became so widespread, the old-timers never paid much attention to a motor that burned a little oil.

They just kept running it, and carried a spare set of gapped plugs and a plug wrench at all times. Sure, the motor generally had less compression and so less power; but they took that into account and changed their expectations of what the vehicle was capable of, accordingly.

And, they started saving, either for a rebuild or another vehicle, knowing that the problem wouldn't go away by itself and the motor would gradually burn more and more oil until they only got a few hours out of the fouling plugs; at that point it was generally felt a rebuild could no longer be put off.

I would START SAVING MONEY NOW and keep running the tractor just a little bit longer IF THERE ARE NO OTHER SYMPTOMS OF ENGINE WEAR (and if you're certain that 40 psi is an accurate reading!). That way you won't have to do things by halves but can take care of everything properly all at once.

(This is likely to be a controversial suggestion; I'm not going to insist it's the only way to manage this problem, and will happily defer to posters with more experience.)

(a) The best and most obvious counter-argument to what I have said above is, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

In other words, since the oil pressure is good, and if you're not hearing bearing knock or other bad noises, maybe new rings is all she needs.

I think this is just as legitimate a view as that I expressed above. You'll have to choose your own path.

(b)If I have a motor re-sleeved (or over-bored) and new rings put in, I generally have the valves done, also.

Otherwise you may not get the improvement in compression you might expect to see, as fresh rings often push the compressed charge past marginal valves (and fresh valves often hold so well they can make the charge blow past marginal rings).

So, if you decide to go with new rings only, think about doing the valves also.

Kind of like always replacing the points and condenser at the same time...