The Fordson Tractor Pages Forum

Hi all,

I have an ongoing issue with my tractor in that, after some use, the engine starts chucking oil out of the timing cover breather.

I've read up on this and understand it could be the rings that need doing, it could be some hard work would help, but equally when I take the rocker cover off I see a baffle plate covering the whole area of the breather outlet.

I'm stumped by the design of this, and am tempted to drill a hole through the baffle plate in order to help her breathe a bit more easily. I can't imagine it's would chuck that much oil out, would it, and in any event it would only go to air cleaner assy? Would be glad of people's thoughts please.

Thank you,
Will

Before that, make sure the rocker box breather pipe into the air filter is completely clear and you have no leaks in the air intake pipe / cleaner, mine started putting oily sludge out at the crankcase breather and I was amazed at how effective cleaning out the blocked pipe was - that little bit of suction made a lot of difference - and mine breathes fairly heavily from the valve stems.

I suspect that that this keeps low or negative pressure in the oil side of the crankcase and block so that the timing case breather only breathes in rather than out.

Mine is a Mk2 engine and there doesn't appear to have been a baffle in the rocker box but make sure between it and the outlet spigot is also clear

Thanks for the response. Yes the pipe is totally clear, I soaked it in diesel for 5 days and got all the carbon and gunk out of it.

I'll try and get a picture and post it, it's more like a plate than a baffle, I can't see how any breathing is being done at all at the moment..

https://i1300.photobucket.com/albums/ag ... zkitvx.jpg

https://i1300.photobucket.com/albums/ag ... nibecy.jpg

Dear Will

My 1961 Super Major rocker cover does not have this plate, there is just a hole where the little external extension pipe has been brazed/welded on to the top of the rocker cover. A short length of hose, a cranked pipe through the "bulkhead" and then another short length of hose onto the air cleaner body stubby pipe. As you suggest, if there is no hole through the rocker cover, how can the system breathe?

Timeee

Thanks for the reply Timeee.

I was really surprised to see the baffle plate, my first thought was that it was an aftermarket bit that somebody had put on for some reason, however it does seem to be a design of the np engine as, from a photo that @mathias1 posted, his has one too.

Having given it a good clean up this afternoon there is a small cavity at either end of the plate to allow breathing but I'm not really sure how effective this can be even when really clean.

I'm not sure what harm I can do by drilling through the plate, or whether I should try to bend up the sides of the plate to allow for better breathing. Having said that I'd prefer not to mess with an original design.

As a side note the whole rocker assembly is very very gunky indeed, I'm wondering whether this lack of breathing has only made that worse over the years.