injectors

[john.n]

I have been wondering if the injectors on my dexta need a recon.
what would the signs of worn injectors be?

I did take them out a few months back and cleaned them in petrol with a tooth brush. as they were covered with carbon. after half an hour of running they were all covered with carbon again.

Engine runs fine once warm, but bit of a pain to start without the cold start system unless the middle of summer or engine warm. and a quite smokey on cold start up. but clears once warm.

Any ideas or comments welcomed,

Regards,

John

[Brian]

John,

The engine will always be a pain to start without a cold start system working. It needs the heater and fuel pipe to the manifold. They needed it when new and nearly 50 years on things will not have changed.

I always say that the tractor needs hard work. I was always told that a diesel should be working at peak power or stopped! That is a bit simplistic but also has a lot of truth in. We used to service a tractor that worked in Gaymers Cider Apple Orchard, mowing beneath the trees and clearing prunings then carting the apples at picking time.

We had to de-coke that tractor every six months. The carbon buildup in the exhaust ports was so thick that a pencil would only just go through the hole. Simply because the tractor never worked.

Get your injectors checked by a reputable diesel shop but, unless you are working it, expect them to be covered in carbon again fairly quickly.

[YorkshireDextaMan]

John,

The engine will always be a pain to start without a cold start system working. It needs the heater and fuel pipe to the manifold. They needed it when new and nearly 50 years on things will not have changed.

I always say that the tractor needs hard work. I was always told that a diesel should be working at peak power or stopped! That is a bit simplistic but also has a lot of truth in. We used to service a tractor that worked in Gaymers Cider Apple Orchard, mowing beneath the trees and clearing prunings then carting the apples at picking time.

We had to de-coke that tractor every six months. The carbon buildup in the exhaust ports was so thick that a pencil would only just go through the hole. Simply because the tractor never worked.

Get your injectors checked by a reputable diesel shop but, unless you are working it, expect them to be covered in carbon again fairly quickly.

Brian i can see your point about working the engine to peak power, And as you say, "thats a bit simplistic" in fact i would doubt many Dexta engines now a days even work up more than a light sweat, I think it's just something some of us have to accept. Probably just ticking over all the time you could expect it to carbon up but but i would not think any serious damage would be done if it was used for the odd road run or a bit of mowing. Anyway if it did and needed to be de-coked and re-ringed it would be part of the fun, Jim.

[Brian]

I agree with you Jim, but people get worried about oil in the exhaust and carbon build ups. My feeling is if you know the reason for it, you can make your own judgement.

These sort of problems occured when the tractor were new and many old Ford mechanics spent time trying to convince worried farmers that nothing was wrong with their new tractors, as they stood with oil dripping off the bonnet and a steerage hoe on the lift. We "lads" were not believed because we "knew nothing" in those days.

[Jerry Coles]

In my time in the army the tank auxilliary engines were run for long periods at a light load and used to clog up the whole exhaust system with carbon. They had to introduce a huge electrical dummy load that could be plugged into the slave start socket and the engine loded up to maximum. You could shovel up the pile of carbon produced and it would fill a wheelbarrow. Someone once had a bright idea and tried to burn it out with a pipe from a gas welding set blowing out oxygen. That cleared out the exhaust as it exploded and demolished the complete exhaust pipe!
Jerry

[Brian]

In the days of Field Marshalls the exhaust would catch fire when put into hard work after a spell of light work.

I was once happily ploughing in the restricted (bomb dump) area of North Pickenham USAAF base, when the exhaust went up. Nothing to worry about, just kept going up and down with lots of white smoke when suddenly, I was accompanied by a six-wheeled crash tender/fire engine. They could not understand that I was unconcerned and that it was a normal experience. ( Perhaps not with many tons of HE lying on the runways though).

The Commer TS3 was also rather spectacular when it decided to throw out carbon under load after light running.

[Mark]

Brian,
I've operated all kinds of heavy equipment in the coal mining industry here in the Kentucky, where a diesel motor doesn't have time to carbon up. But there are times when we had to let then sit at idle for long extended periods of time due to extreme cold temperatures. When it came time to throttle it up to go to work, oil, water from condensation, unspent diesel fuel, sparks from burning carbon, heavy sooty black exhaust, would boil out. For a while it wouldn't run very good at all, but after you put her to work she burns all that junk out and starts purring like a diesel motor should. I remember one day I was working in a coal pit in the early 80's loading coal under a 90 foot high-wall, when I noticed they had left a 92 Cat loader running off to the side, I could see that it had been idling for some time because it had started to spit out oil from the exhaust. I was always taught by and old mechanic when I first started out that it's not good for a diesel motor to sit and idle for long periods of time because it would cause a lack of oil to the turbo thus causing it's demise, amongst other things, so I shut it off and went back to to work. A few hours later a youngster we had for a boss came out and wanted to know why the loader wasn't running, I explained why, and he told me there wasn't any truth in that, I asked him to explain why it was spitting oil out of the exhaust pipe then. He didn't have an answer to that. Down through the years this same youngster learned to come and ask us older miners for advice from time to time, and became a good superintendent, he's now top notch in his field because he had learned to listen to experience. He now passes down his knowledge to youngsters starting out in the mining industry as well.
Knowing a piece of equipment and how it works is called experience, those old farmers probably meant well, but thought you youngsters hadn't seen enough frosty mornings to be able to tell them about tractors. When a person has vast amounts of experience in his field it will show, and I have to say that you are very experienced from what you have learned in your lifetime, and it does show in your many posts. I don't chime in much anymore but I do read most of the posts from time to time. Your knowledge about all things, is greatly appreciated from this side of the pond, thanks for all you do.

[Jerry Coles]

There was a case of a guy who tried to start a Field Marshall using oxygen about 15 years ago. He put an oxygen hose into the air intake and cranked it over. The whole cylinder and head exploded and he lost all of one hand except his thumb. Oxygen likes diesel etc very much, very quickly!!

Jerry

[The Swanndri Guy]

Brian ,there is nothing like the sound and smell of a running Commer TS3. But one question, how long does it take to do a headgasket on a TS3?? TSG.(Ther is also a working Commer TS4 in Auckland, one of only four built.)

[Brian]

Depends whether you spend a couple of days or a week looking for the hidden bolts! You did not get too many head gasket failures!

Ther is a gentleman about 5 miles from me here that has put a TS3 engine in a motorbike I will see if I can find the newspaper cutting and picture to post.

[russelm]

Interesting

Has anybody here thought about using additives in the fuel occasionaly.

We run the DMU with some 2 stroke oil in the tank (red diesel is now going low sulphur so we add it at 1 part in 200) in order to replace some of the lube properties that the sulphur used to provide.

I must say it seems to work as the annual inspection of the injectors ( they are 6 cylinder leyland engines) show they are mega clean and nice a free (which si the first time!) and there does appear to be slightly less knock to.

Might be worth trying on our older technology pride and joys.