Super Major engine - advice on oil spill through breather

[RBack]

Thank you for accepting me as a forum member.

At the moment I'm not owning a tractor, but I'm constantly keeping my eyes open for "the proper" Super Major popping up for sale.
However that's not my topic at the moment.

I'm owning a boat that's equipped with a Parsons Pike Marine engine. It was a British company making marine versions of (mostly) various Ford/Fordson engines.
Mine is equivalent to a Super Major and/or (I think) some 4 cyl Trader. According to the papers it's built 1962.
Anyhow it's more of an "industrial" form of the engine rather than the proper tractor version.
Hope this is close enough to keep me in this forum.

After purchase two years ago the engine went through an overhaul and received a complete engine kit with new liners, pistons, seals, o-rings and you name it.
The overhaul was done by a very experienced tractor mechanic. I'd contact him again if he would still be around. Sadly not though.

After the overhaul I've used the boat (running the engine) for about 50 hours in total. Not really much in other words.
For 17 of those hours it had a too large propeller which unabled it to reach proper rpm.
Now it's better but still not perfect, so that'll be adjusted. I currently don't have a tachometer (yet).

Being in a boat, the engine is mostly working rather hard. Like "constantly driving uphill" as they say about boat engines.
I'm not sure if it's hard enough for bedding in, but I hope so.

That was the background. Here's the ongoing problem.

Last week I took it for the first proper tour of the summer along the coast.
After about two hours it started spilling oil. I localised it to the breather on the timing cover.
So after coming home I tried to read into it. Among other places also this forum.
After that I checked the breather and unsurprisingly it's blowing air.
I also read into the rocker cover breather and this one do not have a connection to the air cleaner stack.
There is no open pipe in the air cleaner stack to connect to either.
So it seems like it has been like that since... 1962...?
Don't understand why it would have been changed.

My fear is of course that there is something wrong with the piston rings or some similar problem that requires opening it up again (it's horribly difficult to remove it from the boat and there's almost no space in the boat).

Or might there be some other - more "kind" problems that are easy to solve?
Unfortunately I do at the moment not know what the oil pressure might be. I need to have that checked properly.

[henk]

Welcome RBack,
Can't help you with this problem, but I reccon someone overhere can. It's something different to have a Fordson engine on a boat instead of a tractor.

[RBack]

Thank you!
We'll see. Hopefully.
I'll also of course consult people around here - i I find any who knows these older engines.
But I'm thankful to any suggestions and/or help.

[mathias1]

If it's spitting oil through the exhaust it mostly means it needs some hard work.
Is'nt there a connection on the rocker cover so the air could be sucked out?
Maybe you can give it a try with the rocket cover off? Then you can also check the valves.

[RBack]

No oil through the exhaust as far as I've noticed. Just out of the Timing cover breather.
No connection between the rocker cover breather and the air cleaner stack. There is not place to connect it to either.
However I could try putting a hose to the cover breather and shove it down the air intake. There is really no air cleaner (filter) on this one.
So the suction of the engine (through the air intake) would help out a bit.

I took a few detail photos the other day. But since I'm not really using Photobucket, I'm going to do it the easy way and link to the images being on a single post on a blog.
Hope that's OK.
http://backinblogg.blogspot.com/2018/06 ... ilder.html

The timing cover breather is slightly bent from two years ago when the engine was removed for the overhaul mentioned in my first post.
But this is of course no cause for the oil to start spilling out through there.

[oehrick]

Hi and welcome

It might be a good idea to check on the specification of the oil you are using and compare to the working temperature the engine gets to when under load.

[RBack]

Hi and welcome

It might be a good idea to check on the specification of the oil you are using and compare to the working temperature the engine gets to when under load.

Thank you!
Yes indeed. Good point. I start to think the oil ain't optimal. But I need to check it and I haven't been out to the boat during the last days.

[RBack]

Well...
The engine fooled me big time.
The main oil spill originated from the oil filter which wasn't sufficiently tightened.
Some oil had indeed escaped through the breather, but far from the amounts I thought from the start.

I also connected a hose from the rocker cover breather to the air cleaner stack. Don't know if it helped - but everything seemed fine during a six hour trip two days ago.
So I'm growing a bit more confident that everything was false alarm.

[oehrick]

Nice when it turns out not to be so bad as suspected

[RBack]

Nice when it turns out not to be so bad as suspected

Indeed!