I've been crewing on my neighbor/mechanical mentor's pulling tractor this summer. Every mod we did was a real pain in the ass this year and everyone involved was eager to get it finished and run it. So, we looked up the first opportunity and found out the next pull was August 14 at the Point Pleasant, WV fair. Got the tractor and trailer loaded up, went for a nice drive along the Ohio River, got to the fair and got all set to go; tractor weighed in, topped off, test-run and parked. Everything was A-OK and it was running like a top...the new cam and intake seemed to really make a big difference.
So, fast forward a couple of hours and it's time to pull into place in the staging lanes...got a tow over there and waited until it was Richard's turn. So, he flips all the switches, hits the ether button, and hits the key...not even a damn CLICK! :expl
Took off the battery cover and found that the neg. post on one of the batteries had melted...too late to diagnose it, so we just used a pair of vise-grips to wire it down to one battery. Wow, but it did NOT want to crank! Small wonder though, the farkin starter is about 2 feet long and bigger around than a Mason jar. Finally got her to fire up and Richard made sure to keep it revved up so it didn't die before it warmed up.
Cool...we're gonna get to see it in action, it's hooked up and the handy new Wide-Open-Throttle light just came on. Wait a cotton pickin miniute...what the hell is that other identical light that just came on? There are only two of those lights...oh *** that's the "no oil pressure" idiot light. :yikes There has to be 5-6 quarts of oil on the track, and at this point, it's streaming from everywhere on the side.
We get it towed back to the truck and pop the sheetmetal off...oil is STILL bubbling out of the valve cover. Boys, I think we found the culprit...and wait a minute, those bolts aren't very damn tight, even if it IS o-ring'ed. Cool! 9 gallons left in the pan too, we can still go pulling if we can get it to stop leaking.
Right about then, Richard got thoroughly disgusted with the thing and decided to load it up and call it a night. I figured we were good to go, since the trailer is fancy-schmancy and has an electric beavertail and a big electric winch...but nooo, the **** chinese winch quits right when the front tires get to the top of the ramps. ***!
Then, a feller in a John Deere comes along with a push bar....I'd never seen one before, but it's so stone-simple it's cool. Nothing but a bar that goes between the hitches on each tractor and pins in place. So this guy gets it all hooked up, gets it in reverse and starts pushing. And pushing, and pushing. Finally, I figured out that this jackass wasn't going to stop until both tractors had landed on everybody's heads, so I started jumping up and down and yelling, waving my arms, and looking very much like an idiot who didn't want to get run over. Damn tractor was where we wanted it now, no need for the guy to back up farther.
So Mr. John Deere stops and what does he say? "Woops?" "Ok, that got it?" Nope, he says "who's that f***ing asshole and why is he jumping up and down?" It was pretty noisy where we were at but I hope he heard me yell at him to "F--- off". Asshole!
They tore the valve cover off and did a little investigating on Saturday, hoping we could load up and take it to the county fair that afternoon, but I don't know exactly what they found, other than it pissed Richard off so bad that he didn't want to talk to anyone.
Fast forward to 930 tonight and Richard calls me and tells me to "get over here", so I went. The oilpan is laying in the door as I walk in, and it looks like a 10 gallon steel balloon. Piston #6 is laying right next to it, with a 1.5" wide slot melted from the top to the bottom, right through the rings. 65psi of boost going straight into the crankcase would certainly make for one hell of an oil leak...hmmm. :yikes
$500 worth of forged piston and $200 worth of sleeve...gone, but it will be pulling at the end of the month, hopefully. I guess you gotta pay to play, especially when your toy is a 640ci I6 diesel. :rofl
Damn it, I wanna see this thing run...cue the waammbulance!
So, fast forward a couple of hours and it's time to pull into place in the staging lanes...got a tow over there and waited until it was Richard's turn. So, he flips all the switches, hits the ether button, and hits the key...not even a damn CLICK! :expl
Took off the battery cover and found that the neg. post on one of the batteries had melted...too late to diagnose it, so we just used a pair of vise-grips to wire it down to one battery. Wow, but it did NOT want to crank! Small wonder though, the farkin starter is about 2 feet long and bigger around than a Mason jar. Finally got her to fire up and Richard made sure to keep it revved up so it didn't die before it warmed up.
Cool...we're gonna get to see it in action, it's hooked up and the handy new Wide-Open-Throttle light just came on. Wait a cotton pickin miniute...what the hell is that other identical light that just came on? There are only two of those lights...oh *** that's the "no oil pressure" idiot light. :yikes There has to be 5-6 quarts of oil on the track, and at this point, it's streaming from everywhere on the side.
We get it towed back to the truck and pop the sheetmetal off...oil is STILL bubbling out of the valve cover. Boys, I think we found the culprit...and wait a minute, those bolts aren't very damn tight, even if it IS o-ring'ed. Cool! 9 gallons left in the pan too, we can still go pulling if we can get it to stop leaking.
Right about then, Richard got thoroughly disgusted with the thing and decided to load it up and call it a night. I figured we were good to go, since the trailer is fancy-schmancy and has an electric beavertail and a big electric winch...but nooo, the **** chinese winch quits right when the front tires get to the top of the ramps. ***!
Then, a feller in a John Deere comes along with a push bar....I'd never seen one before, but it's so stone-simple it's cool. Nothing but a bar that goes between the hitches on each tractor and pins in place. So this guy gets it all hooked up, gets it in reverse and starts pushing. And pushing, and pushing. Finally, I figured out that this jackass wasn't going to stop until both tractors had landed on everybody's heads, so I started jumping up and down and yelling, waving my arms, and looking very much like an idiot who didn't want to get run over. Damn tractor was where we wanted it now, no need for the guy to back up farther.
So Mr. John Deere stops and what does he say? "Woops?" "Ok, that got it?" Nope, he says "who's that f***ing asshole and why is he jumping up and down?" It was pretty noisy where we were at but I hope he heard me yell at him to "F--- off". Asshole!
They tore the valve cover off and did a little investigating on Saturday, hoping we could load up and take it to the county fair that afternoon, but I don't know exactly what they found, other than it pissed Richard off so bad that he didn't want to talk to anyone.
Fast forward to 930 tonight and Richard calls me and tells me to "get over here", so I went. The oilpan is laying in the door as I walk in, and it looks like a 10 gallon steel balloon. Piston #6 is laying right next to it, with a 1.5" wide slot melted from the top to the bottom, right through the rings. 65psi of boost going straight into the crankcase would certainly make for one hell of an oil leak...hmmm. :yikes
$500 worth of forged piston and $200 worth of sleeve...gone, but it will be pulling at the end of the month, hopefully. I guess you gotta pay to play, especially when your toy is a 640ci I6 diesel. :rofl
Damn it, I wanna see this thing run...cue the waammbulance!
f