Kubota Tractor Rebuild

[Tim Frazier]

So due to some bad decision making on my part my 1984 Kubota L235 is going to have to have the engine rebuilt.  Now mind you it owes us nothing but is in great shape and surely it will be cheaper to have the engine rebuild and maybe the front knuckles rebuilt than buy a new one.

 

Has anyone had this done before?

[airmedic1]

Anything can be rebuild, (almost).  What happened?  Did it get hot, run out of oil?   Those are things that might have ruined the block making overhaul using that block, crankshaft etc unusable.  That might make repair of the engine cost prohibitive making finding a used one an option.

If it just needs new sleeves, pistons, bearing etc its not that expensive.

[Tim Frazier]

11 hours ago, airmedic1 said:

Anything can be rebuild, (almost).  What happened?  Did it get hot, run out of oil?   Those are things that might have ruined the block making overhaul using that block, crankshaft etc unusable.  That might make repair of the engine cost prohibitive making finding a used one an option.

If it just needs new sleeves, pistons, bearing etc its not that expensive.

 

Well I learned the hard way that when you have 2500 hours on an old diesel you don't use starter fluid...lesson learned 😞

[WI Outdoor Nut]

26 minutes ago, Tim Frazier said:

 

Well I learned the hard way that when you have 2500 hours on an old diesel you don't use starter fluid...lesson learned 😞

There are quite a few tractor repair places near me.  I bet with a bore scope, they could give a pretty good idea quickly what it will take.  I am sure you have similar shops in the area. 

[Tim Frazier]

So I can't make sense of this, other than all my experience is with gas engines, but I got a call today that my tractor is running fine!  Mind you I hadn't been able to get it started for 2 months and when it did turned over sounded "clanky" and not good to my ears.  So they want me to come up and hear it run before they bring it back so I'm going up first thing in the morning.  Better to be lucky than good I suppose.

 

FWIW they claimed it would have been $4200 in parts to completely rebuild it.  That sounds crazy high to me but not an issue now.

 

 

[bobman]

2500 hours in a diesel is nothing if your been changing the engine oil on schedule, and starter fluid isn’t going to hurt anything but your glow plugs, if it has them. 

 

certainly should not need a engine rebuild.

 

you probably just heard some preignition from the high ratio compression firing off some fluid before top dead center if you somehow managed to get some in a cylinder 

[Flush]

1 hour ago, bobman said:

 

you probably just heard some preignition from the high ratio compression firing off some fluid before top dead center if you somehow managed to get some in a cylinder 

 

I agree this is probably what happened.

 

I disagree however that using starting fluid can't cause major damage in a diesel with glow plugs. 

Yes, many older diesels used automatic ether (starting fluid) systems... but not with glow plugs, at least not at the same time.

 

Using starter fluid with a glow-plug based diesel CAN cause major piston/ring/rod damage. Not to say that it will, but you need to be careful because the possibility is there and very real. 

If you are going to do it, you really should disable the glow plugs when using starting fluid.

 

[Marc Ret]

That $4200 just for parts seems way out of line. Going by this, you can get a brand new 3 cyl (I believe that's what your tractor has?) Kubota Diesel engine for under 4 grand. 

 

At least it appears you won't need to worry about that for now. 

[ARKBRDHUNTER]

Glad (hope) it worked out. I cannot comment on diesel tractors but I have more in and old 9N than I will ever get out of it. Bought it because it reminded me of the 8N my grand pa had for most of my life. I have had the motor rebuilt, I replaced the steering gears( another project that looks easy on UTube until you start removing all that is required to access that had not removed since built in the late 40's). 

 

The helper did did not charge for his services but did misplace some tools.

[bobman]

1 hour ago, Flush said:

 

I agree this is probably what happened.

 

I disagree however that using starting fluid can't cause major damage in a diesel with glow plugs. 

Yes, many older diesels used automatic ether (starting fluid) systems... but not with glow plugs, at least not at the same time.

 

Using starter fluid with a glow-plug based diesel CAN cause major piston/ring/rod damage. Not to say that it will, but you need to be careful because the possibility is there and very real. 

If you are going to do it, you really should disable the glow plugs when using starting fluid.

 

you are spot on,

 

I should of thought that through 

probably get some hellacious preignition with that hot charge

 

that's probably the clanking he was hearing

[max2]

14 hours ago, ARKBRDHUNTER said:

Glad (hope) it worked out. I cannot comment on diesel tractors but I have more in and old 9N than I will ever get out of it. Bought it because it reminded me of the 8N my grand pa had for most of my life. I have had the motor rebuilt, I replaced the steering gears( another project that looks easy on UTube until you start removing all that is required to access that had not removed since built in the late 40's). 

 

The helper did did not charge for his services but did misplace some tools.

I have heard the reason the older machines are hard to keep running well is that they miss the leaded gasoline of yesterday. Beautiful as they are they can frustrate the heck out of ya.

[Tim Frazier]

Back in business 

 

 

[Natty Bumpo]

Good to Hear. LUV those Orange tractors.

[rolawson]

Great old tractor Tim. Glad it worked out in your favor. 

[Smiller]

On 2/28/2020 at 2:17 PM, Tim Frazier said:

So I can't make sense of this, other than all my experience is with gas engines, but I got a call today that my tractor is running fine!  Mind you I hadn't been able to get it started for 2 months and when it did turned over sounded "clanky" and not good to my ears.  So they want me to come up and hear it run before they bring it back so I'm going up first thing in the morning.  Better to be lucky than good I suppose.

 

FWIW they claimed it would have been $4200 in parts to completely rebuild it.  That sounds crazy high to me but not an issue now.

 

 

Kubota parts seem to get much more expensive the older the machine gets. I've gotten the feeling from parts guys at the dealer that they aren't big on warehousing a lot of parts that 'might' be needed.