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Engine Gremlins! Yes they are real!


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This is a story about a 1963 Simplicity Landlord 101. It was destine to be put in the old tractor graveyard. The previous owner wanted it only for parts. A silly novice tractor collector saw this tractor and bought it because it looked too original to just scrape it away. This novice spent time trying to revive the electrical system to this tractor. Bugged a club he had joined with many stupid questions; what do you want from a novice. Well tonight, this tractor was destine to having a minor heart surgery where the electrical system was to be reworked... sort of like a heart by pass. Well this novice went and bought a new battery for this operation that was destine to start tomorrow. After he installed this battery, he turned over the machine to see the starter come to life. Not expecting to see the spark plug wire making a blue light when brushing against the 23D engine. Next this silly novice went to town with the tools of starter fluid and gasoline to see if this machine really wanted to come to life..... I shorted this silly story. The machine runs!!! I was about to go buy parts worth about $35. Damn. Anyway did you all think you were getting away without a stupid question... sorry. I am getting a lot of oil burn. Most likely since I broke this engine free from being frozen with PB Blaster. I filled the cylinder with oil at one point. Ok how long am I going to burn oil and try not to breath this stuff? Any suggestions from this point? Will I waste the new spark plug on this machine? Thanks in advance for any help and all the past help. Now I have five running machines! :) I think you guys will be giving me a load of s..t after this post. :) Hey my project now works.
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The PB Blaster should burn away fairly quickly, and 15 - 30 minutes of running will likely hone any rust out of the cylinder, reseat the rings and stop the smoking -- if it's going to stop... You never know exactly the condition these oldies were in when they were parked, or why they were parked.... It could have been badly worn out, or had broken rings when it was parked. If so, it won't stop smoking until it's rebuilt. You may have broken a ring freeing it up... Assuming the smoking stops after she runs a little while, I'd go ahead and invest in a new spark plug and another oil change before I put it into use... I always pull the head off and scrape out the carbon build-up too, once I've got one running, and before I change the oil again....
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Nice to see you brought the "old girl" back to life! Unfortunately, the engine will probably continue to burn oil. Sounds like an engine rebuild is probably the best route to take, unless you find a used identical engine.
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I have a 23D - FB which from what I understand only differs that it is a flange bearing. If I end up having to rebuild this engine, I might try to mount this engine in the tractor. Hopefully not finding out this too has a problem. BTW: This does not smell like regular oil which is burning. I am thinking I should quickly change the crankcase oil because perhaps a lot of the PB blaster got in the crank case? I have not changed the oil in this machine so could this be the oil is too thin; what do you think? In any case, I only ran this for about 5 to 8 minutes. It burned too much oil and I own a multifamily house. Being that Connecticut is starting to have warm weather, I didn't think my tenants really needed to smell my project. That's tomorrow's project when they are all at work. First, I'll change the oil.
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If the piston was stuck in the cylinder, then there is a good possibility that the rings could be stuck in the grooves of the piston. If this is the case, you will probably have to pull the piston, remove the stuck rings, and put in new ones. Been there, done that. No boring, no honing, new rings, no smoke. Worked on one B/S and I'll find out about the second one in a week or two.
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If you haven't changed the oil before you started it, I'd definitely change it before I ran it any more...
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BTW: If you don't believe in Gremlins, I think that trying to get this engine sparking on a portable battery charger with a slightly dead battery didn't show a spark. After installing a new battery, this machine came to life. Kent, thanks; I am going to immediately change the oil tomorrow to some brand new 30weight straight and see what happens. I was able to drive it around. If luck has me burning out the oil, I'll run carb cleaner through it. I am going to have to do a transmission switch, given I saved a working 101 BGB and transmission in a assembled shape, I believe all I'll need to do is split and join these.
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A couple of minor points just so you have accurate information about your tractor.... It cannot possibly be a 1963 and a Landlord 101, since the 990350/351 were introduced in 1965. The 9 horse Briggs 23 D was the correct engine for the Landlord series only for the first Landlord('63-'64) tractors. Starting with the Landlord 101, Simplicity went to the 10 horse Briggs 243XXX engines. These Simplicity models would correspond to the early B-10(9 horse) and the Big Ten(10 horse) Allis models, while the 2010 matches the late B-10(10 horse) Allis. http://www.simpletractors.com/made_when/1964-1967.htm http://www.simpletractors.com/X-reference/s_ac_pg1.htm
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thedaddycat, Is my machine just a "landlord"? Not a Landlord 101? I have the SN plate on that and the engine SN; so I can look at these. With out going out to the machine, I think it was a 990314. Thanks for setting me straight.
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Yes, the dash is originally black. I am in the process of switching it because some backwards mechanic decided to cut the dash to fit in a regular car battery.
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She be blowin smoke. I've changed the oil and she's still blowin smoke as I push high RPM's. If it idles, I get littler smoke. I am runner her now at different idles to see what happens. Next, I'll try some carb cleaner... I expect it's a ring job like some people eluded. We'll see. Below is a picture sitting idling. When I actually drove the tractor and put it under load, the engine seemed to only smoke heavy as I changed the throttle speed. [img]http://www.simpletractors.com/club2/uploaded/michaelg221/landlord01.JPG[/img] Tried some carb cleaner, not much of a difference.
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did you clean air filter? is choke wide open? What I am getting at is oil burning is blue smoke, not burning fuel is grey to black smoke
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Ron, I remember it being a white to grey smoke, but I could be wrong; I'll look more closely at the color. I did start spraying carb cleaner and I've run this both with the Air Cleaner off and on. I've not tried adjusting the carb yet, I figure to not cause any more problems just yet. I think the next step is to check the gap on the points and close those up. Take out the spark plug and look at it? I'll take suggestions. Thanks for your reply.
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Somebody had a bit about the smoke, but I don't recall for sure. I think it went, black for carb, blue for rings and white for valves. Something like that anyhow.... Wish I had it told to me directly instead of reading it, I'd probably remember it better... Whoever had that little gem, please set me straight!!
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I have read a lot of old timers saying that you put a little ATF fluid in the top cylinder and let it sit for a couple of days to free stuck rings. On the saturnfans.com web site they have a procedure they call a MMO Soak. Same thing only using Marvel Mystery Oil in the top of the engine. I would image it works best on a hot or warm engine. Take the plug out and put 2-3 ounces in there. Let it sit for 24-48 hours and fire it up. They say it will free stuck rings. They also put it directly into the carb via the air intake. Just enough to keep it from stalling out and then kill the engine. This will help with carbon build up on the rings, valves and stems. Stan Stan
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Any idea on how this effects the 30 weight engine oil? I was wondering what PB Blaster did to the oil. I can only image it is running down the cylinder walls and mixing with the engine oil. Does this lower the quality of the engine oil requiring me to change this oil again "very soon"? I am thinking that might not be a bad move soon anyway. I think my next steps are a really good clean up job on both old machines while I know these are working. Clean physically, paint, straighten and clean up wiring jobs, etc. Then try tuning the carb and then maybe going back and trying some more lub in the cylinder... before I look to rebuild. I'll take ideas. Thanks for the reply.
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