D7 17A With “Stuck” Engine

Thank you Eddie.

I’m not sure if there is any movement in the flywheel - can’t see the flywheel. And I don’t detect any movement in the fan or in the universal joint. I’m going to take the side covers off and inspect and lubricate as much as I can. I’ll also remove the exhaust manifold and post some photos.

we have freed a stuck piston by filling the cyl with diesel and placing a block of wood in on top of the piston each day give the block a love tap and top up the diesel it worked all we did was hone the cyl and fit new rings every thing else was fine.

I attempted to fill the cylinders with lubricant and was shocked to see that 2 gallons was not enough to fill even one cylinder. Where was all that lubricant going? The coolant level was fine when I checked it a few days earlier. How big are the bores on a 17A? There were no signs of leaking fluids after attempting to fill the cylinder??

Hi,
the D339 engine is a 4 cylinder, 5 3/4" bore by 8" stroke unit and is reportedly 831 cubic inches in capacity by the spec. sheet.
I guess that equates to around 207.75 Cub Inch. per cylinder.
Cheers,
Eddie B.

Hi,
the D339 engine is a 4 cylinder, 5 3/4" bore by 8" stroke unit and is reportedly 831 cubic inches in capacity by the spec. sheet.
I guess that equates to around 207.75 Cub Inch. per cylinder.
Cheers,
Eddie B.

The oil level on the dipstick didn’t appear to change. I’ll have to check it again. What’s the bad? Too much clearance on the rings? It seemed to run fine when I ran it last. If the exhaust valve was open then might the lubricant be in the exhaust manifold?

It could be in the exhaust manifold. You could check by loosening it up to see if any oil escapes. How did you fill the cylinders? Through the injection nozzle holes? Heat is also very useful for loosening things up. The "radical" approach is to remove the cylinder head, fill them with diesel, and light them on fire. The heat expands everything, but they do so at different rates due to materials, construction, etc. so the heat "cracks" the adhesion apart. But before going there, you could try getting the coolant up to operating temperature to see if that unsticks the components. That's just a matter of running hot water through the system, which I'd think would be less invasive than removing the cylinder head although might require more rigging to set it up.

Attempted to remove the exhaust manifold today but wasn’t able to completely separate it from the block - it’s hung up on the air intake manifold. The air cleaner will have to removed and I didn’t have time today to do that. I did however managed to pry the exhaust manifold away from the block about an inch or so. In doing so I noticed significant amounts of debris at each exhaust port. My guess is that the ports were full of rodent nest debris. It’s possible that some of that debris is responsible for jamming the engine. I plan to finish removing the exhaust manifold tomorrow and will take photos of the debris and post them. I still don’t no where all the lubricant went. It looks like I’m moving towards removing the heads.