Diesel engine valve sticking ?

[quote="Jim Davis"]I've got a spare/parts D2 here that I have been turning the engine by hand every day for 4 or five years. Now, it will only turn up to a certain point and no more. Will turn backward a ways, then forward again to the same angle, then stops.

I'm guessing there is a valve stuck and hitting the piston. So, will it damage things if I tow the machine to pop the valve back up? I would like to tow it enough to get oil flowing in all the right places just to keep things free. It is my understanding that the engine has not run in a dozen years or more.[/quote]
How about removing the valve cover and having a look?

I dont think towing it would be a good idea.
If the valve cannot be pushed back up with rocking the engine back and forth by hand, towing it would do serious damage to some thing. Time to investigate Further .

I had a D2 engine that acted as you describe. Turned out that mice had entered through the uncapped exhaust pipe and dropped seeds and nut shells into the cylinders via an open valve (s). When the engine was rotated they were crunched against the head, and prevented a complete 360 degree rotation. Now every tractor gets its exhaust capped when not in use.

The same thing happened to a neighbors Massey Ferguson when he replaced the stock muffler with a straight thru glass pack.

Could be this. I had pulled the hood back so it protected the exhaust from the elements, but it's open to mice.

Dad hadn't ran it in 2 months, same systems! He decided to pull the head, only to find one cylinder full of seeds! Squirrels(Rodents) had walked a 3 foot pipe out from the wall, crawled in, walked back 8 feet, dropping the seeds down the pipe into the manifold! As they were small round seeds, they fell in the manifold and rolled to the open valve, filling a cylinder!
All you could do was shake your head and laugh at the fact that you "thought" you had seen everything! Who would have thought that a creature would do all that work for storage?

And then they probably couldn't retrieve the seeds to eat them when they wanted them.
:wacko:

I threw caution to the wind and towed the D2 in 5th for about 100 feet. It's all freed up ( and of course, may have a broken rocker arm or something.) I'll tow it farther sometime soon. I want to get oil flowing to all lube points. It turns over fine now.