Flushing the Crankcase

dtcohen

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Hey all,

Now that I have the Pony back on the D4 and have the main engine turning over I have been thinking about draining out the old oil and filling the crankcase with either diesel or kerosene and letting the engine turn over some to flush things out. I plan on running the pony at just above idle to keep things turning nice and slow. Anybody see any problems with doing this?

Daniel

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Thu, Oct 22, 2015 8:57 AM

leon

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[quote="dtcohen"]Hey all,

Now that I have the Pony back on the D4 and have the main engine turning over I have been thinking about draining out the old oil and filling the crankcase with either diesel or kerosene and letting the engine turn over some to flush things out. I plan on running the pony at just above idle to keep things turning nice and slow. Anybody see any problems with doing this?

Daniel[/quote]

Dont see any problem with this procedure,nor see any benefit,if you have a need to flush crankcase,change oil more often.

My opinion, leon

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Thu, Oct 22, 2015 9:06 AM

dtcohen

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Reply to leon:

[quote="dtcohen"]Hey all,

Now that I have the Pony back on the D4 and have the main engine turning over I have been thinking about draining out the old oil and filling the crankcase with either diesel or kerosene and letting the engine turn over some to flush things out. I plan on running the pony at just above idle to keep things turning nice and slow. Anybody see any problems with doing this?

Daniel[/quote]

Dont see any problem with this procedure,nor see any benefit,if you have a need to flush crankcase,change oil more often.

My opinion, leon

[quote="leon"]Dont see any problem with this procedure,nor see any benefit,if you have a need to flush crankcase,change oil more often.

My opinion, leon[/quote]

The tractor hasn't been run in over 20 years. I supposed I should have mentioned that. I just figured it would be a good idea to try to clean it out a bit before I put a new filter and fresh oil in it.

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Thu, Oct 22, 2015 9:21 AM

Sasquatch

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Reply to dtcohen:

[quote="leon"]Dont see any problem with this procedure,nor see any benefit,if you have a need to flush crankcase,change oil more often.

My opinion, leon[/quote]

The tractor hasn't been run in over 20 years. I supposed I should have mentioned that. I just figured it would be a good idea to try to clean it out a bit before I put a new filter and fresh oil in it.

For what it's worth I've used diesel fuel in one of those hand-pumped pressure sprayers (the type commonly sold to spray small amounts of pesticides) to flush and clean gearboxes through access covers before, it seems to work well every time I do it and gets a lot of crud out.

If you try diesel or kero while cranking, I suppose if you keep the compression released the whole time you wouldn't have to worry about putting much stress on the internal components. But after you drain the diesel/kerosene out you might want to do a partial fill with engine oil and crank again till you get oil pressure then drain it all again to be sure to purge any residual fuel out of the galleys and passageways. It would be interesting to see what gets flushed out.

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Thu, Oct 22, 2015 9:51 AM

cheshire cat

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Reply to dtcohen:

[quote="leon"]Dont see any problem with this procedure,nor see any benefit,if you have a need to flush crankcase,change oil more often.

My opinion, leon[/quote]

The tractor hasn't been run in over 20 years. I supposed I should have mentioned that. I just figured it would be a good idea to try to clean it out a bit before I put a new filter and fresh oil in it.

If you drained it what came out ? if it was just sludgy oil and not a load of water then I would just fill with new oil and new filter then run it for a hour or so and change them again
if its had water or snot then fill it with diesel or kero DO NOT turn the engine just let it sit for a while, then drain and refill with clean oil , don't risk circulating anything thru the old filter and if you can take any access covers off the oil pan and check the screens on oil pick ups are clean , the main thing to remember new oil will dislodge old dirt so its important to change it again soon after you get the thing running for the first time same with the pony ...

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Thu, Oct 22, 2015 1:49 PM

wimmera farmer

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Reply to cheshire cat:

If you drained it what came out ? if it was just sludgy oil and not a load of water then I would just fill with new oil and new filter then run it for a hour or so and change them again
if its had water or snot then fill it with diesel or kero DO NOT turn the engine just let it sit for a while, then drain and refill with clean oil , don't risk circulating anything thru the old filter and if you can take any access covers off the oil pan and check the screens on oil pick ups are clean , the main thing to remember new oil will dislodge old dirt so its important to change it again soon after you get the thing running for the first time same with the pony ...

Just take one of the inspection plates of and have a proper look in there and be sure. Much easier than doing a rebuild because the oil pump screen was blocked. I have found one with the screen hanging half of.
cheers WF

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Thu, Oct 22, 2015 3:52 PM

drujinin

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Reply to wimmera farmer:

Just take one of the inspection plates of and have a proper look in there and be sure. Much easier than doing a rebuild because the oil pump screen was blocked. I have found one with the screen hanging half of.
cheers WF

Seen old Gas CATs with an inch of carbon sludge in the bottom of the pan right up to the suction screen and old Diesels with holes in the suction screen. Even though a kerosene flush is recommended in Old Manuals, I would not recommend doing this. Instead I would remove access cover, inspect and clean, then put cheap motor oil in. Flush it with that, then drain it. Refill with another batch of cheap oil and run it for an hour to get it hot and drain it immediately to allow the oil to carry out the dirt in suspension. Then change the Filter and put in the good grade/brand of Oil you want to run. Work it for 60 or 80 hours and change it one more time.
It seems like a lot of screwing around and time but it is way cheaper than rebuilding an engine!

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Thu, Oct 22, 2015 6:39 PM

old-iron-habit

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Reply to drujinin:

Seen old Gas CATs with an inch of carbon sludge in the bottom of the pan right up to the suction screen and old Diesels with holes in the suction screen. Even though a kerosene flush is recommended in Old Manuals, I would not recommend doing this. Instead I would remove access cover, inspect and clean, then put cheap motor oil in. Flush it with that, then drain it. Refill with another batch of cheap oil and run it for an hour to get it hot and drain it immediately to allow the oil to carry out the dirt in suspension. Then change the Filter and put in the good grade/brand of Oil you want to run. Work it for 60 or 80 hours and change it one more time.
It seems like a lot of screwing around and time but it is way cheaper than rebuilding an engine!

40 some years ago we went to the woods one morning and after starting the skidder, I shut it back down on a whim to check the oil. It normally burned no oil and we got lucky as I did not check it every day. The stick was a milky white. Some POS jerk had dumped paint in the engine crankcase. We drained it and filled it with 4 parts fuel oil and 1 part oil. Started it for a fifteen seconds and drained it again. We did it two more times running it at idle a bit longer each time. The last time it idled for a few minutes. Drained it and put new oil in and ran it for many more years. This was a Ford Red Tiger gas engine so the compression would be less than a diesel. The direction came from the dealer on using the fuel/oil mix to flush the engine. He claimed they flushed engines all the time with that mixture.

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Thu, Oct 22, 2015 7:06 PM

ag-mike

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Reply to wimmera farmer:

Just take one of the inspection plates of and have a proper look in there and be sure. Much easier than doing a rebuild because the oil pump screen was blocked. I have found one with the screen hanging half of.
cheers WF

[quote="wimmera farmer"]Just take one of the inspection plates of and have a proper look in there and be sure. Much easier than doing a rebuild because the oil pump screen was blocked. I have found one with the screen hanging half of.
cheers WF[/quote]

this, + u should've been draining it all this time already.

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Thu, Oct 22, 2015 7:21 PM

neil

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Reply to ag-mike:

[quote="wimmera farmer"]Just take one of the inspection plates of and have a proper look in there and be sure. Much easier than doing a rebuild because the oil pump screen was blocked. I have found one with the screen hanging half of.
cheers WF[/quote]

this, + u should've been draining it all this time already.

Hi Roger, when you wrote fuel oil, are you referring to the stuff that ship engines burn or "regular" diesel? If the former, how do you get hold of that stuff?

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Thu, Oct 22, 2015 9:25 PM

rmyram

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pull the inspection covers and remove the sludge.

i have used diesel fuel to flush engines out all the time. i have never had an issue. i drain the engine oil. put the plug back in and fill to full mark on dipstick with clean diesel fuel. start engine and let it idle for a minute or so. drain diesel out, if it is black, i repeat the process until it comes out almost the same colour it went in.

this will not clean out the major sludge that you find in the bottom of some of these old cats, but it does a fantastic job on gasoline and diesel engines that people didn't change the oil often enough.

i have used this method in hondas, nissans, toyotas (gas and diesel engines), kubita diesels, john deere diesels, ford diesels, navistar 7.3 and 6.0L powerstrokes, gm 6.2 and 6.5L IDI diesels, Gm 6.6L duramax diesels, Cummins 5.9l diesels and natural gas fired versions. briggs and scrap iron lawnmowers, kohler stationary engines, and even the pony of a d6. and a d318 and a d4600.

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Thu, Oct 22, 2015 9:53 PM

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