Getting ready to rebuild an l245dt

[LT1Pat]

Im getting ready to rebuild an l245dt and had a few questions. I see the axle shaft for the front wheel drive seems to go right through the oil pan. What's the easiest way to split and remove the engine on these tractors?

I purchased

46mm socket
(3) 76mm pistons
(3) sleeves
(1) sleeve puller custom made (79.40mm od 74.80 id disc)
(3) ring sets
(3) piston pin bushings
Main bearings and seals
Thrust bearing
Rod bearings
Upper gasket set
Lower gasket set
Head gasket
Oil cam plugs (Has no oil pressure)

Am I missing anything? I'm going to have a shop magna flux the head and bore the block to size after sleeving.

 

[MagKarl]

Sounds good to me, please keep us updated, I have the same tractor and am definately interested in your experience. How did you decide it was time to overhaul?

 

[LT1Pat]

It has a lot of blowby out the bottom vent and doesn't have much oil pressure. I'm 95% sure the cam plug fell out so I want to bring it back to life!

Sounds good to me, please keep us updated, I have the same tractor and am definately interested in your experience. How did you decide it was time to overhaul?

 

[LT1Pat]

I just started to remove the engine and I seem to have broke the pressure plate. I noticed there are two types, dual and single stage. Can anyone tell me which one I have here?

Also I found a bearing in the clutch housing and it appears as if it's a throwout bearing but I'm not sure.

 

[LT1Pat]

The clutch wasn't exactly in the best condition either:

 

[LT1Pat]

As suspected the cam plug was missing beneath the front cover. The engine turns over extremely easy and doesn't feel like the compression is there. I guess it's pretty straight forward from here. I'm going to send the injectors to DFIS to get checked out, re-sleeve the block and put all new bearings and seals in it and of course weld in something on the end of the cam.

 

[LT1Pat]

I can't seem to get the cam out. I took out all the lifters and took out the two bolts out of the cam retainer but it won't budge. It spins freely but when you pull on it then it stops spinning freely. Should I just yank on it with a slide hammer? Is there something behind the freeze plug on the back of the block stopping it?

 

[LT1Pat]

Can the machine shop bore the new liners with the cam in there? I don't know what's going on with the cam but I have a feeling I'm going to damage something if I try to force it out of there. It spins freely but the second you start pulling on it then it gets tight. I can see the lobes look great with no wear.

 

[kuboman]

Can the machine shop bore the new liners with the cam in there? I don't know what's going on with the cam but I have a feeling I'm going to damage something if I try to force it out of there. It spins freely but the second you start pulling on it then it gets tight. I can see the lobes look great with no wear.

Block has to be stripped bare for any block work.

 

[LT1Pat]

The bores are as smooth as glass, maybe I can just get away with honing it? That cam spins free as can be but the second you start pulling on it, it locks up

 

[kuboman]

The bores are as smooth as glass, maybe I can just get away with honing it? That cam spins free as can be but the second you start pulling on it, it locks up

Are there any ridges at the top of the cylinder? If not a honing might last for a few hours.

 

[LT1Pat]

#3 upper piston ring was broken. The cylinder wall still looks amazing though, not even a single scratch. Since all the bores are good I think I'm just going to ball hone it and replace the rings/pistons and all the bearings including the mains. I don't know why the cam doesn't want to come out but it spins freely and since all the other bearings were in decent condition I think it'll be fine. I was able to remove the freeze plug in the back behind the cam to find that plug fell out as well and was just laying between the end of the cam and the plug. I'm just going to tig weld the ends and fill them up with filler rod.

 

[LT1Pat]

I got the cam out and the reason it wasn't coming out was due to the mains of the cam getting chewed up a bit. I'm going to have the cam polished and a line hone through the block to see if it can be cleaned up. If too much material is taken off I have a source on a place that can build up material on camshafts so I can oversize the cam bores. There are no bearings in the cam so this is a big problem.

 

[pat331]

Thanks for posting all the problems you've run into. I've not taken an engine down and put it back-together myself. So I'm really interested in your progress. Thanks for the pictures too!

 

[LT1Pat]

The chewed up cam bore was my biggest fear from the start since the Kubota rebuild I talked to originally said that if the cam bore is messed up it's junk. The cam bore on these engines don't use bearings so the hardened cam rides on the soft cast iron directly. I talked to my machine shop and they didn't see it as much of a problem to either line bore and replace with regular bearings or line hone or line bore and build up material on the cam to fit the new size. Even though he mentioned it would be in the $300 area it's cheaper than a new block.

 

[LT1Pat]

I've also decided to replace the liners with fresh ones since after a few seconds with a hone showed some flaws that I didn't originally see.

 

[LT1Pat]

The block is at a special machine shop that does rigid line bores for the cam. The cam tunnel is being bored aprox. .020" over and then the cam is being ground, chrome plated, and re ground to the new size to achieve the .002-.0036" tolerance.

I guess the main reason for these rigid line bores originated from Lotus type engines where the oil pan and the block are one piece so it's the same situation where supports can't be put in for the line bore.

 

[LT1Pat]

Also the crank is being polished... When this thing is done it should be better than new. I sourced a new block but discovered the cam issue can be solved for cheaper. The machine shop bill is probably going to be around $800 for all of this but at least I didn't have to buy a new block.

 

[LT1Pat]

The steering is very loose, I bought a new steering shaft/ball screw assembly, bearings, seals, shims, and gaskets but does that mean I will need a new case too?

I ordered a new clutch and pressure plate and the flywheel is at the machine shop getting resurfaced. The cam is obviously the biggest headache but after a lot of research it's completely fixable. The new liners might already be done at the machine shop, I'm supposed to pick it up Friday to bring it to the other machine shop who will line bore the cam.

The bearing you found with the clutch is the steering ballnut and shaft lower support bearing.

Any chance the bottom end of the steering box has 'blown out' due to water infiltration, then freezing causing this bearing to drop out and into that area?

Worst clutch I've seen in a long time, keep us posted on the repair and overhaul of the engine, take lots of pics!

 

[LT1Pat]

New clutch and throw out bearing arrived!