It has been a year long project. But I'm done, well almost, I have the final head retorque to do this morning. The question I have is should I back off 1/4 turn before the retorque or simply retorque. Googling this question and checking reputable sites for high performance engines has some folks do and some folks don't. What say ye?
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What have I learned from this project? What can you learn from my experience? Don't trust anyone. Well, except for God.
The new head purchased from Kumar Bros had more volume that the OEM head. Consequence, not enough compression on a total rebuild. Sid at Kumar Bros said to send it back and he would refund my money. After five iterations of where is my refund including "I give you my word, I will send the refund" ...no refund. Bottom line Sid is a thief and liar. Oh well, life goes on.
The rebuilt head from Grainfarmer did not have sufficient compression because the valve recess did not meet the specifications. No answer from Grainfarmer about the sloppy rebuild and pending re-valve job. Oh well, life goes on.
After the local machine shop shaved the head and redid the valves to spec, the engine fires up first time every time! Thank you Mark at Engine Machine for working with me on this. Hallelujah!
Head Gaskets: The head gasket that came with a complete rebuild kit was substantially thicker than the OEM gasket. The head gasket I purchased from Kubota was thinner than the kit gasket, but thicker than the OEM gasket.
In order to bring the piston to head clearance into manual spec I purchased a custom gasket that was a hair thinner than the OEM gasket. I also did this because I was not comfortable with re-using the OEM gasket that I did not know the history of, even though the tractor starts fine.
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Sometime you get yourself so deep into a project that you just can't quit now, eh? Thank God I got this TLB for an excellent price to start with. Plus, I certainly have a lot of personal satisfaction with seeing this through to the end and this little whore is happily purring away (you would think that too, if she kept coming back for more money).
After the re-torgue is done, I'm will be busy grinding off the bucket brackets and welding on a universal bobcat bracket so that i have both the bucket and pallet forks quick release system set to go for the pending construction projects...YES, vigorously pumps fist in the air! Spring is coming!
*******************************************************************************
What have I learned from this project? What can you learn from my experience? Don't trust anyone. Well, except for God.
The new head purchased from Kumar Bros had more volume that the OEM head. Consequence, not enough compression on a total rebuild. Sid at Kumar Bros said to send it back and he would refund my money. After five iterations of where is my refund including "I give you my word, I will send the refund" ...no refund. Bottom line Sid is a thief and liar. Oh well, life goes on.
The rebuilt head from Grainfarmer did not have sufficient compression because the valve recess did not meet the specifications. No answer from Grainfarmer about the sloppy rebuild and pending re-valve job. Oh well, life goes on.
After the local machine shop shaved the head and redid the valves to spec, the engine fires up first time every time! Thank you Mark at Engine Machine for working with me on this. Hallelujah!
Head Gaskets: The head gasket that came with a complete rebuild kit was substantially thicker than the OEM gasket. The head gasket I purchased from Kubota was thinner than the kit gasket, but thicker than the OEM gasket.
In order to bring the piston to head clearance into manual spec I purchased a custom gasket that was a hair thinner than the OEM gasket. I also did this because I was not comfortable with re-using the OEM gasket that I did not know the history of, even though the tractor starts fine.
***********************************************************************
Sometime you get yourself so deep into a project that you just can't quit now, eh? Thank God I got this TLB for an excellent price to start with. Plus, I certainly have a lot of personal satisfaction with seeing this through to the end and this little whore is happily purring away (you would think that too, if she kept coming back for more money).
After the re-torgue is done, I'm will be busy grinding off the bucket brackets and welding on a universal bobcat bracket so that i have both the bucket and pallet forks quick release system set to go for the pending construction projects...YES, vigorously pumps fist in the air! Spring is coming!
