Kubota L200 Rebuild

[Flying V Ranch]

As promised in this thread; Hello From A New Guy in Texas, I am going to start a rebuild of my little L200.

I have several fully equipped shops around my ranch, but I set up this temporary 12x20 shelter next to the main house as I need to stay close by home for some personal reasons right now, and the other shops are too far away on the property. I equipped it with some basic hand tools, a parts cleaner, grinder. etc... This should be enough for most tasks, unless I need to machine or weld something, in which case I'll have to use my main shop for that. I've used several of these shelters around the ranch and they hold up remarkably well. I brought in some dirt and built a level pad then I laid a tarp down to serve as a moisture barrier, and then laid down 3/4 treated plywood as a floor.

Progress will probably be slow as this is just a spare time fun project. I've owned this tractor for around 20 years and she's been sitting up for most of that time. This is my third tractor restoration, so I am slowly learning a bit more each time. I do enjoy bringing a rusted relic back to life and hopefully I'll get this little project completed without too many problems.

 

[Bee-Positive]

Nice temporary shop there, I like the floor system. Looks like a good project with the L200.

I've had two of those over the years, the first one blew 3/4 mile down the valley in 65 mph winds, the second one buckled in a heavy snow storm (not a problem you're likely to have). There's all kinds of ways to add support and anchors on Boo-tube but I've decided not tempt mother nature anymore.

Good luck with the restore!

 

[Flying V Ranch]

Well after two days of jacks, wooden cribbing, comealongs, cussing, sweat, sledge hammers, and busted thumbs, I finally got the head separated from the block. It looks pretty awful. Both pistons are seized up tight. I am soaking them for a few days before I try tapping on them with a wooden block.

The heads look to have some severe pitting, but it's hard to tell yet until I get them cleaned up for a better look.

Two of the head studs in the rear were holding the head on till past my lifetime, but I managed to get them free and the head up off the block far enough to get some leverage from underneath.

 

[Flying V Ranch]

Today I finally got the pistons unstuck. I tried ATF/acetone, PB Blaster, and then finally vinegar. The vinegar did the trick after soaking about 3 or 4 hours. There is some pretty serious rust in one cylinder, but I will try to dissolve most of it if possible and the followed by a honing with a stone.

Unfortunately there is no removable oil pan on this motor. It's all solid cast iron and it looks like the only access to the crank is by splitting the tractor. Therefore I will first try to hone the cylinder as best as I can by lowering the piston to bottom dead center and then carefully cleaning out the bore after honing with oil. I've done that on airplane engines and it works OK usually.

I cleaned the cylinder head and there is very bad pitting on both cylinders. It almost looks like premature detonation damage. I can's see any cracks and the mating surfaces look decent, so I may have to reuse it and hope for the best. The heads are very rare and expensive when you do find one. The valves and seats look OK so hopefully it will work well enough to get the tractor running before I spend big bucks for another cylinder head.

I was leery about the vinegar trick after watching several youtube videos exclaiming it's virtues. But by golly it did work on this seriously stuck motor!

 

[Runs With Scissors]

Unfortunately there is no removable oil pan on this motor. It's all solid cast iron and it looks like the only access to the crank is by splitting the tractor.

Please post some pics of this, once you figure it out.

For the life of me I can’t figure out how this could be the case.

Good luck sir, looks like a fun project.


EDIT: Almost forgot….Love that “temporary” work space.

 

[Flying V Ranch]

Please post some pics of this, once you figure it out.

For the life of me I can’t figure out how this could be the case.

Good luck sir, looks like a fun project.


EDIT: Almost forgot….Love that “temporary” work space.

I'll try to get some photos of the crankcase later today. I may be wrong, but a quick look shows no separate oil pan. Apparently to remove the crank, you have to pull it out from the rear of the motor which seems like a huge pain in the rear. Pun intended.
Thanks for the compliment on my little workshop. It seems to be functioning very well so far.

 

[Russell King]

I glanced at the illustrated parts list and it does appear that there is NOT a separate oil pan on that engine.

I assume that is done so the engine is safer when submerged in the water of a rice paddy. Less chance for water intrusion!

 

[Flying V Ranch]

Lord only knows I have some muddy spots on the ranch that's just like a rice paddy. LOL

I'll take some photos of the block arrangement later today for everyone's amusement

 

[Flying V Ranch]

As promised, here are some photos of each side of the one piece crankcase. It looks like there is an inspection panel on the right side, but to remove the crank would require splitting the tractor and pretty much disassembling the entire engine.

One thing I have learned from reading about other restorations is to have a clear goal of what you want to accomplish in the end. In my case, I plan to hopefully get this little tractor running again for typical light duty Sunday stuff around the ranch. I already have several other much larger tractors for the real work that's needed. I will probably give her a new simple paint job and a few new accessories etc. I could start throwing money at it for as many new parts as I can find, but instead I get satisfaction from rebuilding old stuff and getting it running again. As long as I feel that I have the basics covered (hopefully!), then I feel like the job is done. My previous restorations of airplanes, boats, and cars have sometimes gone too far in that I was obsessing on getting the last part in place and I ended up with too many new parts instead of trying to rebuild what I already had in front of me.

 

[PoTreeBoy]

As promised, here are some photos of each side of the one piece crankcase. It looks like there is an inspection panel on the right side, but to remove the crank would require splitting the tractor and pretty much disassembling the entire engine.

One thing I have learned from reading about other restorations is to have a clear goal of what you want to accomplish in the end. In my case, I plan to hopefully get this little tractor running again for typical light duty Sunday stuff around the ranch. I already have several other much larger tractors for the real work that's needed. I will probably give her a new simple paint job and a few new accessories etc. I could start throwing money at it for as many new parts as I can find, but instead I get satisfaction from rebuilding old stuff and getting it running again. As long as I feel that I have the basics covered (hopefully!), then I feel like the job is done. My previous restorations of airplanes, boats, and cars have sometimes gone too far in that I was obsessing on getting the last part in place and I ended up with too many new parts instead of trying to rebuild what I already had in front of me.
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From your earlier post I was wondering how you'd get to the rod ends. Looks like that side panel behind the oil filter gives access for that.

Having to remove the crank out the back carries over to later models, even though they have pans. Often the front axle has to be removed to pull the pan.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

I personally think your wasting your time even thinking about honing the block.
Especially with the pistons in it.
I don't think you'll be able to get rid of any heavy rust damage
Just put new liners in it.

Pull the side cover to pull the pistons.

 

[Flying V Ranch]

I personally think your wasting your time even thinking about honing the block.
Especially with the pistons in it.
I don't think you'll be able to get rid of any heavy rust damage
Just put new liners in it.

Pull the side cover to pull the pistons.

At anywhere from $700 to $2000 for one liner if you can even find one, that ain't happening here. I've already honed the liners and they are in good shape. The rust was only in one cylinder and it turned out to be mainly surface rust. I see no problems re-using them now.

 

[Flying V Ranch]

Today I re-assembled the valves back into the head after honing them with some valve lapping compound. I'm currently waiting on a new head gasket to arrive sometime next week before I install the head back on to the block.

In the meantime I saw just a light coating of surface rust on the inside bottom of the fuel tank. I removed the tank and poured in some phosphoric acid. After that, I rinsed and decided to pour in some white vinegar since it performed miracles on my stuck pistons. I'll let it sit and soak a day or so then rinse it out and I should be good. The hydraulic side of the tank looked pristine, so nothing is needed for that.

Each day I try to get a little bit done to keep from losing momentum. Tomorrow I am going to start trying to find a substitute for the glow plugs. One is burned away and the other looks pretty bad. I am hoping that I can find something else with a compatible thread and dimensions so that I can get those working again. The coil resistor next to the tank still looks pretty good for reuse.

 

[Flying V Ranch]

Welp...It runs!! As a matter of fact it runs pretty nicely too!

Hard to believe that just 7 days ago this was a rusted relic frozen very tight with water damage, and now it sits there idling like a kitten. LOL Very little blow-by and no strange noises coming from the front gear box.

I let it run for about 5 minutes and then shut it down to change to fresh oil and filter and to finish filling the other fluids too. I have not tried to drive it yet as I am an old man and I need to take one step at a time and finish before starting something else. At least now with a known running engine, I feel better about spending the money needed to bring her back up to working condition. This was my first stuck engine restoration and it was a learning experience for sure.

Thanks all for the help and advice!
Bud

 

[Bee-Positive]

As Hannibal would say - love when a plan comes together!
Nice work!

 

[PoTreeBoy]

Welp...It runs!! As a matter of fact it runs pretty nicely too!

Hard to believe that just 7 days ago this was a rusted relic frozen very tight with water damage, and now it sits there idling like a kitten. LOL Very little blow-by and no strange noises coming from the front gear box.

I let it run for about 5 minutes and then shut it down to change to fresh oil and filter and to finish filling the other fluids too. I have not tried to drive it yet as I am an old man and I need to take one step at a time and finish before starting something else. At least now with a known running engine, I feel better about spending the money needed to bring her back up to working condition. This was my first stuck engine restoration and it was a learning experience for sure.

Thanks all for the help and advice!
Bud

Did you remove the pistons? What new parts?

 

[Flying V Ranch]

No. I got them to free up from the cylinders using vinegar. Then I honed the surface rust clean while the piston was moved to the bottom of the stroke. After a thorough cleaning they seem to be in fairly good shape.

I lapped the valves and put it back together and fired it up.

 

[Runs With Scissors]

Thats great!

What did you do about the glow plugs?

 

[Flying V Ranch]

Thats great!

What did you do about the glow plugs?

I just have the old plugs back in the holes for the moment to get the engine running. I will need to buy new ones eventually when it gets colder later this year.