B6100 engine condition, all the usual questions

[Bigmatt]

Good evening OTT,

I recently picked up a 1980 B6100. So far I have fitted a 5’ snow plow and done some basic maintenance. Details are here

B6100 snow plow

My loader frame is coming along. Just have to finish a couple plates to pick up the engine block mounts I picked up a 7.5 ft meyers plow today. What should I cut it down to? I’m thinking 6ft. Can anyone tell me what the stock blade measures at?

www.orangetractortalks.com

Quick version, is there a difference between cheap eBay or Amazon injectors, and the more expensive options from Messicks or Coleman’s?

Long version, the tractor smokes a fair amount at startup, idle, and under load. Not horrible, but an annoyance. It isn’t bad above idle with no load.

With a fresh battery and valves adjusted to 0.007”, I saw 240psi dry on all 3 cylinders. Caveat, the cheap compression tester I have uses a 1/4” x 16” hydraulic hose between the cylinder adaptor and the check valve. This basically doubles my chamber volume and drops compression readings by 50%. Even if I split the difference, I’m at over 360psi, which is well within the service limit.

I added an oil can shot of 30w to each cylinder, turned it over a bunch to distribute the oil and pump out the excess. Results wet were 270/260/280. Not bad, and we’ll within 10%.

I also checked the glow plugs, each measures 3.2 ohms, and glows a red orange color after 20 seconds.

I’m thinking the smoke is coming from a leaking or weak injector. From what I can tell, they are original and I assume low on pop pressure. Are the cheap options I see on eBay and Amazon inferior to the oem versions from messicks or colemans? I don’t mind paying extra, but expect a far superior product.

For now, I have the injectors resting in a container of ATF to remove the carbon deposits, and the cylinders doing the same.

on a related note, I also hooked up an oil pressure gauge. Pressure cold was 45psi at Idle, to 65psi at full throttle. After doing some light loader work and movin a trailer around the yard, pressure was at 40/60. this only had the top of the radiator warm to the touch, so not really working hard. I’m going to continue to monitor pressure once I work the tractor pushing snow, but I think the lower end is in decent condition.

Thanks in advance,

Bigmatt

 

[Nicksacco]

The B6100 is a nice tractor.
Here is a thought on your injectors. I took mine apart and cleaned them with brake cleaner and an ultrasonic cleaner.
I replaced one injector with messed up threads with one from ebay.
Perhaps I had good luck but it works perfectly and looks identical to the OEM.
No, I cannot say the springs and everything were identical - but as I said it works perfectly.

Looks like you can get 3 injectors for under $90 which is not much money to risk.
It depends I suppose on if you want to send the OEM injectors out to a shop for testing and make your decision then or just go for it.

You say the engine smokes at idle and under load - what color is the smoke? Does it change color from start then as load is applied and engine is warmed up?

Hopefully not coolant or burning engine oil - does the coolant and oil levels in the engine remain the same?

Do you have a boroscope (even a cheap one) to look at the piston tops, etc?

Let us know your thoughts. I know others will have some ideas too.

 

[Bigmatt]

Th

The B6100 is a nice tractor.
Here is a thought on your injectors. I took mine apart and cleaned them with brake cleaner and an ultrasonic cleaner.
I replaced one injector with messed up threads with one from ebay.
Perhaps I had good luck but it works perfectly and looks identical to the OEM.
No, I cannot say the springs and everything were identical - but as I said it works perfectly.

Looks like you can get 3 injectors for under $90 which is not much money to risk.
It depends I suppose on if you want to send the OEM injectors out to a shop for testing and make your decision then or just go for it.

You say the engine smokes at idle and under load - what color is the smoke? Does it change color from start then as load is applied and engine is warmed up?

Hopefully not coolant or burning engine oil - does the coolant and oil levels in the engine remain the same?

Do you have a boroscope (even a cheap one) to look at the piston tops, etc?

Let us know your thoughts. I know others will have some ideas too.

View attachment 90771

Thanks for the feedback. The smoke is white, but the tractor doesn’t seem to burn any oil and the coolant level doesn’t drop. The smoke is also very thick and pungent. Doesn’t seem like coolant. I haven’t really loaded it up though. So far it has just been used for moving trailers and some light loader work. Once we get some decent snow, I’ll really put it to work.

As to piston condition, I don’t have a bore scope. I was able to get a decent peek through the pre combustion chamber port. They look dry, no oil. Cylinder 3 had a good amount more carbon buildup than pistons 1 and 2.

I plan to run it for the winter with the current injectors. Once I get it loaded up hard and hot, I’m hoping it will correct itself. If it doesn’t, I’ll probably spring for a set of eBay injectors to try out.

 

[Nicksacco]

Cool. Using the machine, getting it hot and making it work rather than idling might just correct some of the smoking issue.
Let us know what you learn!

 

[Bigmatt]

Cool. Using the machine, getting it hot and making it work rather than idling might just correct some of the smoking issue.
Let us know what you learn!

Update. I soaked the pistons and the injector tips in ATF overnight to clean some of the carbon off.

On startup, it smoked like a banshee, but that’s to be expected with so much oil in the cylinders. After idling for 5 minutes it seemed to smoke less, but still some white smoke. I did my best to put some load on it I did a bunch of high gear idle to full speed roll ons. At first it gave me a mix of white and black smoke. It s as long seemed to break up a bit at full throttle, like a misfire. After about 10 runs, the white smoke went away and it rolled coal like a flat biller. It also quit misfiring. I did 10 more runs all with just black smoke when I punched the throttle. If I slowly advanced the throttle there was minimal smoke. I think this is normal, but I’m not sure.
At this point I could still hold my hand on the top of the radiator (maybe 150 degrees) and the bottom was cool to the touch.

I also played with warm starting. If I shut it off it would start after 1 minute without glow plugs. If it sat for 10 minutes, it would not start. It just cranked and blew white smoke. With 20 seconds of glow plug, it starts right up.After sitting for 30 minutes, even with glow plugs on for 30 seconds, it blows white and black smoke, and takes about 10 seconds to clear up.

At this point, I’m going to run it for the winter plowing season and see how it does. It seems odd that it won’t start warm without glow plug, so I may have low compression.

 

[Nicksacco]

It could be stuck rings or any number of things. But it sounds like you've made progress. Run it as you say for the winter (giving it plenty of time for warm up) and enjoy.
Hopefully it will continue to work well for you.