L185 Leaking Oil

ncridgerunner

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Mar 31, 2013
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Marion, NC
My friend's father gave him a Kubota L185 tractor with about 1500 hours. This tractor had only been started a few times in the last 25 years. I have been helping service his tractor with fluids and filters. It starts and runs good however after cleaning a great deal of oil gunk off the engine I found it was leaking oil from two places. The "valve cover gasket" was easy to fix but it is also leaking a good bit from what on a car would be the head gasket. Oil slowly seeps out at idle but bubbles out at higher rpm's.

I did not see any oil in the coolant when we changed it out and I didn't notice any coolant in the oil when we changed it. The radiator was full when we picked up the tractor but I don't know if anyone added any before we picked it up.

Not being very familiar with diesel engines does this sound like a type of leak caused by a failed head gasket?
 

North Idaho Wolfman

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Most Kubota engines do have a oil feed that goes up threw the head gasket and some are sealed with an O-Ring on it.
It's possible that if it's leaking from the head gasket that it's bad.
 

gpreuss

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Tell your buddy to hang on to that tractor - they are good ones! Pictures??!
 

ncridgerunner

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It will be a few days before we can work on it again and I will try to get some pics. The leak is at the left front corner of the engine directly behind the generator. I can see it bubbling out by using a flashlight and getting in just the right angle to see behind the generator so I doubt I can get a decent pic of the actual leak.
 

ncridgerunner

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BX23, finish mower, bush hog, box scraper, blade scraper, fertilizer spreader
Mar 31, 2013
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there is the oil feed for the head, as wolfman said its a o-ring there.. but you have to remove the head and change the gasket with the o-ring.
there is a photo of the oil feed line.
Thanks alexisferos! That is the area of the engine where the oil leak is coming from. I was having a difficult time understanding how the oil could be leaking and not seeming to have cross contamination of the oil and coolant. It must have found a weak spot in the head gasket to the outside.

How difficult is it to pull the head? Is there a tutorial for this procedure you would recommend? I've done a little work on gas engines but none on diesel. Thanks again.
 

North Idaho Wolfman

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I think working on diesels are easier than gas motors. It's not the head gasket that seals that oil port it's an O-ring so be very mindful of that when you tear it apart and look for parts, also note if it has one gasket or two and there position, some have a plain metal shim and a sealing gasket. Go here and download the service manual, it will spell out bolt torque and adjustments. http://kubota.servicemanualvault.com/Kubota-L185-Service-Manual.html
 

ncridgerunner

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Mar 31, 2013
78
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Marion, NC
I think working on diesels are easier than gas motors. It's not the head gasket that seals that oil port it's an O-ring so be very mindful of that when you tear it apart and look for parts, also note if it has one gasket or two and there position, some have a plain metal shim and a sealing gasket. Go here and download the service manual, it will spell out bolt torque and adjustments. http://kubota.servicemanualvault.com/Kubota-L185-Service-Manual.html
Thanks Wolfman. I forwarded this to my friend. I think we have decided to let a professional mechanic we know do it on the side. I'd hate to tear into someone else's equipment and make a mess. When it belongs to me, I'm willing to take more risks.