My oil leak scare of the day.

[Profnohair]

I was bush hogging on my L1500 for a few hours yesterday when I looked down and saw that the oil light was lit on the dash. I pulled to the road (about 100 feet) so that if I had to be towed it would make the tractor a lot easier to get to. Upon looking at the side of the motor I saw a large amount of oil around the area where the cartridge oil filter is located. The oil was everywhere and I thought that I had a serious problem. After wiping the area clean of oil, I momentarily started the tractor and saw that the oil was coming from the filter itself. Upon further inspection I noticed that the neoprene washer that is under the bolt head was torn. A quick trip to the hardware in town and I was back in business. Total cost, 40 cents plus tax. I can live with that.

Profnohair

 

[tbofram]

good thing it was cheap. at the beggining of your post i was thinking oh gosh this will be expensive. i will have to look around my tractor and make sure that sort of stuff is not going to happen on me

 

[Jefferson]

Your lucky that 100ft limp to the road didn't cost you dearly!

 

[meanjean]

Total cost is 40 cents plus the heart attack!

I thought the problem would be a double gasket on a replaced oil filter, I've seen that a few times.

 

[Stumpy]

Not sure I know which bolt you mean but glad it was an easy fix. Not sure I'd have pushed it for another 100ft without oil pressure but sounds like you got away with it.

Jean I worked at a quick lube for two years, I saw all sorts of interesting stuff. Many double gasketed filters, a few broken orings, more than a few cross threaded filters, one where oil pressure had forced the oring up around the outside of the filter unbroken. That guy had a stuck relief valve in the pump, we put a fresh filter on it and at anything over idle his pressure went off the dash gauge, 100+psi! My absolute favorite was the guy who came in without any oil in his car, pulled the drain plug and got a few drops. That motor made some interesting sounds let me tell you!

 

[Profnohair]

Not sure I know which bolt you mean but glad it was an easy fix. Not sure I'd have pushed it for another 100ft without oil pressure but sounds like you got away with it.

It is a canister filter, not a spin on. The bolt is the one that goes straight through the filter to hold it on.

Next time I may not do the extra 100 feet because I may not be so lucky.

Profnohair

 

[Stumpy]

Ahhh that makes more sense. I've got a love hate relationship with canister filters. When mounted vertically top up they can be changed with less mess than any other filter, mount them in any other orientation....

Worst you did was put a scrape a little metal out of the rod and main bearings. That probably wasn't long enough to overheat and seize a bearing.

 

[LT1Pat]

I bought a kubota where the previous owner removed the low oil pressure light and I unknowingly ran it for 8+ hours with no pressure. Turns out the oil pressure wouldn't go over 3 psi and the main and rod bearings look pretty good. The only thing that was damaged was the cam bore and the cam itself. I can almost guarantee that no damage was done to your engine.

 

[Stumpy]

Was the pump damaged and not generating pressure or was it all leaking out up at the damaged cam journals? If the pump was out that's pretty damn impressive the rods and mains survived 8 hours without cooling oil.

 

[LT1Pat]

The pump was pushing oil but it was going straight out the ends of the cam. The highest measured pressure was 3PSI or so at full rpm. I changed the rod and main bearings anyways but they looked good. The cam and bore was completely chewed up though. I had to bore the cam tunnel out .030" and grind and chrome plate the cam to bring it back to spec. I put new sleeves, pistons, and rings in it as well but those didn't look all that bad either. The tractor must have overheated at one time because the head was cracked which caused water to enter the middle cylinder and rust out the wall. I spent more effort fixing the problems caused by the cracked head than I did fixing the damage from no oil pressure.

Was the pump damaged and not generating pressure or was it all leaking out up at the damaged cam journals? If the pump was out that's pretty damn impressive the rods and mains survived 8 hours without cooling oil.

 

[Profnohair]

I bought a kubota where the previous owner removed the low oil pressure light and I unknowingly ran it for 8+ hours with no pressure. Turns out the oil pressure wouldn't go over 3 psi and the main and rod bearings look pretty good. The only thing that was damaged was the cam bore and the cam itself. I can almost guarantee that no damage was done to your engine.

There was still plenty of oil in the engine so I feel that you are correct about the lack of damage done. I was just lucky that I caught it as soon as the lamp lit up. I am new to this so I am paranoid of checking all the gauges frequently.

Profnohair.