anyone know about big mowers ?

[Baloo]

hi
i have an old ransomes mower im trying to get working again, its been parked up for quite a few years after it lost power and started throwing out white smoke, dragged it into the workshop the other day and pulled the head off to look at the head gasket which dident look to bad to be honest. however the middle cylinder had seen some action or more accurately the head had so this started me thinking about buying spares for it and where to get them, i thought it was a kubota engine but it turns out its a mitsubushi K3D engine, to me the head looks shot so l need a second hand head or a complete engine, anyone know where i might get one ? ive looked and dident find much if anything, so then i thought about just fitting a car engine such as a golf tdi do you think it would be up to the job, im not a contractor using it every day it will get used for an hour every other week in the summer, any suggestions of where to go with this gratefully received

 

[Morrisman]

What do the other cylinder head areas look like compared to the bad one? That looks almost like corrosion rather than mechanical damage.
Was there anything in there that looked like it could have beaten the head to death?

 

[Baloo]

What do the other cylinder head areas look like compared to the bad one? That looks almost like corrosion rather than mechanical damage.
Was there anything in there that looked like it could have beaten the head to death?

the other 2 combustion chambers looked a lot better , will get a pic in a bit im just going to go and pop them 2 valves out and see what the seats are like, nothing in the cylinders l thought i was going to find some debris but nothing

 

[arther dailey]

cant see the head, gasket still on , its a mower so its not like a break down is leaving you stranded , get valves out check seats if ok get head skimmed if you cant find replacement, wet n dry the bores to give some cross hatching/remove glaze , for the cost of a skim and tidy its worth a try to get you through the summer , replace engine in winter.

 

[addjunkie]

Pretty sure thats the same engine used in many small diggers and compact tractors too….bet @8ob has got one round the back of something. White smoke too much fuel faulty injector…but thats lots of carbon.

Spare will be available from many outlets….

mitsubishi k3d engine parts - Google Search

 

[gaz1]

the other 2 combustion chambers looked a lot better , will get a pic in a bit im just going to go and pop them 2 valves out and see what the seats are like, nothing in the cylinders l thought i was going to find some debris but nothing

if any cylinder head its the middle one that wants replacing

you also want to decarbonise your head that mower has been running bad for ages with a miss firing spark plug timmings or other

 

[Baloo]

cant see the head, gasket still on , its a mower so its not like a break down is leaving you stranded , get valves out check seats if ok get head skimmed if you cant find replacement, wet n dry the bores to give some cross hatching/remove glaze , for the cost of a skim and tidy its worth a try to get you through the summer , replace engine in winter.

yep thats what im thinking, i can live with being a little down on power or a bit of smoke

ive just popped the valves out, it does look like water damage, valve seats are well pitted, can they fit new valve seats ?

anyone know a machine shop in the midlands ?

 

[Morrisman]

if any cylinder head its the middle one that wants replacing

you also want to decarbonise your head that mower has been running bad for ages with a miss firing spark plug timmings or other

It’s a diesel.

yep thats what im thinking, i can live with being a little down on power or a bit of smoke

ive just popped the valves out, it does look like water damage, valve seats are well pitted, can they fit new valve seats ?
View attachment 452363View attachment 452364View attachment 452365View attachment 452366anyone know a machine shop in the midlands ?

I’d honestly say that looks well beyond repair. Even if you could get new valve seat inserts there’s so much material missing you might not get the compression ratio required to combust properly on that pot.

 

[Baloo]

It’s a diesel.


I’d honestly say that looks well beyond repair. Even if you could get new valve seat inserts there’s so much material missing you might not get the compression ratio required to combust properly on that pot.

that was my initial thoughts im clutching at straws by thinking i could repair it

 

[Nomad]

Hi. I'm doing something similar on an old diesel van, a full rebuild on my worn engine makes no sense so I'm planning a rough field repair as a learning exercise to see if it runs - that will give me time to find a replacement engine.

As a temporary solution on yours can you clean the head (skim?), have the valve seats recut, fit new valves and see if it runs?
It's a lawnmower not a precision engine so I'd be happy using it even is one cylinder is a bit low on power... your other option is cut your losses and scrap that engine / find a replacement head for it / find whole new engine (or adapt a car engine..)

Good luck and keep us updated

 

[Tinbasherdan]

That’s dead as a dead thing. New head time! Or look for a little 3cyl yanmar or one of the millions of copies

 

[Woody.v8]

It's a shame it wasn't an aluminium head, you could have built it up with weld and machined it back.

 

[chrismac]

Thats the same engine that is in Iseki tx 2140's and 2160's, I have one in my compact tractor. To aid your search.

 

[Erie Fred]

If the engine is that worn out, how is the rest of the drivetrain ?

 

[jmp49]

IMHO, putting a different engine in would be a massive load of grief and more work than fixing what you have.

White smoke is either incomplete combusion or it can be water ingress into the pot, if its a really thick cloud and not just at immediate start, it points to coolant getting into the chamber and this is really bad, if its a lighter white smoke but continuous I'd tend toward fuel or compression issues. Which fits with the state of those valves in #2. You could have compression tested it before taking it apart to confirm this before disassembly but that ship has sailed.

If its the lighter smoke for a mower and that head, to get a season out, honestly I'd just put seats in the bad pot and run it while I found a better one.
If you have access to a popoff tester, its worth doing the injectors and make sure they all crack off and dont dribble. I think for the injection pump its like the kubota in that the pumping elements bolt off as a unit but the main pump housing is part of the crankcase, so you cant put it in something to rotate it off the engine. For that I'd find a way to spin the motor, and divert the injector lines into test tubes and crank it over for a measured amount of time and make sure the quantities on all 3 cylinders match. I've got a test rig for this on kubota's in situ that is just 4 test tubes from 2 cheap water levels cut up because they're the same. If you find a bad element, you'll probably find a pumping element rebuild kit on ebay for reasonable money, and provided you make sure its super clean and you follow the instructions to a letter when your working its not beyond diy. If you can take the pump off, you can put it in a lathe or something and rig fuel up and do the same in the luxury of the workshop (I did a lucas CAV DPA pump like this before and after rebuilding it), this is how oldschool injection benches work too, they just spin the pump for a measured amount of time and inject a test fluid into individual test tubes with measurements on them.

I cut my grass with a kubota 3 cylinder diesel powered commercial mower that I bought in a really sickly state running on 2 and puking smoke, I've been through the above process on it and after a pump rebuild its on its 4th season now. I'm keeping a lookout for another D1105 at a reasonable price to rebuild as I know the bores are starting to wear and its a little down on power as a result, so I can rebuild it fully & hot swap it in, since I don't have an alterative way to mow.

 

[arther dailey]

latest close up , yup that head is shot , see if you can find another or your back to change engine complete

 

[Morrisman]

That’s dead as a dead thing. New head time! Or look for a little 3cyl yanmar or one of the millions of copies

We used to use Yanmar diesel outboards when I worked in the offshore oil fields. 27hp and 36hp versions. The odd thing was they didn’t have removable cylinder heads, it was cast in with the engine block. The pistons had to come out the bottom if you stripped the motor down. Same with the valves etc.

Heavy, gutless lumps they were, half the power, twice the weight of a conventional 2 stroke outboard, but company regulations wouldn’t allow petrol on board our particular ships.

 

[frank horton]

just get another engine......
prob find a runner for a few hundred quid......
The mower is def worth saving......always repairable.....something to pass onto the kids.....

 

[Seadog]

hi
i have an old ransomes mower im trying to get working again, its been parked up for quite a few years after it lost power and started throwing out white smoke, dragged it into the workshop the other day and pulled the head off to look at the head gasket which dident look to bad to be honest. however the middle cylinder had seen some action or more accurately the head had so this started me thinking about buying spares for it and where to get them, i thought it was a kubota engine but it turns out its a mitsubushi K3D engine, to me the head looks shot so l need a second hand head or a complete engine, anyone know where i might get one ? ive looked and dident find much if anything, so then i thought about just fitting a car engine such as a golf tdi do you think it would be up to the job, im not a contractor using it every day it will get used for an hour every other week in the summer, any suggestions of where to go with this gratefully receivedView attachment 452357View attachment 452358View attachment 452359 View attachment 452360

It looks badly coked up, rather mechanically damaged.

 

[Munkul]

We had 2 of those. Both went the same way - head gaskets, coked, bad injectors, basically they were worn out and well past their best before we got hold of them.
If it wasn't smoking and hard to start beforehand... Maybe try to get a new(er) head for it?