Owner recently purchased a Ford 3600 Diesel. Tried to rake hay with it, but it quickly dropped rpm to 1400 and would barely
crawl. Woul not regain rpm in neutral until after some time to cool down. Owner removed single fuel filter and replaced.
Problem persisted. I removed new filter and found it to be clean with no water present. Fuel flowing from tank appeared clean.
Topped off tank with fresh diesel, bled filter, injector pump, then cracked lines one by one at injectors while running. After
warmed up and running at 2300 rpm the the rpm slowly began to drop. I loosened the injector lines one by one and noticed
significant engine reaction on #s 2 and 3 but no change on #1. Figured a bad injector on #1 cylinder even if that was not the
underlying issue. Owner decided to take the tractor to Ford/New Holland dealer to have it serviced.
The dealer shop replced all three injectors, leak off lines, and seals. They called after a month and said it was ready.
Owner tried to pick up, but tractor would not get over 1300 rpm while he tried to load on trailer. Shop manager said they
replaced injectors and found a new injector to be faulty, so they reordered three more and replaced again. After second set they
said it ran well. Owner left it for another couple weeks so they could find out why it still did not run. He was told it was
fixed had been driven for some time and ran right so he came to pick it up. Paid 800 dollars then went to load up, and tractor
ran even worse. 1200 rpm and sputtered and died on trailer ramps. Parts guy said it was injector pump and they could not locate
a replacement. Opened hood and found an old injector(painted blue) in #3 cylinder. Owner got pretty mad and went in to talk.
Obvious run around. Demanded his old injectors and got a bag with two old(blue painted) and one new. Owner asked me to pull
injectors and pump then he went to local injector rebuilders. Three old injectors and pump rebuilt for 1100 dollars. I
reinstalled all and started. Let tractor warm up and then opened up the throttle while putting away tools. Ran around 2400 rpm
without a problem. Drove out of the barn and let idle at 2200 rpm for another ten minutes. Took it for a road test and after a
quarter mile same thing. RPM dropped and tractor died. Very frustrating. Started and limped back to barn. Started with the
loosening of lines while sputtering at 1400 rpm and found all injectors caused engine change when cracked.
The radiator water is oil free and the engine oil is water free. Oil bath air filter is clean, exhaust pipe is clear. I
don't suspect block/head issues. The problem happens quickly after the tractor has to pull its own weight. Does this still
sound like fuel starvation? Is there something I have missed? Thinking about pulling tank and cleaning inside for assurance of
good flow to filter.
Update for 18OCT2022. Removed muffler, hood, gauge cluster, throttle handle, stop cable, key and headlight switch. Tried to remove steering wheel-ha ha. Soaking overnight in penetrating oil. Going to try not to damage it during removal.
Pulled fuel filter, emptied and cleaned bowl. Seal in bowl looks good. Cleaned filter mount(not bad) seal and o-ring in place looks good. Fuel looks good in filter.
Removed fuel shutoff, blew out line to filter and cleaned the ends good. Blew out screen which is held on with metal epoxy. Took out needle valve and blew out the entire fitting. There was ptfe tape around the bottom of the screen and rust particles and flakes. Stuck a pinkie finger in the tank outlet and got plenty of rust and sediment.
At the tank filler neck there is a fitting that has the fuel return line to tank, the fuel return line from injectors, a plugged hole for a hard line, and a hard line with a soft connection at the bottom that goes to the intake manifold. Don't know about that. Removed and emptied. Fuel looked bad. Line from intake manifold was full of bad fuel as well-blew it out. Removed the plug from unused port and blew out that fitting and cleaned it up good. Will fill it with good fuel and shake it to see if any junk is in it. The fuel did make it back to the tank, but I don't know what this is or what it guts look like. Why bad fuel in the intake manifold line and bad fuel trapped in the thing?
So, the tank is pretty badly contaminated and without a good douching, I cannot be confident the problem will be solved or if it will persist. Gonna tune up my singing voice for some operatic cursing pulling that steering wheel in the morning. Thanks again for the help y'all.
This post was edited by jedoga on 10/18/2022 at 05:07 pm.
crawl. Woul not regain rpm in neutral until after some time to cool down. Owner removed single fuel filter and replaced.
Problem persisted. I removed new filter and found it to be clean with no water present. Fuel flowing from tank appeared clean.
Topped off tank with fresh diesel, bled filter, injector pump, then cracked lines one by one at injectors while running. After
warmed up and running at 2300 rpm the the rpm slowly began to drop. I loosened the injector lines one by one and noticed
significant engine reaction on #s 2 and 3 but no change on #1. Figured a bad injector on #1 cylinder even if that was not the
underlying issue. Owner decided to take the tractor to Ford/New Holland dealer to have it serviced.
The dealer shop replced all three injectors, leak off lines, and seals. They called after a month and said it was ready.
Owner tried to pick up, but tractor would not get over 1300 rpm while he tried to load on trailer. Shop manager said they
replaced injectors and found a new injector to be faulty, so they reordered three more and replaced again. After second set they
said it ran well. Owner left it for another couple weeks so they could find out why it still did not run. He was told it was
fixed had been driven for some time and ran right so he came to pick it up. Paid 800 dollars then went to load up, and tractor
ran even worse. 1200 rpm and sputtered and died on trailer ramps. Parts guy said it was injector pump and they could not locate
a replacement. Opened hood and found an old injector(painted blue) in #3 cylinder. Owner got pretty mad and went in to talk.
Obvious run around. Demanded his old injectors and got a bag with two old(blue painted) and one new. Owner asked me to pull
injectors and pump then he went to local injector rebuilders. Three old injectors and pump rebuilt for 1100 dollars. I
reinstalled all and started. Let tractor warm up and then opened up the throttle while putting away tools. Ran around 2400 rpm
without a problem. Drove out of the barn and let idle at 2200 rpm for another ten minutes. Took it for a road test and after a
quarter mile same thing. RPM dropped and tractor died. Very frustrating. Started and limped back to barn. Started with the
loosening of lines while sputtering at 1400 rpm and found all injectors caused engine change when cracked.
The radiator water is oil free and the engine oil is water free. Oil bath air filter is clean, exhaust pipe is clear. I
don't suspect block/head issues. The problem happens quickly after the tractor has to pull its own weight. Does this still
sound like fuel starvation? Is there something I have missed? Thinking about pulling tank and cleaning inside for assurance of
good flow to filter.
Update for 18OCT2022. Removed muffler, hood, gauge cluster, throttle handle, stop cable, key and headlight switch. Tried to remove steering wheel-ha ha. Soaking overnight in penetrating oil. Going to try not to damage it during removal.
Pulled fuel filter, emptied and cleaned bowl. Seal in bowl looks good. Cleaned filter mount(not bad) seal and o-ring in place looks good. Fuel looks good in filter.
Removed fuel shutoff, blew out line to filter and cleaned the ends good. Blew out screen which is held on with metal epoxy. Took out needle valve and blew out the entire fitting. There was ptfe tape around the bottom of the screen and rust particles and flakes. Stuck a pinkie finger in the tank outlet and got plenty of rust and sediment.
At the tank filler neck there is a fitting that has the fuel return line to tank, the fuel return line from injectors, a plugged hole for a hard line, and a hard line with a soft connection at the bottom that goes to the intake manifold. Don't know about that. Removed and emptied. Fuel looked bad. Line from intake manifold was full of bad fuel as well-blew it out. Removed the plug from unused port and blew out that fitting and cleaned it up good. Will fill it with good fuel and shake it to see if any junk is in it. The fuel did make it back to the tank, but I don't know what this is or what it guts look like. Why bad fuel in the intake manifold line and bad fuel trapped in the thing?
So, the tank is pretty badly contaminated and without a good douching, I cannot be confident the problem will be solved or if it will persist. Gonna tune up my singing voice for some operatic cursing pulling that steering wheel in the morning. Thanks again for the help y'all.
This post was edited by jedoga on 10/18/2022 at 05:07 pm.