It Seems Like Weve Been Here Before: 1950T Head Gasket Replacement

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-09

[00:00:06]All right, it's Saturday the sec second.

[00:00:10]Today the 2nd. Yeah, today's the second.

[00:00:12]Um, we had one hell of a heavy frost this morning. I mean, it was bad. Um, so I'm glad I don't have anything in the ground right now. I mean, I am, but I ain't but I'm not. But if I did, it would suck. Um, so today is head gasket day. Um, my new one showed up. It obviously we got I got a/ inch of rain. I know some other guys got anywhere between 3/10 and a half was the number I've been hearing on Thursday night. Uh, and it rained partly into Friday morning. Kind of like I expected it to. Um, and then it was partially sunny, partially overcast yesterday and just not a very good drying day. And then today was we had that heavy frost this morning.

[00:01:02]And long story short, not going to get any chisel plowing done today like I had hoped. So, I mean, I probably could, but luckily this project didn't keep me from going out and doing something stupid like chisel plowing today when I should wait another day.

[00:01:14]So, it worked out. Um, but upside down.

[00:01:21]Here's the new head gasket.

[00:01:25]These things are unobtanium.

[00:01:27]Why Aco decided? Well, I guess I kind of know why because technically it only fits two models of tractor.

[00:01:37]Um, but it's virtually the same gasket for the 1755 1855 direct injected 1750.

[00:01:47]Um, I mean it's not like but the change is they moved this dowel pin hole and trying to remember something else in here because they go from this dowel or they have what they call the inline dowel pin gasket which means this this pin stays in the same spot but this dowel pin is here in line with it. And then something else changes back here. Other than that, those moving those couple holes, they're the same basic gasket. They just move changed a couple things around for the turbocharged and oil cooled key and oil cooled because the 1855 non- oil cooler block uses the same gasket as the 1755 and 1750.

[00:02:41]Um, so yeah, but anyhow, this is the same gasket that the 1955 has in it and it has I'm not going to say it because there's no wood in here to knock on, but you get the idea. So, um, I am not going to video this whole process like I would normally do because a it's I've shown it on here before and b I'm trying to get this thing done and out of here today. Um, cuz this is kind of an emergency hurry it and get it out or get it done and get it out type deal cuz there's it's May 2nd and there's other stuff that needs to be being done when I can do it.

[00:03:23]Um, so I'm basically just going to hit the high points. And if what and if if that bothers people, well, that's their problem. And I have to say that because, well, you get two ends of the spectrum on here. You get people that [ __ ] because the videos are too long. And then you get people that [ __ ] because you don't show enough in the videos. And I don't really care about either one of them. If if either one of those groups of people have problems, they can go find a channel that shows things exactly the way they want to see them and blah blah blah. But I have to put that disclaimer in for those people. So, anyhow, like I say, this is a this is a uh emergency deal and I just want to get it done and over with. So, I'll just hit the high points and the findings and that'll be that. So, I'm going to get into it and we will uh kind of see what I see along the way. All right, we are down to that point where I'm ready to pop the head. It's already That's the one I guess upside if you want to call it that to these.

[00:04:22]I think they're actually aluminum. I don't think they're steel. They might be steel, but they're awful stinking light.

[00:04:28]Either way, these metal gaskets that Brad uses, they're they don't actually like they're just which makes block clean up a breeze because there ain't none other than wiping things off.

[00:04:49]Okay.

[00:05:03]And we're going to have to I got to get that hose real quick.

[00:06:06]Okay. So, as per usual, don't see anything out of the or out of the ordinary with a head other than a little bit of uh oil contamination, which by all rights, the rings in this thing, even though it's got enough hours on it, probably are not seated because I mean, other than doing a little bit of discing, I really don't think I've pulled this thing hard enough to do anything since I overhauled the engine.

[00:06:48]Basically, the hardest thing it does anymore is pull the corn planter.

[00:06:53]Um, so and again, don't see anything wrong with any of the fire rings.

[00:07:36]There is something going on right kind of there though.

[00:07:48]H that's interesting.

[00:07:51]And that is a little coolant port.

[00:08:10]Don't mind the coolant there in that cylinder that came out when I pulled the head.

[00:08:34]And that's the strange thing is just like last time there's basically no tracking anywhere to show that there was anything swapping somewhere between holes like it shouldn't have been.

[00:09:04]But the head gasket's what takes care of the problem.

[00:09:14]It's very odd.

[00:09:20]This right here is about the only thing, which is weird because that's not normally a problem area. Normally, it's back here amongst all this bull crap that they shouldn't have put so close together.

[00:09:33]Um, well, these two are headbolt holes right here anyhow. But, but even that doesn't make it all the way over to the hole.

[00:09:44]And I don't know if that hole makes it.

[00:09:53]I don't know. Can't explain it. All I can tell you is that replacing the head gasket solves the problem.

[00:10:21]But I'm going to go home, get some lunch, come back, clean this up, check a few things, and as long as everything looks okey dokie, Throw the head gasket back in it and away we go.

[00:10:44]All right, I got the head deck cleaned up as best I can without going at it with something aggressive, which we don't want to do.

[00:10:52]Um, again, nothing looks out of the ordinary.

[00:10:58]Um, the only thing is the pitting around this this uh hole right here, which I've known about since we did the block. They can't in order to get that pitting out right there around that hole, they'd have to shave too much off the deck and you'd junk the block.

[00:11:16]So, there's that. Um, all the sleeves have protrusion. I mean, there's nothing which I don't think it was a it it's not a it's not a compression getting into coolant problem anyhow, but I figured before I cleaned up the underside of the head, I mean, you can see a good track from every single one of the fire rings. And there is not a single spot in any one of them fire ring tracks that shows any sort of anything getting through. It was the same thing on the block side. There was nothing. Um there's just nothing under here that is a screaming this is it problem.

[00:12:04]Um that's that's the most frustrating part about this is both times I've well the first time and then this time both these times I've had to pull his head off. There has been nothing about it that is just a screaming red sign that says this is the problem. It's that's that's the part that's it makes not a lick of sense. Like I say, other than the the signs of oil burning, which it like I say, I doubt the rings are fully set because the most the hardest this thing works pulling that planter anymore. Um, but that's not gonna cause this problem.

[00:12:47]That's that's just a rings haven't set yet problem. Like like I say, you you look at all of these ports. Well, these are just uh Oh, this this row down here is the the pass through holes for the push rods. But that's a dowel pin hole. That's a dowel pin hole, which we've checked the depth of the dowel pin holes, and there's a crap ton of room in there. So, we know we're not bottoming out on the pins.

[00:13:15]Um, like I say, the only thing there's a little bit of tracking right here around this hole, but it doesn't actually go to the hole.

[00:13:30]And I don't know, like I say, I don't know where that particular hole ends up as far as the flow of coolant other than it's that right there. It obviously goes into the water jacket, but it's got to be I don't know. It doesn't make a lick of sense.

[00:13:52]And the other part that doesn't make a lick of sense is that it's not swapping.

[00:13:55]It's not swapping fluids. It's not getting anything anywhere it doesn't belong. So, it's just very, very frustrating. It doesn't It doesn't make a lick of sense, which makes it very hard to diagnose.

[00:14:08]And then you throw a a uh yeah um exhaust leak tester or whatever coolant tester, you know, that they use for testing for blown head gaskets with the dye and the whatever color changing. It does kind of halfass change color a little bit. kind of sort of, but it doesn't get that deep yellow boom, you have exhaust gases in the coolant type of color to it, which leads me more to believe it's crankase pressure because crankcase pressure would have trace amounts of exhaust gases.

[00:14:49]Um, but it doesn't. And I sent an oil sample in the last time this happened, and they did show trace amounts of coolant, but not like, oh my god, it's dumping coolant into the crank. I mean, it was just it was just just enough to raise an alarm basically. Just barely like, hey, you might want to check something out kind of thing. not a hey you got coolant in your oil kind of thing in the consistency it nothing I just I wish if it was going to do this it would like give me some glaring sign of what the problem is is the part that is the part that really pisses me off.

[00:15:38]All right, I got the underside of the head cleaned up. There's I can't find a damn thing.

[00:15:46]it. Like I said, there's nothing that screaming, "Hey, look at me." Which is very, very frustrating.

[00:15:55]Um, and I laid a straight edge on like right here where I thought there might have been a low spot, but it would have been a low spot in the gasket cuz I was feeling the gasket. But like this is all everything's flat. Everything's everything's good. I don't It's very irksome.

[00:16:14]So hopefully this takes care of the problem. And this is a 30V3068269 gasket. Um these are the ones that you can't get anymore. There was three different part numbers. I can't remember what the other there was an an Oliver part number. This was the first white part number. And then there was a second white part number that they got superseded by. But anyhow, they're going to get coat it with some copper spray gasket sealer, which is for exhaust and head gaskets.

[00:18:21]Need more. Need more up.

[00:18:45]There's oil on that corner.

[00:20:39]Front dowel should slip in.

[00:20:44]before the back sets down.

[00:21:26]All right, time to torque the head down.

[00:21:30]I'm going to do it in three set three steps. 75, 150, 210.

[00:21:51]the right socket is not the right socket. What did I do with the right socket? There's the right socket.

[00:22:03]Where was I?

[00:22:25]And they use a very strange torque pattern on this. You think you go back and forth, jump, jump, jump, jump, and then but they have you do seven, eight, and then nine, 10, and then jump over 11, 12, 13, 14. You'd think you'd keep crisscrossing, but apparently they figured out through trial and error the way this thing flexes when you're when you're torquing it down. That's apparently the way they need to torque it.

[00:22:58]All right, everything is back together enough to make it run. Uh, rocker cover is just sitting on there with one stud holding it on cuz it's got to come back off retorque bolts. Got coolant in it. Um, let it sit with coolant in it for a second to make sure I had everything tightened and I didn't cuz I forgot to tighten that clamp. Um, but that's all the stuff that I got left put back on. and then the hood and stuff. And none of that's pertinent to make it run.

[00:23:28]Uh, fuel's turned back on. Injector lines are all tight. Return lines hooked back up. Return lines hooked back up off the pump. Uh, oil feed line, every oil drain line. Everything should be ready to rock.

[00:23:57]She should start without too much hesitation.

[00:24:12]The only thing I did, I didn't obviously didn't run the valve cuz the rocker assembly's got to come back off.

[00:24:19]So, We will still have to adjust the valves, but it sounds so weird with the charger on.

[00:25:08]But you got to let it run for about a half hour. Let it come up to temperature. Hopefully it comes up to temperature.

[00:25:15]Um, and it's not air locked.

[00:25:19]And then it's got to come back down to temperature, come back down to ambient temperature so we can retorque the head bolt, adjust the valves, and then put the rest of it back together.

[00:25:32]So, guess we'll let it run for a little bit, see what happens.

[00:25:44]All right, I let her run for about 45ish minutes. Um, nothing bad happened.

[00:25:54]Shot it with a thermal gun.

[00:25:57]Block and head were both pretty consistently between about 170ish degrees.

[00:26:04]Um, manifold temperature was fairly consistent at about between 180 and 200.

[00:26:12]Uh, upper radiator tank was 135. Lower radiator tank was 69. So, the radiator's working as intended.

[00:26:20]So, now I just have to let her cool off and uh go through and retorque the head and run the valves and put everything back together.

[00:26:34]So, probably going to take I don't know. Let it sit about an hour and see where that or see how that feels.

[00:26:43]I don't know if I let it I don't know if I let it sit and try to do it and try to finish it up tonight or if I just let it sit overnight. Just let it come all the way just so that I know it comes all the way down and then we I can check If I let it sit overnight and then I can check the oil and everything, make sure nothing's going in the pan overnight and I know everything will come back down to ambient temperature.

[00:27:28]As much as I really don't want to turn this into a multi-day project, I'll let it sit for an hour and see what it feels like. All right, it's been about an hour and 15 minutes and it's the block is still I mean, you can lay your hand on it, but it's still warm, like very warm.

[00:27:47]So, I'm going to have to let it sit overnight. Um, I mean, I could let it sit, keep letting it sit, but it's just going to keep losing more and more daylight. And I didn't take Shel out for dinner last weekend, so I probably ought to take her out for dinner this weekend. So, um, I mean, you can retorque the head bolts while it's warm. That's not a problem. But the valve clearances are set at a That's the clearance is set cold.

[00:28:18]Obviously, you have to you got to do that cold um at least by the numbers in the book. I mean, you probably do a fudge factor and figure something, but it's just numbers in the book are cold valves are uh cold valve clearance. So, everything's got to be down to room temperature or whatever outside temperature for that part. So, and it's already almost 6:00. So, I don't want to push it off for another day, but I think I'm going to have to.

[00:28:49]Um, so I'll come over here first thing in the morning and finish this thing up and hopefully go chisel plowing after that.

[00:29:00]So, we will catch you guys tomorrow morning. All right, Sunday morning. Going to get this thing finished up. Get it taken back over, hooked back onto the planter.

[00:29:12]Uh, check the oil. Oil's fine. Check the coolant. It's a little low, but that's to be expected.

[00:29:19]Um, cuz you you never collect it all and then you lose some once it burps all the air out.

[00:29:26]Uh, it is a cold I mean, it it is cold.

[00:29:33]It's just not not a pleasant day out. I mean, it wouldn't be terrible, but it's pretty stout wind and that wind is cold.

[00:29:40]It's not going to be a fun drive back to my house.

[00:29:44]We saw a neighbor go by with a planter, but he's got some sand ground way down that way that I saw him working last week, so he's probably going down to plant that.

[00:29:55]Um, yesterday while I was waiting for this thing to cool off, I went across the street and stuck a shovel in the ground in the field across from the house here and man, what a time to have a VT tool. It's you're you got like an inch of crust that's nice and dry. You look at that from the top and you're like, man, you really want to think about sticking a plow in the ground or something. And then I walked over there with a shovel, stuck a shovel in the ground. And you get down past that inch and it's just greasy, slimy, nasty, nonworkable.

[00:30:28]Like you wouldn't want to touch it, which this would be the like if you were to have a VT tool for a year that would make you want to have a VT tool, this is it. Like if you can set that thing like 3 in deep and just buff the top off and not have to touch anything underneath and just make a seed bed that will dry out and you can like buff it out one day and plant it the next so you had a decent seeded to plant into instead of this greasy nasty crap.

[00:31:02]Like even no tilling right now, you're going to want to sock it, especially with the cold temperatures, you're going to want to sock it in the ground a little bit because you keep it too shallow.

[00:31:13]Um, and like even if you were trying to no tail, you would have one hell of a time with sidewall smearing and stuff right now cuz the ground's so stinking wet.

[00:31:22]It's just But is what it is. And uh, of course I need to start I've learned this year when you're looking at the forecast, you really need to check the day and night forecast because most of the rain has been coming at night. But as of right now, the only day in the in the 10day we or 10day, 15 day, whatever, whichever one it is, the only day we have with rain forecast now is Tuesday.

[00:31:52]And that's a 40% chance. And they keep knocking it down cuz it was 80.

[00:31:58]So if uh hopefully we are we are finally turning the the corner now. watch. The rain's just going to shut off completely and we're going to go into a drought like the rest of the country. That would be that would be par for the course, but there's nothing we can do about it.

[00:32:20]That being said, we have enough subsurface moisture that if we can just get it out of the ground and get a root system established, it's it's got moisture for a while.

[00:32:33]But anyhow, um I just have to retorque these head bolts, set the valves, and put it back together. So, let me get this cover off, get the rocker arm assembly back off, and we'll uh we'll retorque the head.

[00:32:51]All right. And now what we got to do is go through one at a time, crack them loose, and then run them back up to torque.

[00:33:08]And you got to loosen them. You can't just pull on them again because under the right circumstances and it since these have I oiled the the washers before I put it together, it shouldn't be a problem. But if you have a fastener that has been under tension, depending on how much stretch or how much torque on it, how much stretch is on it, it may t even though the bolt might not be at the torque you or specified torque, it might take more than the specified torque to bust the head loose from the friction, if that makes any sense. So, you got to loosen it and then run it back up to get an accurate torque on it.

[00:34:11]I figure have to go get a ratchet.

[00:34:45]Okay. So, this one's easy to see the number on it. So, the bolt number, sorry, number three. We got to go to three first. Um, so it's basically right straight in line.

[00:34:59]So, we'll put we'll bust it loose and then we torque it back up. See if we get any more rotation out of it.

[00:35:26]Yep. Got probably an eighth of a turn out of it is.

[00:35:37]And basically the whole point of the hot torque or running it and then retorquing it, um, you heat everything up, everything expands, the block expands, the head expands.

[00:35:51]Um, and it will crush the gasket more and and you'll see arguments either way for hot torquing or running it and then cooling it back down and retoring it.

[00:36:12]Um, and the manual says to hot torque it, but everybody or most everybody else that has ever worked on these will say warm it up and then cold torque it.

[00:36:26]The argument to be made against the hot torquing it is if everything is still up to operating temperature, everything is still expanded. Everything is still um still good and tight.

[00:36:40]And in theory, even if you retorted it hot, everything is going to contract. And then cold, it's still not going to be torque. Um so you cool it down.

[00:36:53]Your gasket has still been crushed. It's not going to reexpand, but everything comes back down to its happy place at ambient outside temperature. And then you retorque it, set the head back down on the already crushed gasket. And then after that, in theory, you're good.

[00:37:12]So, but uh just have to run through the rest of the bolts and then we're good. I can put the rocker bar back on, do the valves, put it all back together. So, everybody knows how that whole process works. So, I think I'm just going to see if the barn radio over there still works and see if I can get Rick Jackson's Country Classics on this morning and get this thing finished up and we'll catch you guys when I get it all back together.

[00:37:41]All right, we're all hooked back up, ready to rock.

[00:37:45]The drive over here was uneventful.

[00:37:48]No fluids going anywhere where they shouldn't be. Um, temperature came up, stayed up, didn't immediately tank. When I had it in here in a barn idling, it stayed right right where it normally runs. So, as of right now, we're good to go. Um, and I think what I'm going to do is either we get well, we're going to get rain days through planting. I can guarantee it. But get some more hours on it and either halfway through planting or whatever.

[00:38:20]However it ends up working out, right when I get done planting whatever, we'll take it back over, pull the top end back apart, re-retor the head bolts, and then hopefully hopefully we're good. Hopefully, fingers crossed. You're you're you're you're a good girl. You're just you're a pain in my ass sometimes.

[00:38:42]Um, and the shame of it is I mean even if White Motor and I say White Motor because White Farm Equipment, the Divi the A division of White Motor, the White Farm management was in it to win it. like they wanted they wanted to succeed and it was White Motor the overall controlling entity of the truck division, the construction division because at that point White also owned the Uklid um or it would have been a TX at that point. Either way, White was in bed with them so they had trucks, the construction division, the a stuff, all that bull crap. White Farm was in it to win it and White Motor just basically just kept bucking them on it. And like even even if they wanted to stick with the 310 platform, not the greatest, not obviously not a good decision, but that's what they there was things that they and part they and Walka could have done to this block to make it live up to turbocharging and eliminate the problems they had. I mean, basically, if they would have if they would have added an inch of meat all the way, even a/ inch of meat all the way around that head deck and spaced the liners out a little. I mean, they would have had to have modified the block, but they still could have kept the 310 platform. Um, there's things that they could have done to make this motor live just fine. I mean, you look at what they're doing today. I mean, there's turbocharged fourbangers with, you know, 15, 20, 30 less cubes than this thing making 150 horse, 160 horse all day long. I mean, it's it's not the cubic inches that's the problem. It's the block design that's the block and head design that's the problem. It's not even necessarily Yeah, it's the block and head both. that their whole myriad of holes back here too close together and only four head bolts per cylinder and it just they if they would have just thrown a little bit of money at the 310 platform and beefed the turbocharged block up or that little bit more, put a little bit more iron into it, spaced some holes out, added some more bolts where they needed to, they could have made the son of a [ __ ] live and still not had to spend all the money on a new engine, which same thing. They had the entire new engine platform ready to go for the corporate tractors and then they [ __ ] up and killed that whole line. So, it's it's just White Motor Corporation sucks.

[00:41:24]White Farm Equipment, awesome.

[00:41:27]And like the proof of it, the proof is in the pudding because, you know, by the time you get into the the whites and you get to like the series 2s and the red stripes and then like the the workhorse series is easily one of the most underrated tractors to come out of the late 80s, early 90s.

[00:41:46]Like you had 59 and 83 Cumins engines.

[00:41:50]You had 3-speed power shift that was cheap and simple and easy to work on.

[00:41:54]You had a good cab. You had excellent visibility. You had good I mean the workhorse was the like the whites like chef's kiss. Like that was that I I would put a workhorse up against any tractor in its size class anywhere. And it would equal it would be equal to or smoke anything that you put it up. They are just and that's why I say White Farm was in it to win it. Hey, that that management had they had good ideas. They knew where they wanted to go. And White Motor, Sam White [ __ ] Jr., the great corporate destroyer.

[00:42:40]But no sense in getting worked up over things he can't change and things that happened 60 years ago. So, um, like I say, this thing should be she's she's acting normal now. So hopefully, fingers crossed and like we'll retorque that head after we get some hours on it.

[00:42:57]And it did you I did get a lot more obviously makes sense got a lot more squat out of that fiber gasket because all the valves were tight before I adjusted them which means that the head was head was down closer to the block.

[00:43:11]Um so got definitely got a good crush out of the gasket. Um, and that what they called the scalloped gasket. The whole point behind that gasket design was because they've only got four bolts per cylinder and you can't get a whole lot of clamping force rel that's a relative term, but you can't get a whole lot of clamping force out of it and the size of the head deck and everything.

[00:43:43]Basically, the theory was put less meat in the gasket and only put things where they absolutely had to be so you can get more gasket crush because you're trying to crush less material was the whole premise behind that particular gasket design. Um, so is it perfect? By all means, no.

[00:44:09]Does it work? Well, so far in this thing, we haven't had any problems. Now, I'm going to have all sorts of problems with it this year, but just for saying that.

[00:44:20]So, I guess we'll see.

[00:44:24]And if this one fails, hopefully by that point, Brad's got his fiber gasket going. And it would be neat if he could actually do what he wanted to do.

[00:44:35]Unfortunately, if he could do what you want, what what he actually wanted to do, I would have to completely tear the engine back down to a bare block and bare head and send it to him because his vision for making these things live is to make the head gasket and uh or make the take the block and the head and actually machine receiver grooves around every piston, around all the holes and whatnot.

[00:45:05]to actually and then actually take or have a gasket made that has silicone inlays in it to match those receiver grooves and receiver grooves for the fire rings and and all that stuff. So that you actually have interlocking to between the head, the block and the gasket and you're less likely to blow things out. Um, but if like I say, if you went that route, it wouldn't best be as simple as pulling the head off and swapping the gasket.

[00:45:38]You'd have to tear it back down to a bare block. They would have to machine all the grooving into it. Um, and then reassemble it. But that's also one of them things where if he was going to do that, I'd let him get some prototyping out of the way on other people's stuff before I sent it out. But I think if he could make that happen, that would be that would be the way to go.

[00:46:01]But anyhow, I'm going to go in and grab a bite to eat and then have somebody come get me and take me back to mom and dad's. And I think even though it's Sunday, we're going to go out and try to do some field work. And I say that because hopefully this doesn't turn into a work on Sunday, fix on Monday kind of deal. I generally don't like starting the season on a Sunday, but luckily it warmed up. I thought it was supposed to stay cool today, but luckily it warmed up and we got a good breeze blowing and the clouds that were supposed to come in and hang around or kind of coming and going and we're getting some decent periods of sun. So, we are drying, but I got some sand ground that will for sure go today. Probably about 40 acres worth. So, I'm going to try to get that done this afternoon. We'll see. So, with that being said, that's it for this one.

[00:46:54]And we'll catch you guys on the next one which will be Eleanor's first goaround for the season in Terry.