Halftrack engine smokes

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rstacey
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Halftrack engine smokes

Post by rstacey » Mon Feb 19, 2018 8:01 pm

I got a m15 halftrack over 10 years ago, I got it to run. It had probably sat for 10 years before that without being ran at all because both tracks broke. I've probably only started it a dozen times in the 10 years I've had it and a lot of those times hardly enough to get it up to operating temp. It runs pretty good but it smokes somewhat out of the crank case. I have all of the front armor taken off to clean it up. Should I put it back together and keep running it and see if it will stop smoking with running it regularly, or should I just pull the engine and have it rebuild now while the front is torn apart?
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Re: Halftrack engine smokesb

Post by steve1973 » Tue Feb 20, 2018 12:46 am

What color smoke, black, blue or white. If it is blue your burning oil. Have you checked cylinder compression? How is your oil pressure? Have you done a tune up and/or oil change? You could always pull the head and/or oil pan for inspection. Has the engine been rebuilt before, rebuild tag on the block? Just some things to look at before jumping into an engine rebuild.

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Re: Halftrack engine smokes

Post by Cyclefreak13 » Tue Feb 20, 2018 5:12 am

Sounds like blow by, I bet it has stuck rings from sitting unused so much. You can usually run them, and heat cycling will unstick the rings. You may want to try a leak down test to see if it is blowing by the rings. If the rings are not stuck the engine could have a lot of wear and be in need of a rebuild.
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Re: Halftrack engine smokes

Post by W. Winget » Tue Feb 20, 2018 6:29 am

If you do remove the head, and find a significant ridge on the cylinder top edge, it's an indication it's likely time to re-ring it or overhaul. You could pop the pistons out and loosen the rings physically then reinsert them and retorque the bearings (allows you to check the bearings while removing and replaceing the pistons). Only special tools would be a gasket set, torque wrench, ridge reamer and a piston ring compressor.

First though, oil change and run it for an hour or so at varible RPMs, keeping an eye on the oil pressure and water temp. See if it still does it after the hours up.
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Re: Halftrack engine smokes

Post by DAVY » Tue Feb 20, 2018 7:16 pm

Driver it

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Re: Halftrack engine smokes

Post by artificer » Tue Feb 20, 2018 9:50 pm

Testing is in order.
Once the head is off you're screwed for doing any testing.
So definitely not a recommended action, yet.
A vacuum gauge hook to an inlet manifold port [hydrovac port will do] will tell you just about everything about internal engine condition & of course test compression/leakdown if the vac gauge indicates ring or valve issues.
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TO DIAGNOSE, TROUBLESHOOT OR FAULT FIND ANY AUTO SYSTEM....
Understand how system parts interact with one another. GOOD parts can then be established & the NOT GOOD problem/s part/s isolated for repair or replacement.

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Re: Halftrack engine smokes

Post by rstacey » Wed Feb 21, 2018 7:07 pm

Thanks for all the good info! I need to get some stuff put back together on it so I can start it again then I'll do some tests on it and go from there.


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